Shark Tooth Island Traps Tourists as Narrow Sand Path Disappears on High Tides Off North Carolina Coast

As high tides rise off the shores of North Carolina, tourists are becoming stuck in Shark Tooth Island as the narrow sand path disappears.

This has forced the National Park Service to mount risky rescue operations at a location known for its deadly currents.

Stranded Tourists on Shark Island

In August, many tourists got stuck on a dangerous island off the coast of North Carolina, prompting the National Park Service to organize extremely perilous rescue operations, according to park rangers.

In a news release dated August 14, Cape Lookout National Seashore cautioned against visiting the sinisterly called Shark Tooth Island.

According to officials, during the lowest of low tides, a narrow bar of sand has recently started to connect the space between the treacherous Shark Tooth Island and Cape Lookout.

Two distinct incidences of travelers entering Shark Island at low tide and then becoming stranded as the tide rose behind them occurred in the past two weeks.

First responders from many agencies have been sent in these circumstances to carry out difficult rescues.

High Tides, Disappearing Paths, Shrinking Island

Fortunately, there have been no reports of tourist injuries.

According to park officials, becoming stranded is not the only risk. The island contracts due to rising tides, and the ocean around it swirls where the Labrador Current and Gulf Stream meet.

An individual may be quickly swept off the ground and out to sea if they were caught in a rising tide while walking through this little band of sand south of Cape Lookout, according to officials.

Shark Tooth Island, North Carolina

One of those enigmatic islands off the coast of North Carolina known to grow from the water over several months before disappearing again during storms is Shark Tooth Island.

The island, which first appeared on satellite in 2016 and finally grew to 20 acres and a mile in length, is one of the better-known examples.

After many storms in 2018, the island disappeared.

It is also one of the best places in the United States for finding fossilized shark teeth.

Visitors swarm to the island to search through the abundant sand layers for fossils, which occasionally include artifacts from the Native American, Civil War, and colonial eras, as well as teeth from the enormous megalodon shark.

Shark Tooth Island Formation

The US Army Corps of Engineers heavily dredged the Cape Fear River in the late 1880s to make room for the expanding fleet of larger commercial barges or ships.

Sharks Tooth Island was one of a succession of islands made from the enormous amount of sand as well as limestone rock that the dredgers excavated from the riverbed.

Since the silt and rock that make up the island are thought to be around 35 to 40 million years old, it is likely that anything that may have wound up on the riverbed before roughly 1880 is also present, in addition to fossils.

New treasures are unearthed by the waves or left on the island's beaches for collectors to find with each rising tide.