Beach detecting in the outer banks

[fossilguy]

Hey everyone. I'm heading to Ocracoke island in the outer banks in NC. Does anyone know if metal detection is legal there ?
Thanks, Mike

 

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[Oddjob]

Better question: "Does anyone know if there's any laws/ordinances PROHIBITING metal detecting." Very rare to find any rules that specifically "allow it."
Basically, you'll find that if it's not prohibited, it's legal. With any public property, if you call locally in the area to ask, be sure you ask if "it's prohibited," otherwise, you'll be very hit and miss on answers. You can get an arbitrary "no you can't do it." without any laws/ordinances backing it up.


That being said, I did a quick search of "Ocracoke island metal detecting" and instantly found results suggesting it's off limits:

This site lists Ocracoke as being prohibited.
Outer Banks Vacation Tips - Hidden Secrets
"Most of the beach from Nags Head north to Virginia are available for metal detecting. Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island are off limits. The National Parks Service prohibits the use of metal detectors in all the National Parks in the Outer Banks."


Here's a thread from T-Net:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting/300418-ocracoke-island-metal-detecting.html

Apparently Ocracoke island is NPS property, and it's prohibited...NPS property starts south of Nags Head

Regards,

Skippy

Answer sure does not get better than that.

 

[flatbutton]

Yep, Alot of beach there, but it is mostly NPS property. Get ready for a long ferry ride unless you take the one from Hatteras. If you stay at the Pony Island motel,It's just a short walk to Howard's Pub

 

[Honest Samuel]

Sorry about the bad news. If the public are allow to walk on the banks, I recommend that you take long walks and kick the sand and put the items in your pockets. It is total unfair, because the federal lands belong to us the public.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

good sleuthing work Skippy. NPS is one of the nearly singular enties , on a fed. level, with a specific prohibition. So if they administer the beach-in-question, the perhaps the info Skippy gives is accurate. I suppose you could try to argue that the intertidal zone is separate (versus the dune-line, etc...). But I would not want to get into a debate of semantics with someone who tried to differ

In all of CA's coastline, there is only a single stretch of beach that anyone's ever been hassled at. And, like this post, is some sort of national rec. area . As opposed to state or county or city. But with that said, the only few interactions there that I've heard of, have been "scram", at best (for when someone simply truly didn't know any better).