Cape Point has reopened to beach drivers and pedestrians.

The famed fishing beach was shut down June 28 and reopened late morning August 8, 2023 for a 41-day closure for nesting shorebirds.

The closure is the shortest since 2012, when the beach management plan was put in place, aside from 2017 when Cape Point was not closed.

Last year, the closure lasted 84 days. In 2018, the closure was 122 days.

Off-road vehicle ramps 43 and 44 to Cape Point are open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

At Cape Point, two American oystercatcher nests were located but no chicks or fledglings appeared. Overall at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, two fledgling American oystercatchers were produced on Ocracoke Island.

So far, colonial waterbirds like least terns have produced three fledglings at Cape Point and a total of 15 throughout the seashore.

For piping plovers, no chicks were born from five nests, none of which were at Cape Point.

Turtle nests are now hatching.

As of August 8, 2023, along all Cape Hatteras seashore beaches, 344 sea turtle nests have been located and five nests have been inventoried. In the 2022 season, around the same time, 350 sea turtle nests had been counted.

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