From the beaches of North Carolina to the reefs of Bermuda, powerful storms are uncovering long-lost wrecks – and you don't need to be a pro diver to discover them.

As hurricane season ramps up along the US East Coast and through the Atlantic, residents brace themselves for flooded streets and battered coastlines. But for divers, snorkellers and even everyday beachgoers, storm surges can reveal something extraordinary: centuries-old shipwrecks, long-buried maritime treasures and other items that could reshape our understanding of history.

In the Carolinas and Bermuda – among the world's most shipwreck-dense coastlines – hurricanes are exposing long-lost hulls, artefacts and cargo. Marine archaeologists are racing to catalogue and protect these discoveries, but increasingly, ordinary travellers are among the first on the scene.

North Carolina's coast, long known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic", is littered with more than 1,000 known shipwrecks, from Civil War blockade runners to German U-boats. Meanwhile, Bermuda sits atop a coral platform that has claimed more than 300 ships since the 1500s, making the infamous "Bermuda Triangle" one of the densest shipwreck zones in the world.

"It's shipwreck island" and it always has been, says Philippe Rouja, Bermuda's government-appointed Custodian of Wrecks. He explains that since the island has no Indigenous population or natural resources, every ship that came to the island "was like its own little mini-Walmart", bringing everything it would need. For centuries, Bermudans salvaged those wrecks loaded with invaluable materials. Now, Rouja is charged with protecting more than 40 open-to-the public shipwrecks, as well as mapping, cataloging and studying hundreds more. During hurricanes, storm surges, waves and winds can move entire wrecks, revealing the treasures within. "Any shipwreck that you think you know, you want to go look at it again after a hurricane," he says, " it's a mixture of anticipation and a bit of worry."

Rouja works with local dive shops to monitor sites and report new finds, meaning certified divers visiting during hurricane season – roughly June to November – may be the first to glimpse artefacts not seen for centuries.

He says that anything from an old shoe or a can of anchovies could help his team identify a shipwreck. Recently, he recalls, "We had some accountant who liked to go lobster diving who just bumped into a shipwreck on the inner reef." It turned out to be the Justice, a ship sunk in 1950.

However, discoveries don't always require a tank. In North Carolina, many recent discoveries have been found buried under beach dunes. Wrecks either crashed there centuries ago and were buried by shifting sand or have washed up after storms.

"Folks will absolutely be walking their dog down the beach and see a ship frame sticking out of the dune after storms," says Stephen Atkinson, a shipwreck and archeology expert with North Carolina's Underwater Archaeology department.

That was the case with the Corolla Wreck, discovered in the northern Outer Banks by a local who noticed exposed pieces of a hull after a huge wind event. Gold coins found nearby date to the early 1600, suggesting that it could be state's oldest known shipwreck. Before that, the record was held by the infamous Queen Anne's Revenge, captained by Blackbeard........

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