VI FOREWORD 



sion it was brought out that the committee had only limited and fragmentary 

 information with respect to the status of the fisheries in North Carolina, the 

 nature and volume of the resources, and the potentialities of their develop- 

 ment. It was decided, then, that the first need was a full compilation of 

 available data concerning these basic conditions. The committee adopted 

 unanimously a recommendation to the President that such a survey be 

 organized, to be completed, if possible, in advance of the inauguration of a 

 research program. Further procedures on the part of the committee were 

 then delegated to a subcommittee. 



Acting upon recommendation of the committee. President Graham author- 

 ized a ''Survey of Marine Fisheries of North Carolina," appointing Robert 

 E. Coker as Chairman of the Executive Committee, Rex S. Winslow as 

 Secretary and Treasurer, and Harden F. Taylor as Executive Director. There 

 was formed also an Advisory Board whose membership is listed on another 

 page. 



Consultations were had with Director R. Bruce Ethridge and Vice Chair- 

 man Josh Home of the Department of Conservation and Development, both 

 of whom welcomed the Survey and extended effective personal cooperation 

 as well as the full aid of the Department. 



Initial financial support for the Survey in the amount of $12,000 was 

 secured from a grant to the University made by George R. Lurcy of New 

 York. To this was added a grant in like amount from the General Education 

 Board. 



After a meeting of the Advisory Board in Chapel Hill May 5, 1946, the 

 Survey was set in operation with responsibility for organization and conduct 

 vested in the Executive Director. Because of special circumstances of the 

 time, which was just after the close of war, the task of finding efficient and 

 available personnel proved extraordinarily difficult. Difficulties and disap- 

 pointments, particularly in respect to the biological, economic and legislative 

 sections of the Survey, caused substantial delay in completion but in no way 

 lowered the quality of what was done. Unexpected burdens were placed 

 upon the Director, who had to complete the economic section with little aid, 

 while entirely new arrangements for completion of the biological section had 

 finally to be made. 



It will be recalled that the Survey was originally intended to lay the 

 groundwork for a projected Institute of Fisheries Research. It happened, 

 however, that the Department of Conservation and Development obtained 

 by purchase in 1946 the former Marine Section Base at Morehead City (site 

 of old Camp Glenn) and promptly made available for such an Institute an 

 excellent laboratory building and other facilities of the Base. In the following 

 year a grant from the Knapp Foundation, Inc., of New York, matched by 

 funds allotted from State appropriations to the Department of Conservation 



