THE BACK PACK 



"The Back Page" is an update 

 on Sea Grant activities — on 

 research, marine education and 

 advisory services. It's also a good 

 place to find out about meetings 

 and workshops and new publica- 

 tions. For more information on 

 any of the projects described, con- 

 tact the Sea Grant office in 

 Raleigh (919/737-2454). 



Paul Hosier, a Sea 

 Grant researcher, has 

 been studying the effects 

 of off-road vehicles 

 (ORVs) on beaches, 

 dunes and grasslands. 

 This fall, the National 

 Park Service contracted with Hosier to 

 map ORV damage to the Cape 

 Lookout National Seashore. Hosier has 

 been conducting a similar study at 

 Cape Hatteras. 



At Cape Lookout, Hosier will mark 

 off and protect small sections of 

 shoreline, leaving others open to driv- 

 ing, so that he can measure changes in 

 the plant cover. In some of the tests, 

 Hosier will use three-wheeled "all- 

 terrain" vehicles to test whether they 

 cause more or less damage than con- 

 ventional vehicles. Hosier has also 

 agreed to compose an atlas of the park, 

 showing areas expecially vulnerable to 

 ORVs, and areas more able to tolerate 

 traffic. 



Hosier is working with Tom 

 Wolcott, a North Carolina State Uni- 

 versity zoologist, who is studying the 

 impact of ORVs on the ghost crab pop- 

 ulation at the shoreline. 



As miles and miles of the nation's 

 oceanfront property are parceled out 

 and developed, legions of "no trespass- 

 ing" signs are springing up to block the 

 public from the shorelines. 



The problem of beach access has 

 suddenly become a sore subject among 

 tourists, fishermen and coastal land- 

 owners, and a hot potato for govern- 

 ment officials. 



Back in 1974, David Brower saw the 

 problem coming. With a grant from 

 Sea Grant, Brower investigated the 

 range of laws and policies that applied, 

 and became one of a handful of 

 authorities on beach access. 



So when a U.S. House subcommittee 

 on oceanography met in October to 

 conduct hearings on the coming 

 reauthorization of the Coastal Zone 

 Management program, the represen- 

 tatives asked Brower to testify. Brower 

 told the subcommittee that the 

 program should be strengthened to en- 

 sure that all citizens can reach the na- 

 tion's shorelines, especially those areas 

 valued for recreation. 



The response, Brower reports, was 

 "surprisingly favorable." In fact, the 

 representatives have asked him to help 

 them draw up specific proposals that 

 would put teeth in the law and keep 

 paths to the beaches open. 



The cost of such legislation? As 

 Brower told the subcommittee: "This 

 need not be an expensive program . . . 

 A ten-foot walkway, linked to a remote 

 parking area or bicycle path, could cost 

 very little, but open miles of public 

 beach for use by the public. 



For most of us, the 

 Lock Ness monster is lit- 

 tle more than an un- 

 focused image from 

 magazines. But to Tim 

 Dinsdale, Nessie is a 

 career. Dinsdale, a 

 native of Wales, gave up engineering to 

 spend 15 years studying the Scottish 

 lock, which he claims does indeed har- 

 bor much more than murky water. 



During the Sea Grant-sponsored 

 visit Nov. 12 to the North Carolina 

 State University campus in Raleigh, 

 Dinsdale told his audience that the 

 famous lock was once a part of the 

 Atlantic Ocean. During the last ice age, 

 he said, rising land severed the waters 

 from the sea and locked in Nessie's 

 dinosaur-like ancestors. 



Showing his well-publicized film of 

 what he claims is Nessie's hump sub- 



merging, Dinsdale reviewed the 

 legends and research that have cap- 

 tivated Nessie's fans. The record of 

 monster sitings, photographs and sonic 

 "pictures," he says, proves that Nessie 

 exists. 



The "evidence" is still sketchy. But 

 Dinsdale believes. And he has proven 

 at least one thing: There are still occa- 

 sions when the worlds of science and 

 fancy rub elbows. 



People and dogs 

 aren't the only ones that 

 get lazy during hot 

 weather. Sea Grant re- 

 searcher Mark Sobsey 

 says oysters do, too. Sob- 

 sey has been relaying 

 oysters from polluted waters to clean 

 waters to see how fast they can flush 

 viral contaminants from their bodies. 

 He has found that during winter and 

 spring months the oysters cleanse 

 themselves at faster rates as the water 

 becomes warmer. 



Sobsey predicted the cleaning rate 

 would reach its peak during summer, 

 but things turned out differently. 

 When water temperatures were 77°F 

 to 80°F, the oysters eliminated only 78 

 percent of the viruses from their bodies 

 during a thirty-day period. In March 

 and April experiments, the oysters 

 eliminated 99.9 percent of the contami- 

 nants in three days. 



Sobsey says there could be several 

 possible explanations for the lack of 

 elimination of viruses during hot 

 weather. The warmer water could 

 cause the oysters to become extremely 

 sluggish and therefore reduce the rate 

 at which they flush water through their 

 bodies. Or the viruses could become 

 sequestered in the shellfish tissue 

 because of changes in the shellfish 

 physiology during spawning. Whatever 

 the reason, Sobsey says more experi- 

 ments are needed to decide why the 

 self -cleaning oyster doesn't tidy up as 

 fast during hot weather. 



Continued on next page 



