Researchers to study new wrinkles in fabric of coast 



Understanding the coast of North Carolina would be difficult enough if 

 things weren't in such a hurry to change. New growth, new technology, 

 expanding fisheries, more people to accomodate — as these pressures on 

 the coast's resources have increased, so have Sea Grant's efforts to answer 

 the questions that keep popping up. Occasionally, the answers are 

 available from other states or regions, places that have already faced 

 some growing spells and puzzled through the problems. But hand-me- 

 down answers are not always tailored to the bent of North Carolina's 

 coastline. 



UNC Sea Grant is funding nine new projects this year, six of which are 

 to be conducted by researchers or research teams new to the program. In 

 each of these projects, investigators will be studying problems expected to 

 come into focus during the 1980s — from the displacement of people by 

 machines in the seafood industry, to the disruption of estuarine grass 

 bottoms by clam kicking. 



Photo by Steve Murray 



New to North Carolina, "clam kick- 

 ing," a mechanical method of har- 

 vesting clams, is stirring up more than 

 just estuarine and river bottoms these 

 days. It's stirring controversy, too. 

 Some fishermen like the new method 

 because it requires less time to land 

 more clams than previous hand- 

 operated raking methods. But other 

 fishermen, biologists and management 

 officials are concerned that clam kick- 

 ing, which involves stirring up the bot- 

 tom with the engine propeller of a 

 boat, may be damaging habitats vital 

 to other fishes and jeopardizing future 

 clam production. 



The state Division of Marine 

 Fisheries opened some areas to clam 

 kicking this year, but more informa- 

 tion is needed to determine the effects 

 of this harvesting method. Three Sea 



Continued on next page 



Tongs and strong arms, the traditional tools of clamming, are good enough to fill the buckets of Paul Huey, 

 fishing near Harkers Island. But the old methods have begun to give way to mechanical "clam kicking." 



