of notes for Tillett. A crabber from 

 Cape Hatteras wants to know how he 

 can borrow money to buy equipment. 

 Somebody is looking for eel pots, and 

 somebody else wants to buy a net. 

 Tillett takes the notes back to his desk 

 and studies them. He reads one twice: 

 "On a good day, eight boxes." Trans- 

 lated from Diann's shorthand, it means 

 that up North, they're getting eight 

 boxes of squid on a good day. 



It's not a very encouraging report. 

 When the squid drift into North 

 Carolina waters during the fall, floun- 

 der fishermen often catch enough in a 

 single day to fill 100 boxes. 



Tillett calls Bob Hines, Sea Grant's 

 newest advisory agent, at his office in 

 the N. C. Marine Resources Center on 

 Bogue Banks. Hines has had ex- 

 perience with squid, and may have 

 some contacts Tillett doesn't. 

 Together, they go to work on the prob- 

 lem of how to steer a crew of North 

 Carolina fishermen toward a decent 

 day's work. 



Whatever their working styles, all 

 the Sea Grant advisory agents and spe- 

 cialists have a goal in common: They 

 are trying to take the best available 

 ideas and the latest research and put 

 them to work solving problems. 



— Like Hughes Tillett, Jim Bahen 

 (N. C. Marine Resources Center/Ft. 

 Fisher, 458-5498) works with commer- 

 cial fishermen. Bahen also advises 

 sport fishermen and conducts classes. 



— Sea Grant's newest advisory 

 agent, Bob Hines (N. C. Marine Re- 

 sources Center, Bogue Banks, 726- 

 0125), is confronting problems at 

 several levels of the seafood industry: 

 fishing, processing and marketing. 



— Dennis Regan (N. C. Marine Re- 

 sources Center/Roanoke Island, 473- 

 3937) is an agent concentrating on rec- 

 reation and tourism. 



Sea Grant's advisory service also in- 

 cludes the NCSU Seafood Lab in 

 Morehead City (726-7341); the eel 

 farm near Aurora (322-4054); marine 

 education specialist Lundie Mauldin in 

 Raleigh (737-2454); economist and rec- 

 reation specialist Leon Abbas in 

 Raleigh (737-2454); and coastal engi- 

 neering specialist Spencer Rogers at 

 Ft. Fisher (458-5780). 



Jones expanding 



Advice. J. C. Jones has been in the 

 business of giving it long enough to 

 know that a "babe in arms" like Sea 

 Grant will have a tough time getting 

 everybody's attention. 



Jones is a 23-year veteran of the 

 Agricultural Extension Service, and 

 he's watched it become a fixture in the 

 state's communities. But he's an Ag 

 man whose roots have found water — 

 he's been both a captain in the Navy 

 and the director of the state Office of 

 Marine Affairs. He is shaping from 

 those experiences a plan for Sea 

 Grant's own extension work. 



"I think it's already working well," 

 he says of the marine advisory services. 

 "But there are things we've got to do. 

 Sea Grant got its start partly because 

 of the success of Agricultural Exten- 

 sion. In a lot of ways, we can follow 

 their lead." 



Hoping to make Sea Grant's imprint 

 on the coast as indelible as Agricultur- 

 al Extension's on the farmlands, Jones 

 spells out three goals for the advisory 

 services program: 



— More agents. Jones would like to 

 triple the number of Sea Grant field 

 agents from four to 12. 



"I'd like to see at least one person 

 who is strong in marketing and eco- 

 nomics," he says, "and we need some 

 additional fisheries expertise. There are 

 some counties that could support 

 agents of their own. Carteret, for ex- 

 ample, could support an agent just for 

 that county." 



— A new seafood lab. Jones has 

 already found space for a small lab in 

 the N. C. Marine Resources Center on 

 Roanoke Island. Like the North 

 Carolina State University Seafood Lab 

 in Morehead City, the smaller lab 

 would study new ways to prepare and 

 process seafoods. 



"I'd like to see a technician up there 

 manning that lab by the end of the 

 year, if we can find funding," he says. 

 "We'll need that expertise, especially 

 when the Wanchese Industrial Park 

 develops." 



— Stronger local support. Sea Grant 

 agents are finding plenty to do, but 

 Jones would like to see more support 

 for the program from coastal com- 

 munities. 



"If a county gets behind a program, 

 and supports it, then the people in the 

 county begin to think of the program 



advisory service 



Jones coaching advisory agents 



as theirs. They take more interest. This 

 is what Ag Extension has done. Every 

 county provides office space and some 

 funding for the program." 



He has already directed his agents to 

 start building that support. 



"I want them to meet with the 

 county commissioners each month, as 

 the Ag agents do. I would like to see 

 them develop an advisory board, made 

 up of local citizens in each county, that 

 would point out things that agents 

 should be working on. Also, we must 

 establish a clientele, a group of people 

 the agents call on regularly." 



Jones says that the extension work 

 with farmers has, over the years, 

 developed a well-tested model for ex- 

 tension work that Sea Grant agents 

 can adopt for their work with fisher- 

 men. 



But working with fishermen is only a 

 part of the advisory agents' job. North 

 Carolina's rapidly developing coast 

 seems to break out with a new set of 

 growing pains each year. 



"What we have to do is help see that 

 the growth is orderly," Jones says, 

 "and that our fragile areas are pro- 

 tected. 



"Our role is to provide all the re- 

 search available to the people who 

 make decisions. We do not advocate. 

 Occasionally, we make recommenda- 

 tions, but this is true only after a lot of 

 sound research has been done, and we 

 base our recommendations on that." 



