THE BACK PAGE 



"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). 



It sounded like a tall 

 tale: Some oysters in 

 North Carolina were 

 growing five inches in 

 one year. Growth spurt, 

 nothing — that's prac- 

 tically an explosion. 

 Fishermen had noticed for years 

 that oysters in Slash Creek near Cape 

 Hatteras were the biggest oysters 

 around. The stories puzzled Hughes 

 Tillett, a Sea Grant marine advisory 

 agent in Manteo. Tillett found some 

 oyster spat, babies not much bigger 

 than BBs, and set them out in trays in 

 Slash Creek. Boom. The oysters grew 

 so fast that Tillett had to struggle to 

 keep them from smothering each 

 other. The average oyster takes about 

 two years to get big enough for har- 

 vesting. Tillett's oysters were that 

 large in one year. 



What was Slash Creek doing for 

 those oysters? Tillett packed up some 

 samples and took them to Glenn Pat- 

 terson, a biologist at the University of 

 Maryland. Patterson was examining 

 oysters for sterols, key substances (in- 

 cluding cholesterol) that influence 

 growth and other bodily activities. 



Patterson found the same sterols in 

 the Slash Creek oysters that he'd 

 found in "normal" oysters up and 

 down the East Coast. But there was 

 one dramatic difference. The robust 

 oysters had twice the amounts of each 

 kind of sterol. 



Patterson suspects that something 

 in Slash Creek's food supply is chock- 

 ing oysters full of sterols. And the 

 sterols, he believes, may be behind the 

 rapid growth. 



Are the Slash Creek oysters freaks? 

 Maybe, but Patterson offers another 

 explanation. It's possible, he says, that 

 widespread changes in the environ- 

 ment have all but wiped out some of 

 the oyster's preferred foods, leaving 

 only a few places, like Slash Creek, 

 where an oyster can get a decent meal. 



"Maybe the Slash Creek oysters are 

 the normal ones," Patterson says. 

 "The rest might just be a stunted ver- 

 sion of what oysters used to be." 



With more research, Patterson 

 believes that scientists may learn how 

 to give the typical oyster the same 

 robust good health that Hughes 

 Tillett's oysters found in Slash Creek. 



Unc Sea Grant has received 39 

 proposals for research and education 

 projects for the 1981-1982 funding cy- 

 cle. The proposals are being reviewed 

 to see which ones will be the most 

 helpful in answering some existing or 

 anticipated problems or needs. The 

 proposals that are chosen as most 

 promising will be included in the UNC 

 Sea Grant proposal to the National 

 Sea Grant Program office in 

 Washington, D.C., for possible 

 funding. 



When fishermen hang 

 their nets on shipwrecks, 

 rocks or coral, they often 

 lose more than just the 

 time it takes to free their 

 gear. Each "hang" can 

 cost a fisherman thou- 

 sands of dollars in torn nets and 

 damaged equipment. 



Hughes Tillett, one of Sea Grant's 

 marine advisory agents in Manteo, has 

 put together an updated version of an 

 earlier Sea Grant publication, Hangs 

 and Obstructions to Trawl 

 Fishing, which Tillett also helped 

 compile for North Carolina, South 

 Carolina and Georgia. The new hang 

 log covers the offshore waters of the 

 entire Atlantic Coast of the U.S., and 

 pinpoints the hangs using both Loran 

 A and Loran C bearings. The book is 



designed to be used by professionals 

 with Loran equipment. 



In gathering information for the 

 project, which was directed by James 

 McGee of East Carolina University, 

 Tillett interviewed trawl fishermen 

 and combed their logs for records of 

 hangs. 



The new hang log, Tillett believes, 

 will help save commercial fishermen 

 thousands of dollars each year by giv- 

 ing them a more accurate "map" of 

 hangs and obstructions. 



Navigators can receive a copy of 

 Hangs and Obstructions to Trawl 

 Fishing by writing to Hughes Tillett, 

 Marine Advisory Services, N. C. 

 Marine Resources Center, P. O. Box 

 699, Manteo, N.C. 27954. 



Last year's surf 

 fishing class for 

 youngsters was so pop- 

 ular that Jim Bahen, a 

 Sea Grant advisory 

 agent in the Wilmington 

 area, will be holding 

 several sessions again this year for girls 

 and boys, ages 8 to 12. In the classes, 

 Bahen will instruct his young students 

 on how to do everything from baiting 

 the hook to reeling in the fish. 



The sessions will be held June 12, 17, 

 19, 24 and 26 at Wrightsville Beach. 

 The morning classes will run from 8:30 

 a.m. until noon and the afternoon 

 classes will last from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. 

 There will be ten students per session 

 and registration is required. 



Sponsored by UNC Sea Grant and a 

 Wrightsville Beach sporting goods 

 store, the sessions will end with a 

 fishing tournament in which 

 youngsters from all the classes can fish 

 for prizes. For registration informa- 

 tion, call the Sea Grant marine ad- 

 visory services office at Ft. Fisher, 

 458-5498. 



Bahen's not the only Sea Grant 

 agent teaching folks how to cast a line, 



Continued on next page 



