THE BACK PACE 



"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, 

 workshops and new publications. 

 For more information on any of 

 the projects described, contact the 

 Sea Grant office in Raleigh 

 (919/737-2454). 



The point was to con- 

 vince 24 teachers, most 

 of them mountaineers 

 and Piedmonters, that 

 there's more to the 

 North Carolina coast 

 than beaches and sun- 

 bathing. Most of them got the message 

 somewhere between the knee-deep trek 

 through a salt marsh and the heave-ho 

 as "hey hauled in an otter trawl full of 

 urchins, blue crabs, shrimp, 

 croaker, rays and sponges. 



The teachers were part of a 

 workshop conducted June 23-27 at Ft. 

 Fisher by Lundie Mauldin, Sea 

 Grant's marine education specialist. 

 The coastal environment so intrigued 

 the teachers that most of them are 

 writing units on coastal studies into 

 their fall lesson plans. 



During the workshop, teachers iden- 

 tified plants and animals in the salt 

 marsh with botanist Pat Ashton, 

 fished aboard the Cyclops with 

 biologist Gil Bane of the University of 

 North Carolina at Wilmington (UNC- 

 W). reviewed marine literature for 

 children with Mary Wasson of UNC- 

 W, toured historic Southport and 

 Brunswick Town with anthropologists 

 Tom Loftfield and Jim Sabella of 

 UNC-W, and discussed coastal 

 development and barrier island 

 dynamics with Spencer Rogers, Sea 

 Grant's coastal engineering specialist. 



There were other highlights, but one 

 event was clearly the most savored: a 

 seafood dinner of fresh fish and 

 shellfish donated by the A. C. McGirt 

 Seafood Company of Carolina Beach. 



Crab lovers know 

 that good eating comes 

 two ways — in a hard 

 shell and a soft shell. But 

 Collington crabber 

 Murray Bridges knows a 

 third version. Bridges 

 has found that "papershell" crabs are 

 similar in flavor and texture to the soft 

 shell crab. 



Soft crabs are crabs that have just 

 shedded their shells. After about five 

 hours, the crab's new shell begins to 

 harden slightly and the crab is a 

 papershell. After removing the 

 papershell crab's legs and thin shell, 

 the crab can be fryed in a light batter 

 and eaten just like the soft shell crab. 



Right now, only crabbers know 

 about the papershells and how good 

 they taste, Bridges says. In fact, many 

 crabbers have had to throw the 

 papershells in their catches away, for 

 lack of a market. But Sea Grant ad- 

 visory agent Hughes Tillett of Manteo 

 and seafood specialist Sam Thomas of 

 the NCSU Seafood Laboratory in 

 Morehead City are trying to help 

 Bridges spread the word about the 

 papershell. Thomas is asking 

 restaurant owners in Morehead City to 

 put the papershell crab on their 

 menus. 



If all goes as planned, the papershell 

 crab will begin to take its place on the 

 plates of seafood lovers. 



The National Marine 

 Fisheries Service 

 (NMFS) wants to know 

 more about big game fish 

 such as marlin, swordfish 

 and sailfish: Where do 

 they winter? How far do 

 they migrate? What are their num- 

 bers? To find the answers, the NMFS 

 is asking fishermen and longerliners to 

 tag the fish they catch and plan to 

 release. That way, if a fish is caught 

 again, scientists will know how far it 

 has travelled, its weight gain and other 

 vital statistics. 



If you catch a fish that has already 



been tagged, send the tag to the ad- 

 dress stamped on the tag, along with 

 information about the approximate 

 weight and length of the fish. 



If you're interested in tagging your 

 catch, contact either Dennis Regan at 

 the Marine Resources Center on 

 Roanoke Island or Jim Bahen at the 

 Marine Resources Center at Ft. Fisher. 



Commercial fisher- 

 men trawling for 

 croaker, trout, bass and 

 porgies have found one 

 serious limitation to con- 

 ventional trawl nets: 

 they can only fish along 

 the bottom. When the fish rise into 

 mid-water, as they often do during the 

 day, standard gear is ineffective. 



Foreign fleets have solved the 

 problem with mid-water nets, which 

 are designed to ply almost any depth. 

 American fleets have been slow to use 

 the new gear. 



But two fishermen from Wanchese, 

 Kenny Daniels and Will Etheridge, are 

 giving the system a try. 



Daniels and Etheridge learned 

 about the net through Hughes Tillett, 

 Sea Grant's marine advisory agent 

 stationed on Roanoke Island. Fisher- 

 men from the Wanchese area had also 

 attended a Sea Grant workshop on 

 mid-water trawls, conducted in Man- 

 teo during June. The fishermen were 

 impressed by what they heard, but 

 wanted to know more before they 

 plunked down thousands of dollars on 

 new gear. 



So Tillett helped Daniels and 

 Etheridge arrange a trip to Nova 

 Scotia to see some mid-water trawl 

 equipment firsthand. Both men 

 bought nets, and will put them to work 

 this summer. In return for Tillett's 

 help, Daniels and Etheridge will keep 

 track of the net's performance and 

 report to Tillett, who will pass the in- 

 formation on to other interested 

 fishermen. 



Continued on next page 



What do birds, folk- 

 lore, underwater ar- 

 chaeology and hurri- 

 canes have in common? 

 They're all topics for a 

 summer-long series of 

 talks about the Outer 

 Banks of North Carolina. 



Dennis Regan, a Sea Grant marine 

 advisory agent on Roanoke Island, has 

 organized the discussions, which will 

 be at the Nags Head Cove Clubhouse 

 at 8 p.m. each Thursday until the end 

 of August. 



Discussion leaders and topics are: 

 July 24 — Robert Needham on summer 

 birding on the Outer Banks 

 July 31 — Virginia Ross on legends and 

 folklore of the Outer Banks 

 7 — Lt. John Leslie on the his- 

 torical background and cur- 

 rent responsibilities of the 

 Coast Guard on the Outer 

 Banks 



14 — Gordon Watts on under- 

 water archaeology and 

 Monitor research 

 Aug. 21 — Dr. Jerry Machemehl on the 

 effects of coastal hurricanes 

 Aug. 28 — Spencer Rogers on a home- 

 owner's guide to hurricane- 

 proof construction 



Two graduate students have 

 received Sea Grant fellowships to 

 further their studies in marine science. 



Richard Miller, one of the 

 recipients, will be starting his work 

 toward a Ph.D. in the field of marine 

 science and engineering at North 

 Carolina State University this fall. 



Aug. 



Aug. 



Miller received his bachelor of science 

 degree in zoology from Duke Univer- 

 sity and his masters degree in marine 

 science and applied statistics from 

 Louisiana State University. 



Jurij Homziak will be working 

 toward his Ph.D. in the Curriculum in 

 Marine Science at the University of 

 North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hom- 

 ziak received his undergraduate and 

 masters degree from San Diego State 

 University in the fields of zoology and 

 biology, respectively. 



Before January 30 of 

 this year, a boat's 

 "head" (or toilet, to 

 landlubbers) could 

 legally discharge directly 

 into the ocean. Now, the 

 law requires that boats 

 operating within three miles of shore 

 be equipped with sanitizing gear or on- 

 board holding tanks — expensive items, 

 especially for recreational boaters. 



Sea Grant coastal engineer Spencer 

 Rogers has devised a low-cost portable 

 holding tank for use on smaller boats 

 that can be attached to an existing 

 head. Designed for light use, the tank 

 can be carried home and emptied at 

 the end of the day. The portable tank 

 is made from a five-gallon collapsible 

 jug that can be purchased from camp- 

 ing or auto supply stores. 



For detailed instructions on how to 

 make and install the tank, write Spen- 

 cer Rogers, Marine Advisory Service, 

 N.C. Marine Resources Center/Ft. 

 Fisher, Kure Beach, N.C. 28449. 



I want Coastwatch 



Coastwatch is a free newsletter. If 

 you'd like to be added to the mailing 

 list, fill out this form and send it to Sea 

 Grant. Box 5001, Raleigh, N.C. 27650. 



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Coastwatch is published monthly 

 except July and December by the Uni- 

 versity of North Carolina Sea Grant 

 College Program, 105 1911 Building, 

 North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, NC 27650. Vol. 7, No. 5, 

 May, 1980. Dr. B.J. Copeland, direc- 

 tor. Written and edited by Neil Caudle 

 and Kathy Hart. Second-class postage 

 paid at Raleigh, NC 27611. 



COASTWATCH 



105 1911 Building 



North Carolina State University 



Raleigh, NC 27650 



Second-class postage paid 

 at Raleigh. NC 27611 

 (ISSN 0161-8369) 



f 



Librarian - State of North Carolina 

 Library - Documents Branch 

 109 E. Jones St. 



Raleigh, NC 27611 State Gov. Mail 



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