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, 

 workshops and new publications. 

 For more information on any of 

 the projects described . contact the 

 Sea Grant office in Raleigh 

 (919/737-2454). 



The rendez- 

 vous: October 6, 

 1980, on a remote 

 stretch of beach 

 near Duck, on 

 North Carolina's 

 Outer Banks. The 

 team: hand-picked professionals from 

 France, Japan, England, Canada, 

 Nova Scotia. Norway and the U. S. 

 Support: aircraft, ships and satel- 

 lite communications. Code word: 

 ARSLOE. 



The plans for the Atlantic Remote- 

 Sensing Land and Ocean Experiment 

 sound something like those for an 

 allied invasion. But the object is 

 peaceable: to measure the height, 

 length, shape, strength and frequency 

 of ocean waves. 



Knowledge of waves and wave 

 energy is crucial to communities trying 

 to deal with pollution, coastal con- 

 struction, shoreline erosion and other 

 coastal problems. But very few reliable 

 data are available to help planners 

 predict what sort of waves can be ex- 

 pected for various periods or weather 

 conditions. 



ARSLOE will be the first project in 

 which so many wave-energy specialists 

 from such diverse backgrounds have 

 focused their equipment and their at- 

 tentions on the same stretch of 

 shoreline. The site at Duck was chosen 

 because of the relatively uniform 

 topography of the ocean bottom there, 

 which will make comparing data 

 easier, and because the U. S. Army 

 Corps of Engineers' pier there is well- 

 outfitted for coastal research. 



The Corps' Coastal Engineering 



Research Center is coordinating the 

 experiment, and the data collected will 

 be sent to the National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration for 

 analysis. 



Two teams of Sea Grant researchers, 

 headed by Ernie Knowles and Tom 

 Curtin of North Carolina State Uni- 

 versity, have been invited to take part 

 in the experiments. In his Sea Grant 

 work, Knowles is investigating ways to 

 predict ocean waves. Curtin's Sea 

 Grant project is designed to develop 

 new instruments for studying near- 

 shore currents and other physical 

 processes. 



In all, about 25 devices, built to 

 measure everything from gentle swells 

 to crashing breakers, will be riding the 

 waves during the two-month term of 

 the experiment. When the findings are 

 in, scientists will be better-equipped to 

 select the best methods and instru- 

 ments for their studies of waves and 

 currents. 



Howard Kerby 

 wants to make sure 

 that the state's 

 fishermen can con- 

 tinue to land 

 lunker bass. So, he 

 is doing research in 



how to freeze them — not the striped 

 bass, but their sperm. 



A Sea Grant researcher from North 

 Carolina State University, Kerby has 

 been working toward freezing and then 

 hatching large quantities of striped 

 bass sperm on a production basis. In 

 1978, the first results from the freezing 

 process showed there was no signifi- 

 cant difference between fish produced 

 from fresh sperm and those produced 

 from frozen sperm. In normal artificial 

 fertilization techniques, the success 

 rate is usually 60 to 80 percent. But 

 when Kerby's frozen bass sperm were 

 mixed with the fish eggs, the rate was 

 figured as high as 88 percent. 



The major research involved in the 

 project included testing cryoprotec- 

 tants (which protect cells during freez- 



ing) and extenders with the sperm un- 

 der controlled rates of freezing tem- 

 peratures. Kerby says that the frozen 

 sperm he has produced will last up to 

 hybrid sperm will last up to two years. 

 He sees the frozen sperm being most 

 beneficial to hatcheries hard-pressed 

 for enough males to fertilize eggs and 

 to other parts of the country where 

 striper males are scarce. His research, 

 Kerby explains, could result in more 

 fish in the lakes and reservoirs and 

 more fish stocked in estuaries with 

 population problems. 



They sold for 

 seven cents a 

 pound in 1880. 

 Fishermen threw 

 them away when 

 the ugly, spiny 

 crustaceans be- 



came hung in nets. Of those that sold, 

 about half were used as fertilizer and 

 bait. The crustacean? Shrimp. 



John Maiolo and John Bort, Sea 

 Grant researchers at East Carolina 

 University, are gathering some 

 historical information on shrimping in 

 North Carolina as part of a sociological 

 study on the shrimping industry. They 

 have uncovered some interesting facts. 



In the late 1800s and early 1900s, 

 shrimping in North Carolina was con- 

 fined to the southern coastal counties 

 of New Hanover and Brunswick. 

 Fishermen used seines, cast nets and 

 skimnets to catch shrimp in shallow 

 sound bottoms. 



Between 1915 and 1920, some 

 changes came along in the industry 

 that spurred fishermen to become 

 more interested in catching the crusta- 

 ceans. Two shrimp canneries opened in 

 Brunswick County, fish houses began 

 shipping shrimp out of the state to 

 markets in New York City, and the ot- 

 ter trawl was introduced in the state. 

 The otter trawl allowed fishermen to 

 drastically increase their catches 

 because they could fish deeper waters 

 offshore. 



Continued on next page 



During the 1920s and 1930s, shrimp- 

 ers began plying the waters of the 

 Pamlico Sound for the first time. This 

 opened one of the richest shrimping 

 grounds in the state. After World War 

 II, shrimp became more important and 

 the industry boomed in North 

 Carolina and throughout the South 

 Atlantic states. More fishermen began 

 fishing shrimp as prices the shrimp 

 brought began to soar. Today, the 

 shrimp fishery is the most valuable 

 fishery in the state, and there is an in- 

 creasing need to know, not only about 

 the biology of the shrimp, but about 

 the people who fish, process and 

 market it. Through interviews with 

 fishermen, processors and marketers, 

 Maiolo and Bort are trying to put 

 together a complete sociological pic- 

 ture of North Carolina's shrimping in- 

 dustry. Such a picture will help of- 

 ficials formulate new strategies for 

 managing the state's shrimp fishery — 

 strategies based on a knowledge of the 

 people being managed. 



In the past, the 

 staff of the North 

 Carolina Marine 

 Resources Center 

 at Bogue Banks 

 has often had to 

 beg, borrow and 

 swap for specimens to fill the center's 

 aquariums. The center didn't have a 



boat large enough to capture all the 

 marine life it needed, especially those 

 species from off-shore waters. 



But this summer, the center 

 launched a new, 23-foot Sea Ox, es- 

 pecially modified for gathering 

 specimens. The boat will be shared 

 with the Marine Resources Center on 

 Roanoke Island. 



The modifications in the Sea Ox 

 were made by Bob Hines, Sea Grant's 

 marine advisory agent at Bogue 

 Banks. Hines wired and mounted 

 gauges, antennas, nets and radios, and 

 put the boat in working order. 



Says Dave Williams of the center's 

 staff: "The boat will make it a lot 

 easier for us to get the specimens we 

 need, when we need them." 



Would you like 

 to serve crab meat 

 panned in butter or 

 crab casserole for 

 dinner, but your 

 pocketbook won't 

 let you? If you 



have access to coastal estuaries — 

 sounds, bays and river mouths, you 

 can catch crabs at little cost with your 

 own crab pot. UNC Sea Grant has a 

 new publication, How to Build a 

 Crab Pot, that describes the making 

 of a crab pot in ten illustrated steps. 

 The booklet also describes the regula- 

 tions that govern recreational crabbing 



in North Carolina. Another pamphlet, 

 Dipping and Picking, published by 

 South Carolina Sea Grant, describes 

 how to cook, clean and pick your crabs 

 once they're caught. For a copy of 

 either publication, write UNC Sea 

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



The Washing of Fish: A Literature 

 Assessment, by Freda A. Ramey, 

 Joyce A. Taylor and Frank B. 

 Thomas, is a guide to articles and 

 publications on the methods for 

 washing fish commercially. The 

 technical report reviews literature on 

 techniques and equipment, as well as 

 seafood handling, sanitation and 

 preserving. It is designed to be of 

 special value to the seafood industry. 

 For a copy, send $1.00 to UNC Sea 

 Grant and ask for publication UNC- 

 SG-79-07. 



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. 6, 

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

 tor. Written and edited by Neil Cau- 

 dle, Kathy Hart, and Cassie Griffin. 

 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) 



