THE BACK PAGE 



"The Back Page" is an update 

 on Sea Grant activities — on 

 research . marine educa tion 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). 



Since 1971, the N. C. 

 Department of Agricul- 

 ture has kept a close 

 watch for the gypsy 

 moth. In much of New 

 England and the North, 



the moth's larvae have denuded and 

 killed whole forests of valuable 

 hardwood trees. One larva can eat a 

 square foot of foliage each day. And. 

 there have been signs that the moths 

 are moving south. 



le department's plant protection 

 office has set out traps, baited with a 

 synthetic sex pheromone, which at- 

 tracts male moths to what they believe 

 is the scent of a female. Each year, a 

 few stray moths, probably "hitch- 

 hikers" that made their way south hid- 

 den in automobiles and campers, have 

 shown up in the traps. But even on the 

 Outer Banks, which get crowds of 

 northern tourists, the moths were few. 



Then suddenly, this summer, the 

 traps were teeming. In just a few days, 

 officials collected 4500 male moths 

 from traps in Currituck, Camden, 

 Dare, Perquimans and Pasquotank 

 Counties. It looked as if the dreaded 

 moth had chosen coastal North 

 Carolina for its first big assault on the 

 South. 



But the department now believes 

 that the invaders may have just blown 

 in for a few days — literally. When they 

 checked the weather records, officials 

 found that strong winds from the 

 north could have swept male moths 

 into the Outer Banks, perhaps from 

 the heavily infested Cape May. New 

 Jersey, area. Female moths would 

 have been too heavy with eggs to have 

 come in the wind. No female, no lar- 



vae, and no destruction. 



The department is still studying the 

 Outer Banks for signs of the females — 

 only males enter the traps — and won't 

 really breathe easy until they're sure 

 there aren't thousands of female moths 

 laying eggs in North Carolina. 



The UNC Sea Grant 

 site visit will be held 

 September 30 to October 

 2 in the Bogue Banks 

 Marine Resources Cen- 

 ter. A nine-member 

 review team will assem- 



ble at the center for a presentation of 

 Sea Grant's proposed coastal research 

 for the next two years. If you're in- 

 terested in finding out what the Sea 

 Grant researchers will be up to, con- 

 tact the Sea Grant office in Raleigh 

 (919/737-2454) for information about 

 attending a site visit session. 



Members of the 1980 site visit team 

 are: Thomas Murray and Kent Price, 

 representatives from the National Sea 

 Grant office; Ned Ostenso. director of 

 the National Office of Sea Grant; 

 Francis LaQue and Mike Pelczar, 

 members of the National Sea Grant 

 Advisory Panel; Dan Hunt, a 

 representative of the Food and Drug 

 Administration; Ford Cross, a 

 representative of the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service; Gene Woock, a 

 specialist in the University of Wiscon- 

 sin Sea Grant Marine Advisory Ser- 

 vices; and Richard Pollnac, a faculty 

 member at the University of Rhode 

 Island. 



f How to Use Eels as 



/ A, Bait by Leon Abbas and 

 I ^ ary Mordecai, of- 

 // y .T' r / \ fers illustrated, step-by- 

 l^S^ \ step instructions for 

 \ YJ fishing with eels, a 

 favored bait for many 

 game fish, especially striped bass and 

 cobia. 



The booklet discusses tackle and 

 hooking techniques, as well as how to 

 select and prepare the eels. For a free 

 copy of How to Use Eels as Bait, 



write UNC Sea Grant. P.O. Box 5001, 

 Raleigh, N. C. 27650. 



Someone travelling new ground 

 needs a map, and so do fishermen 

 casting into unfamiliar waters. If 

 you're planning to launch your boat for 

 a day of fishing in the Wilmington or 

 Beaufort areas, you should take along 

 one of Sea Grant's laminated, water- 

 proof fishing maps. Measuring 19W by 

 13 inches, the map pinpoints the most 

 popular reefs, rock outcroppings, 

 wrecks, and other fishing hot spots. 



According to recreation specialist 

 Leon Abbas, the map indicates by dis- 

 tance and magnetic headings the 

 fishing locations in the Beaufort Inlet 

 and Masonboro Inlet areas. Copies of 

 the map can be obtained by sending 

 $1.00 for each map to UNC Sea Grant. 



With tarantulas, tree 

 frogs and curly tailed 

 lizards tucked safely 

 away in baggage, 17 

 youngsters and their in- 

 structors flew home 

 August 24 from Andros 

 Island in the Bahamas. Their plane, a 

 disheveled but sturdy DC3, had recent- 

 ly played a leading role in the new 

 movie, "Dogs of War." for which it 

 had been painted a sinister black. 



But. as if reptiles and romantic air- 

 craft weren't enough, the young people 

 had something really special to tell the 

 folks at home about: their first scien- 

 tific expedition in the tropics. 



The students, aged 12 to 17, are all 

 "junior naturalists" or "junior 

 curators" from the N. C. Museum of 

 Natural History in Raleigh. The group 

 was led by Ray Ashton, curator of 

 education at the museum; Jesse Perry, 

 the museum's extension educator; 

 Patricia Ashton, a teacher at 

 Ravenscroft School in Raleigh; and 

 Lundie Mauldin, Sea Grant's marine 

 education specialist. 



The purpose of the week-long ex- 



Continued on next page 



pedition was to show the budding 

 naturalists how scientists work in the 

 field. The Forfar Field Station on An- 

 dros Island is a center for research, and 

 regularly accommodates school 

 groups. 



Students gathered specimens for the 

 museum's collection, mapped and 

 described tropical ecosystems, iden- 

 tified plants and animals, and kept 

 written logs. Mauldin and the instruc- 

 tors took the group onto a coral reef, 

 where the students, equipped with 

 snorkeling gear and "slates" for note- 

 taking, studied territoriality among 

 the fish there. 



According to Mauldin: "We got to 

 see one of the most diverse coral reef 

 ecosystems, we got to see the culture of 

 the Bahamian people, and. we got to 

 see just how much a group of kids can 

 learn in a short time." 



When you cast your 

 line into a run of spot 

 this fall, you'll probably 

 never think about how 

 those fish got to be there. 

 But Sea Grant 

 researcher John Miller of 

 North Carolina State University does. 

 Miller and his graduate students, Mike 

 Dunn. Larry Gerry, Jeff Woodward, 

 and Woody Sutherland, have been 

 studying spot, croaker and other 

 juvenile sciaenids in Rose Bay. one of 

 the state's estuarine nursery grounds. 



The spot and croaker are spawned 

 offshore, then migrate into the es- 

 tuaries when they are about one-half 

 inch long. The sciaenids live and feed 

 in their nurseries for six months before 

 returning to the ocean. Miller feels this 

 six-month period in the estuaries plays 

 a critical role in determining how 

 many adult spot and croaker will sur- 

 vive. So he wants to know such things 

 as what the spot and croaker feed on, 

 what habitats they prefer, what tem- 

 perature and salinity ranges they can 

 withstand, and whether spot and 

 croaker compete for food. 



So far. Woodward has found that 

 the sciaenids eat zoo-plankton until 

 they reach a length of two inches. 

 Then they turn to eating benthos, 

 organisms that live along the estuary 

 bottom. Miller was surprised to find 

 that a part of the fish's benthic diet 

 consisted of clam siphons, the tubular 

 organs clams use to draw in water. 

 This means spot and croaker may af- 

 fect clam growth and populations and 

 vice versa. Dunn and Gerry have 

 found that temperature and salinity 

 affect sciaenid survival rate. 

 Sutherland has learned spot and 

 croaker may be near the brink of ex- 

 hausting the estuary's food supply. 



What does all of this add up to? Spot 

 and croaker are sensitive to change in 

 their environment. And, if fishermen 

 are to continue reeling these fishes out 

 of the state's coastal waters, the 

 sciaenids' nursery grounds — 

 estuaries — will have to be preserved. 



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. 7, 

 August, 1980. Dr. B.J. Copeland, 

 director. Written and edited by Neil 

 Caudle, Kathy Hart and Cassie Grif- 

 fin. 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) 



