Tracing the secrets of shells, fish and sportsmen 



Among the natural resources con- 

 centrated in North Carolina's es- 

 tuaries, recreational fishing ranks as 

 one of the most important. This year, a 

 Sea Grant research team will study the 

 resource by going straight to the peo- 

 ple who enjoy it — the people who 

 spend their leisure hours fishing the 

 state's sounds. 



Following up last year's study of 

 offshore fishing and tournament 

 fishing, Peter Fricke, an ECU 

 sociologist, Leon Abbas, Sea Grant's 

 recreational and economic specialist, 

 and James Sabella, a University of 

 North Carolina at Wilmington 

 anthropologist, will be conducting a 

 similar socio-economic study of sound 

 fishing. 



They will be surveying fishermen to 

 find out who fishes in the sounds, 

 where they are from, how much they 

 spend in local businesses while they're 

 fishing and what type of fish they are 

 hoping to reel in. The researchers feel 

 this type of information can be used by 

 local and regional planners to provide 

 for things like boat ramps and fishing 

 access areas as well as for more com- 

 plicated things like zoning for 

 economic activity. 



In another part of the study, Fricke, 

 Abbas and Sabella will be paying par- 

 ticular attention to the recreational 

 and commercial striped bass fishery. 

 There has been growing national con- 

 cern over the decline of striped bass in 

 eastern United States sounds. This 

 study, along with others in Maryland 

 and Virginia, will attempt to answer 

 some questions needed for better 

 management and revitalization of the 

 fishery. 



Striped bass aren't the only fish on 

 the decline in North Carolina sounds. 

 Commercial catches of river herring 

 are also on the downswing. Past 

 declines were attributed to intense 

 offshore fishing of river herring by 

 foreign vessels. But controls im- 

 plemented by the 200-mile limit in 

 1975 lessened offshore fishing pressure. 

 The river herring catches, however, 

 did not respond and landings remain 

 low. Scientists now suspect the reason 

 for fewer river herring may lie 

 elsewhere. 



Bob Sniffen, an ECU researcher, 

 will be examining larval and juvenile 

 river herring in the Albemarle Sound 



system, the state's primary nursery for 

 these fishes. He will be studying the 

 habitat needs of the tiny river herring 

 soon after they are spawned along the 

 edges of streams and rivers. He wants 

 to determine what link exists between 

 habitat conditions during the larval 

 and juvenile stages and river herring 

 adult abundance later. 



In particular, Sniffen will be looking 

 at river herring in the Chowan River 

 system, where nutrient pollution has 

 caused massive blue-green algae 

 blooms and reduced oxygen levels in 

 the river. Over 50 percent of the state's 

 river herring landings come from the 

 Chowan River. Sniffen will be examin- 

 ing the effects of the nutrient pollution 

 on the young river herring. 



Sniffen will be coordinating his Sea 

 Grant work with an Environmental 

 Protection Agency grant he received 

 last year. With that grant he is study- 

 ing the role of flood plains. Sniffen says 

 his work will be used by Marine 

 Fisheries to develop a management 

 scheme for river herring later this 

 decade. 



Photo by John Rottet 



With five major research facilities in 

 Carteret County, there is a wealth of 

 research on the nearby Newport River 

 estuarine system. But the trouble 

 comes in finding the results of that 

 research. It is scattered among the files 

 and libraries of numerous research 

 organizations. 



John Costlow and William Kirby- 

 Smith, two scientists at the Duke 

 Marine Laboratory at Beaufort, are 

 going to put together an annotated 

 bibliography of past, current and 

 proposed research that is specifically 

 related to the Newport River estuarine 

 system. The bibliography will be par- 

 ticularly helpful to researchers plan- 

 ning new research in the Newport 

 system and in similar systems along 

 the East Coast. Coastal managers and 

 planners can use the bibliography as a 

 guide for seeking information needed 

 to make management decisions. 



As a second part of their project, 

 Costlow and Kirby-Smith will charac- 

 terize the Newport River system, 

 describing its hydrology, geology, 

 fisheries, biology and ecology. Scien- 



