Along the docks, boats are idle, tempers are short 



Sandy Edwards believes he has seen 

 the commercial fishing industry hit the 

 skids, almost overnight. Because of the 

 leap in fuel prices, he says, fishermen 

 are losing money, boats are tied up and 

 idle, and tempers and patience are 

 nearing the snapping point. 



"It just restricts your movement," 

 Edward says. "You can't go out and 

 look for fish, because you can't afford 

 to burn the fuel. There's a lot more 

 guys sitting at the dock, listening to 

 the radios, than there are out fishing. 

 It's putting a crimp in everybody's 

 style." 



Edwards, who takes his Raven after 

 snapper and grouper off Hatteras, says 

 the once-cooperative atmosphere 

 among the fishermen in his area is 

 souring. Crews tend to monitor radios 

 for word of a big catch, then race for 

 the productive area. 



"It means a hundred and fifty boats 

 show up at one spot," he says. 

 "There's a lot more competition and 

 the tempers are a lot shorter." 



"If I didn't have my boat paid for, 

 I'd be looking at about one more year 



in business," he says. "As it is, I'm ex- 

 pecting to last about three. But if I 

 were to have a major breakdown, I'd 

 be ruined, and that's the way ninety- 

 nine percent of the guys are." 



To save gas, fish- 

 ermen are buying 

 smaller boats and 

 less powerful en- 

 gines, Edwards 

 says. He has had to 

 drop his engine's 

 cruising speed from 

 2000 rpms down to 

 1800, and what was 

 once a three-hour 

 trip now requires 

 four. To squeeze more use out of the 

 trips, some of the captains are loading 

 a variety of gear onto their boats, just 

 to be prepared. 



"They're putting on gill nets, 

 they're putting on net reels — they're 

 trying to make little boats into big 

 boats," Edwards says. "But it's just 

 not working out." 



For Edwards and others, the fuel 

 problem is especially bitter because the 



Edwards 



prices they get for fish have not come 

 close to keeping up with the rate of in- 

 flation. 



"The other day I went out and bur- 

 ned a hundred gallons of fuel, at over a 

 dollar and thirty cents a gallon, and 

 came back with a load of trout. I got 

 ten cents a pound for my trout. I 

 caught thirteen pounds of trout to buy 

 every gallon of fuel I burned." 



Some of the largest boats are able to 

 use fuel-saving devices, such as Kort 

 nozzles and adjustable-pitch 

 propellers — gear perfected by foreign 

 fleets, which are accustomed to expen- 

 sive energy. 



UNC Sea Grant's continuing educa- 

 tion program for commercial fisher- 

 men, coordinated by Jim McGee of 

 East Carolina University, introduced 

 about 150 commercial fishermen to 

 some of these fuel-economy measures 

 during 1980. The workshops were well- 

 received, and more are planned for this 

 year. (Also, the Virginia Institute of 

 Marine Science will conduct a major 

 conference on "fuel efficiency alter- 

 natives" later in the year). 



Sail power — 

 Will it work? 



There are sailing experts. And, there 

 are workboat experts who know horse- 

 power and fishing. But when it comes 

 to sail-assisted engine power, there are 

 no real experts — only a few pioneers 

 experimenting with a new breed of 

 boat. 



Several of these pioneers happen to 

 be in North Carolina. Bill Hall. Bryan 

 Blake. Paul Lockwood. So far, most of 

 their work has been on paper. But 

 they're beginning to get serious notice, 

 in trade journals and national boating 

 and fishing magazines, where their no- 

 tions of sailing hulls and furling are ap- 

 pearing elbow-to-elbow with the latest 

 in muscular workboats and V-8 diesels. 



They point to a few successful ex- 

 periments around the world: the 

 Japanese Shin Aitoku Maru, a two- 

 masted tanker with computer- 

 operated, folding sails that save the 

 ship's owners 50 percent on diesel fuel; 

 Continued on next page 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



Bryan Blake, boatwright, with blueprints 



