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 offices in Raleigh 

 (919/737-2454). 



As summer ap- 

 proaches, many beach 

 communities are gearing 

 up for the rush of 

 tourists. But being 

 prepared for summer 

 visitors means more than 



opening up restaurants closed during 

 the winter and cleaning up rental 

 property. It also means preparing for 

 the beach accidents that occur every 

 year when you mix folks unfamiliar 

 with beach hazards with elements like 

 rip currents, undertows and intense 

 heat. 



That's why Dennis Regan, Sea 

 Grant's recreational advisory agent on 

 Roanoke Island, is organizing beach 

 safety clinics for Dare County 

 emergency personnel. For the first 

 meeting on May 6, Regan invited town 

 and county officials, police, lifeguards, 

 emergency medical technicians 

 (EMTs), National Park Service per- 

 sonnel and personnel from the Outer 

 Banks Medical Center. He hopes these 

 groups can work out a cooperative, 

 county-wide emergency procedure 

 that will provide fast aid for beach 

 victims. 



In a second meeting to be held in 

 June, sponsored by the Dare County 

 Chamber of Commerce, Regan and 

 others will acquaint Dare County sum- 

 mer employees with emergency 

 procedures and potential dangers on 

 the beach. These employees, who often 

 have contact with tourists, can pass 

 along information about potential 

 beach hazzards. 



And in a final meeting on June 17, 

 those directly responsible for beach 



safety, lifeguards and EMTs, will be 

 provided with in-depth information for 

 recognizing beach hazzards like rip 

 currents and for following correct 

 emergency procedures. 



Divers all over the 

 United States have a 

 new friend to protect 

 them. DAN, or Diving 

 Accident Network, is a 

 24-hour telephone ser- 

 vice designed to help 

 provide quick treatment for the vic- 

 tims of diving accidents. 



By dialing 1-919-684-8111, divers 

 are connected with trained physicians 

 on duty 24 hours a day at Duke Uni- 

 versity Medical Center. Information 

 on the accident is recorded, and the 

 caller is either given direct advice from 

 the physician or information on the 

 nearest regional coordinator. Duke 

 serves the southeastern region, and 

 coordinators of the other six regions in 

 the network are in Pennsylvania, 

 Wisconsin, Louisiana, Washington, 

 California and Hawaii. 



Each coordinator has a recompres- 

 sion chamber operated by trained 

 technicians with a physician on call. If 

 that region is unable to help the vic- 

 tim, he is referred to the nearest region 

 that can. Transportation arrange- 

 ments will be made for the victim if 

 necessary. 



So, remember this number next time 

 you go diving: 1-919-684-8111 (collect, 

 if necessary). It could save your life. 



^^easuring less than 

 three inches long and 

 weighing less than an 

 ounce, tiny elvers can be 

 hard to catch. But this 

 year over 11 pounds or 

 46,000 of the worm-like 



creatures were netted in North 

 Carolina waters for culturing at the 

 North Carolina State University 

 Aquaculture Demonstration Project in 

 Aurora. The elvers presently are being 

 held in holding tanks at the facility 



while they are adapting to special 

 feeds. Later, they will be transferred to 

 grow-out ponds where the eels should 

 reach market size in 10 to 14 months. 



Can an eel from New England 

 prosper in the sunny south? Several 

 pounds of Maine elvers arrived at the 

 aquaculture project in April. This 

 year, researchers there will compare 

 the growth rates of the Maine elvers 

 with those of elvers found in North 

 Carolina. The idea is to see whether 

 either group fares better than the 

 other, when both are cultured under 

 the same conditions. 



\ New England fisher- 

 / A, men have for some 



/ J^/y~jF/\ time practiced clam 

 lvj*^llf* / a Q uacu lture successfully. 

 V^— ^ — ^\/y There, a hard clam 

 \ yy grows to marketable size 



in three to seven years. 



But warmer waters and longer growing 

 seasons in North Carolina enable clam 

 aquaculturists here to harvest in as lit- 

 tle as two years. These favorable con- 

 ditions, plus an increase in prices and a 

 decrease in harvest from natural hard 

 clam beds, have stimulated interest in 

 raising clams here. 



To meet the demand for information 

 specifically on North Carolina clam 

 aquaculture, Sea Grant has published 

 Clam Gardening. Written by John 

 E. Foster of the NCSU Aquaculture 

 Demonstration Project, this publica- 

 tion gives the interested clam grower 

 an overview of the aquaculture 

 process. Specific information is given 

 on obtaining and raising seed clams, 

 leases and permits, location require- 

 ments and management of the garden. 

 The appendix lists additional 

 references and material suppliers. 



If you are interested in commercial 

 clam aquaculture and would like a 

 copy of this free publication, write 

 UNC Sea Grant, P.O. Box 5001, 

 Raleigh, N.C. 27650. Ask for publica- 

 tion UNC-SG-81-03. 



Continued on next page 



