PUNC Sea Grant 



1 1/9 



V 



October, 1981 



N. C. 

 Dec 



NORTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRA 



RV 



(OAS I 4 WATCH 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



°K 1 5 1981 



Sailboats at a marina near Minnesott Beach 



A door for folks afloat 



A place to tie your boat and step out. A repair 

 shop, gas station, warehouse, boat dealer, laundry, 

 restaurant, lounge, tackle shop and social club. A 

 place to gather and shoot the breeze; a place to 

 catch the next breeze out. 



The definition of marina is as new as the word, 

 but saying what marinas are is much harder than 

 saying what they do: they link people to the water. 



"Marinas are the doorways to the waterborne 

 public," says Leon Abbas, Sea Grant's marine 

 recreation specialist. Abbas has spent years study- 

 ing and promoting the economic health of the 

 marina industry in North Carolina, an industry he 

 says is critical to the state's coastal economy. 



The industry is young, Abbas says, but growing: 

 There are about 150 marinas operating along the 

 coast, representing a value in excess of $60 million. 

 They range from small, family-owned businesses 

 with a few slips to luxurious operations complete 



with condominiums , yachts and club houses. They 

 cater to fishermen on the sounds, blue-water 

 sportsmen, and yachtsmen passing through. They 

 can store about 10,000 boats. 



And, demand for the services marinas offer is very 

 high. Inlanders tired of burning fuel to haul their 

 boats between the coast and home want coastal 

 storage for their boats. More of us have leisure time 

 for boating. 



But all's not well with marinas. Most of them are 

 built on shorelines bathed by tides, where marine 

 life is most sensitive to disruption. 



There is evidence that the dredging around 

 marinas can threaten fish. There are shellfish 

 waters closed to fishing because of contamination 

 from marinas. There are public waters practically 

 closed to public navigation because they are clogged 

 with marina docks and mooring posts. And, to deal 

 with problems like these, there are newly proposed 

 regulations that have some marina owners upset. 



This month, Coastwatch takes a look at the state's 

 marina industry and the issues surrounding it. 



