Lundie Mauldin's course, "Oceans," at 

 NCSU. The group traveled to Cape 

 Lookout National Seashore with 

 Mauldin, Sea Grant's marine educa- 

 tion specialist, and Stan Riggs, a 

 geologist from East Carolina Univer- 

 sity. They were there to study island 

 ecology, shoreline processes and the 

 predicament of the Cape Lookout 

 lighthouse, which has been threatened 

 by erosion. 



"We also wanted them to see what 

 it's like to rough it on an island 

 beach," Mauldin says. 



Teams of students were left on their 

 own to design tents using only sheets 

 of plastic and walking sticks. That 

 night, the creations got a stiff test: a 

 driving rain came, and the wind blew 

 at 25 knots. All five tents held firm, 

 though, and the students stayed dry. 

 Many conventional tents, Mauldin 

 says, would have failed. She says the 

 students succeeded because their tents' 

 low, sloping profiles deflected wind, 

 and because the tents were well- 

 anchored by piled sand. 



"Their shelters reflected the stu- 

 dents' ability to work with the wind 

 forces and the lack of a stable base," 

 Mauldin says. "They had to be obser- 

 vant, and they were." 



Erosion is a serious 

 threat to waterfront 

 property along the es- 

 tuarine shoreline. Some 

 effective methods of ero- 

 sion control, such as the 

 use of bulkheads and 

 groins, can be expensive to construct 



and maintain. But, in some areas, 

 property owners can use an inexpen- 

 sive, natural buffer against erosion: 

 transplanted marsh grasses. 



Sea Grant's new publication, 

 Planting Marsh Grasses for Ero- 

 sion Control, provides guidelines for 

 the property owner interested in this 

 natural erosion-control method. Types 

 of grasses are discussed along with 

 choosing suitable sites, transplanting, 

 fertilizing and maintaining a fringe of 

 marsh grasses. Information on growing 

 grasses from seed in a greenhouse is 

 also included. All of the information in 

 this booklet has been tested by the 

 authors, S.W. Broome and W.W. 

 Woodhouse, Jr. of the Department of 

 Soil Science, and E.D. Seneca of the 

 Department of Botany at North 

 Carolina State University. The three 

 recently completed a Sea Grant pro- 

 ject that produced much of the infor- 

 mation in the booklet. 



For a copy of this free publication, 

 write Sea Grant, Box 5001, Raleigh, 

 N.C. 27650-5001, and ask for UNC- 

 SG-81-09. 



Fishermen and many 

 other seafarers can no 

 longer receive free health 

 care from the U. S. Pub- 

 lic Health Service. As of 

 Sept. 30, patients who 

 once qualified because 

 they operated or helped operate vessels 

 registered by the U. S. Coast Guard 

 will have to find medical attention on 

 their own. 



The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation 



Act of 1981, approved in August, end- 

 ed the entitlement and provided for 

 the closure or conversion of all Public 

 Health Service hospitals and clinics. 



The Public Health Service hospital 

 in Norfolk, Va., which has admitted 

 thousands of seafarers each year, is 

 now closed. Retirees of the uniformed 

 services, and dependents of active and 

 retired members of those services, will 

 be given general care only as out- 

 patients in what is now called the 

 Lafayette River Branch Clinic. 



Estimation of Surface Gravity 

 Waves from Subsurface Pressure 

 Records for Estuarine Basins, by C. 

 Ernest Knowles of the NCSU Depart- 

 ment of Marine, Earth and At- 

 mospheric Sciences, is the latest in a 

 series of Sea Grant working papers. 



To receive a copy of this working 

 paper, send 75 cents to UNC Sea 

 Grant. Ask for publication number 

 UNC-SG-WP-81-6. 



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 27650-5001. Vol. 8, No. 9, 

 October, 1981. Dr. B.J. Copeland, 

 director. Neil Caudle, editor. Kathy 

 Hart and Cassie Griffin, staff writers. 

 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) 



12357 



STATE OF N C LlbKAHtf 

 109 E JONES ST 

 RALEIGH NC 27601 



