A sea of sound research 



Sea and sand 



Photo by Nancy Davis 



The condominium boom means added pressures on local government 



Erosion is one of coastal North 

 Carolina's biggest problems, eating 

 away at oceanfront properties and 

 hampering development of residential, 

 commercial and recreational areas. 

 Little can be done to stop this gnawing 

 problem, but knowledge of the process 

 may aid in predicting rates of erosion 

 and shoreline changes. 



John Fisher, Margery Overton and 

 Spencer Rogers are developing a model 

 that will estimate erosion rates during 

 storm periods. This year, they will 

 build a test dune to monitor the ero- 

 sion and wave and surge conditions. 

 This data, along with information 

 gathered from a wave tank, will be 

 used to refine their model. With this, 

 property owners, coastal managers and 

 developers should benefit, as the long- 

 term predictions outline suitable areas 

 for construction. 



Improved coastal management is 

 the aim of another Sea Grant project. 

 David Brower will continue a univer- 

 sity program that studies legal and 

 policy issues such as beach access, im- 

 pacts of off-road vehicles, public trust 

 rights and effects of the condominium 

 boom on local government. 



And since ocean policy graduate stu- 

 dents do much of the research, the 

 program trains tomorrow's managers. 



Research doesn't stop at the 

 shoreline. Scott Snyder and Stan Riggs 

 make their discoveries hundreds of feet 

 below the ocean's surface. They seek 

 out mesas rich in hardgrounds, 

 phosphates and mineral deposits. 



Hardgrounds attract great numbers 

 of fish because they serve as attach- 

 ment sites for food sources such as 

 algae, sponges, coral and other 

 organisms. To help commercial and 

 recreational fishermen locate these 

 prime fishing areas, Snyder and Riggs 

 will map the hardground formations. 



In addition, the escarpments con- 

 tain potential mineral resources such 

 as shell and quartz gravels, cobalt, 

 nickel, platinum, gold and uranium. 



Snyder and Riggs also will study 



the development and formation of 

 phosphates. They want to learn the 

 distribution of the sediments, which 

 will help in classifying hardgrounds 

 and determining their age and origin. 



The researchers: 



John Fisher, Department of Civil 



Engineering, North Carolina State 



University 

 Margery Overton, Department of 



Civil Engineering, North Carolina 



State University 

 Spencer Rogers, coastal engineering 



specialist, UNC Sea Grant College 



Program 



David Brower, Center for Urban and 

 Regional Studies, University of 

 North Carolina at Chapel Hill 



Scott Snyder, Department of Geology, 



East Carolina University 

 Stan Riggs, Department of Geology, 

 East Carolina University 



Minding the nursery 



In eastern North Carolina, farmland 

 is lowland. And that's a potential 

 problem. To make the land fit for 

 farming it must be drained of the 

 water that accumulates there. And 

 that's a problem too. Much of the 

 freshwater drainage funnels into 

 brackish estuaries where young fish 

 grow. Resource managers and fisher- 

 men believe this outflow may be af- 

 fecting fisheries production. 



To alleviate this dilemma. Sea 

 Grant is using science to find solutions 

 that will allow the fisherman and the 

 farmer to reap their harvests. Two Sea 



