shellfish a boost off the estuarine floor 

 and may allow them to reach market 

 size before they succumb to oyster 

 diseases. This eventually may mean 

 more quality shellfish at the market, 

 Kemp says. 



Market-sized oysters are anticipated 

 1 1/2 to 2 years after stocking, using the 

 oyster chub system. The time to grow- 

 out varies with oyster density and water 

 quality. 



Last year, Kemp cultivated 50,000 

 oysters in the nets, and he doubled that 

 number this year. He also raises clams 

 and scallops in the netting. 



Tests are continuing to develop 

 methods for reducing fouling of the 

 materials. 



Zebra Mussel 

 Update 



The irksome zebra 

 mussel has not yet en- 

 croached into North 

 Carolina's waterways and 

 lakes, but UNC Sea Grant is 

 gearing up for its inevitable 

 arrival. 



UNC Sea Grant has 

 joined a regional pact of five 

 Mid-Atlantic Sea Grant 

 programs to plan in advance 

 for the barnacle-like mollusk 

 that has thoroughly encrusted 

 boat hulls and water intake 

 pipes in the Great Lakes. 



The zebra mussel poses a 

 multi-billion dollar threat to 

 North America's industrial, 

 agricultural and municipal 

 water supplies, and it could 

 become a costly nuisance for 

 freshwater shipping, boating 

 and fishing. 



The regional effort was 

 launched in August with a 

 strategy session that featured 

 the hard-learned lessons from 

 Great Lakes experts. 



In North Carolina, Sea 

 Grant Water Quality Special- 

 ist Barbara Doll is working 



with state agencies and industry to 

 establish a monitoring system for the 

 tiny, striped mollusks. This effort will 

 be coordinated with public education 

 programs, including a series of 

 regional public service announcements 

 for radio, informational fliers and a 

 regional fact sheet. 



North Carolina and Virginia will 

 also co-host a regional conference in 

 1993 for large commercial and 

 municipal water-users. 



Lake Phelps 

 Revelations 



In 1982, fishermen casting a line in 

 Lake Phelps began to hook more than a 



good catch. Through the crystal clear 

 waters of the state's second largest lake, 

 fishermen began to spot Indian artifacts 

 — stone objects and whole clay pots. 



The discovery aroused the interest of 

 archaeologist David Phelps, an authority 

 on North Carolina's coastal Native 

 Americans, and other state archaeolo- 

 gists. They began to remove the artifacts 

 for examination, and in doing so made 

 an unusual discovery — 30 dugout 

 canoes. 



The hollowed wooden vessels 

 constitute the largest collection of 

 canoes in the southeastern United States 

 still in association with the sites where 

 they were built and used. 



Some of the artifacts 

 collected are as much as 

 11,000 years old. 



The canoes, which are 

 scattered along the northern 

 and western shores of the 

 lake, range in age from 2430 

 B.C. to 1400. Archaeologists 

 have used radiocarbon dating 

 to determine the canoes' 

 ages. 



Phelps and others are 

 studying the shape, size and 

 method of manufacture for 

 the canoes. But he believes 

 most were made by splitting 

 a cypress log, then alter- 

 nately burning and scraping 

 the interior of the canoe until 

 the desired shape and size 

 were obtained. 



Some of the canoes are 

 only fragments; other are 

 essentially intact, preserved 

 by the acidic water and long 

 burial in the lake sediments. 

 The bow and stern forma- 

 tions on the canoes vary, and 

 the length of the longest 

 vessel is 37 feet. 



Three of the canoes have 

 been lifted from the lake and 

 preserved. They are on 

 display at Pettigrew State 

 Park in Creswell. 



COASTWATCH 23 



