To increase the public's confidence in 

 fish and shellfish, the FDA will initiate the 

 following steps: 



• Audit all state's shellfish growing waters 

 to ensure that waters open to harvest are 

 not polluted. 



• Develop an inspector training program. 



• Clamp down on bootleggers who 

 illegally harvest shellfish from areas closed 

 to harvest because of pollution. 



• Evaluate and possibly approve a new 

 commerical kit to test for ciguatera — a 

 toxin found in tropical reef fish. 



• Double the level of FDA chemical 

 contamination monitoring in the United 

 States and develop a new target list of 

 contaminants. 



• Visit all of the more than 3,000 seafood 

 processing plants in the United States. 



• Raise the U.S. seafood decomposition 

 minimums to zero, mimicking Canadian 

 standards. 



• Increase inspection of imported seafood. 



• Expand consumer education efforts to 

 include brochures on home handling of 

 seafood, a consumer hotline and informa- 

 tion to specific audiences who are at 

 higher risk for seafood-related illnesses. 



• Improve the reporting procedure and 

 database for seafood illnesses. 



Sweep Nets 

 Tons of Trash 



Nearly 12,000 volunteers swept North 

 Carolina's waterways clean of 212 tons of 

 trash Sept. 21 in the First Citizens Bank Big 

 Sweep. It was the most successful water- 

 way cleanup in the five-year history of this 

 Tar Heel event. 



At nearly 300 sites statewide, volun- 

 teers collected scores of plastic bags and 

 bottles, mounds of cigarette butts, miles of 

 monofilament line and mountains of tires. 



At inland sites, sweepers filled 

 dumpsters and pickup trucks with 

 refrigerators, stoves, sofas, television sets, 

 shopping carts, bed frames, box springs, 

 car batteries, toilets and, yes, even the 

 proverbial kitchen sink. 



Unusual finds included love letters, an 

 artificial limb, a carousel horse, a sequined 

 headdress, a Spanish laundry detergent 

 bottle and a safe stolen during a robbery. 



This year, volunteers also made some 

 gruesome finds. In Craven County, 

 volunteers found a dead turtle entangled 



in fishing line. Along the Tar River, they 

 found the grim result of a curious puppy's 

 fatal entrapment in a plastic milk jug. 



But two animal entrapments had a 

 happy ending. Volunteers at the Fort 

 Fisher State Recreation Area released a sea 

 turtle entangled in fishing line. And at 

 nearby Carolina Beach, a seagull was freed 

 from a fishing hook. 



Big Sweep organizers noticed several 

 trends in this year's cleanup. 



Beaches were cleaner of large items, 

 but they were virtual public ashtrays for 

 cigarette butts, volunteers reported. 

 Sweepers at one site at Emerald Isle 

 counted and bagged 10,520 butts. 



Inland volunteers and coordinators 

 noticed an increase in the number of 

 appliances and tires being dumped into 

 our state's waterways. 



"I earnestly think this is because of 

 ignorance and laziness in getting materials 

 to the landfill," says Big Sweep Coordina- 

 tor Cecilia McDaniel Brown of Keep 

 Winston-Salem Beautiful. 



With a successful cleanup completed, 

 plans are already under way for next year's 

 cleanup set for Sept. 19. 



Big Sweep was made possible by 

 generous contributions from: First Citizens 

 Bank, Yadkin Inc., Alcoa Badin Works, 

 Alcoa Foundation, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 

 Co., N.C. Wildlife Federation, N.C. Wildlife 

 Resources Commission, N.C. Beer 

 Wholesalers, Texasgulf Inc., MCI, Duke 

 Power Co., CP&L, the Tennessee Valley 

 Authority, WGHPiedmont 8, WRAL-TV5, 

 WLOS-TV, WITN-TV and WWAY-TV. 



The Big Sweep is coordinated by: 

 UNC Sea Grant, Keep America Beautiful, 

 N.C. Division of Coastal Management, N.C. 

 Division of Water Resources, N.C. Division 

 of Environmental Management, N.C. 

 Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. 

 Wildlife Federation, N.C. Division of Parks 

 and Recreation, N.C. 4-H, Keep North 

 Carolina Clean and Beautiful, 

 WGHPiedmont 8, WRAL-TV5, WLOS, 

 WITN and WWAY. 



A Pat on the Back 



Two Sea Grant employees have 

 recently been recognized for their 

 achievements. 



Skip Kemp, a Sea Grant marine 

 advisory agent at Bogue Banks, was 



awarded the 1990-91 Chancellor's Out- 

 standing Extension Service Award for his 

 work with shellfish aquaculture and 

 estuarine leaseholders. 



Kemp has worked to increase the 

 private culture of clams, oysters and 

 scallops and turn these shellfish farming 

 experiments into viable new coastal 

 businesses. 



Debra Lynch, who heads the Marine 

 Advisory Service secretarial staff, was 

 awarded a 1991 Distinguished Perfor- 

 mance Award for the Chancellor's Unit 

 from N.C. State University. Lynch has 

 worked for Sea Grant for seven years and 

 has been an invaluable part of the Raleigh 

 office. 



Lynch developed a special method for 

 handling grant processing for the National 

 Sea Grant Program in Washington. The 

 method was later adopted by Sea Grant 

 programs in other states. 



Fishing Forum 



Can recreational fishermen have a say 

 in how North Carolina's coastal fisheries 

 are managed? 



The answer to that question could 

 come during the first N.C. Marine Recre- 

 ational Fishing Forum, scheduled for 

 Feb. 1 at the Jane S. McKimmon Center 

 on the campus of N.C. State University in 

 Raleigh. 



The forum will inform the recreational 

 fishing community about the latest 

 developments in fisheries research and 

 management, says Jim Murray, director of 

 the Marine Advisory Service for the UNC 

 Sea Grant College Program, a forum 

 sponsor. 



Leaders of groups that benefit from 

 the recreational fishery will also be invited 

 to participate in a forum in which they will 

 voice the concerns of their peers, Murray 

 says. 



"This will not be a 'how to fish' 

 meeting," Munay says. "It'll be an opportu- 

 nity for recreational fishermen to become 

 more aware of what's going on in how 

 fisheries are studied and managed. Those 

 are two subjects of vital importance to the 

 future of the fishery resource in this state." 



For information about registration, 

 contact Murray at the Sea Grant office in 

 Raleigh at 919/515-2454. 



COASTWATCH 19 



