Coastwatch 



Managing Editor: 

 Kathy Hart 



Senior Editors: 

 Daun Daemon 

 Jeannie Fans Norris 



Designer: 

 Linda Noble 



Marketing Coordinator: 

 Elizabeth Burke 



Circulation Manager: 

 Sandra Harris 



The North Carolina Sea Grant College Program 

 is a federal/state program that promotes the 

 wise use of our coastal and marine resources 

 through research, extension and education. 

 It joined the National Sea Grant College Network 

 in 1970 as an institutional program. Six years later, 



it was designated a Sea Grant College. 

 Today, North Carolina Sea Grant supports several 

 research projects, a 12-member extension 

 program and a communications staff. 

 Ron Hodson is interim director. 

 The program is funded by the U.S. Department 



of Commerce's National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration and the state 

 through the University of North Carolina. 

 Coastwatch (ISSN 1068-784X) is published 

 bimonthly, six times a year, for $15 

 by the North Carolina Sea Grant College Program, 

 Box 8605, North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8605. 

 Telephone: 919/515-2454. Fax: 919/515-7095. 

 E-mail: k_hart@ncsu.edu. 

 World Wide Web address: 

 http://www2.ncsu.edu/sea_grant/seagrant.html. 

 Second-Class Postage paid at Raleigh, N.C. 



POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 

 Coastwatch, North Carolina Sea Grant, 

 Box 8605, North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, NC 27695-8605. 



Front cover photo of a red maple 

 leaf by Scott D. Taylor. 



Table of contents photo of 

 an archaeological dig 

 by Michael Halminski. 



Printed on recycled paper. © 



COASTAL 



TIDINGS 



Saving Diamondback Terrapins 



Populations of diamondback terrapins, once abundant in coastal 

 marshes, have declined. Scientists believe the declines have multiple 

 causes: degradation and loss of habitat, road mortalities, increased 

 predation from raccoons and drownings in trawls, nets and crab pots. 

 One scientist has estimated that deaths from entrapment in crab pots 

 could be as high as 20 percent. 



To reduce mortalities, Sea Grant scientist Gilbert Grant, a biologist 

 at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is developing a 

 terrapin excluder device for commercial crab pots. He will place a wire 

 insert in each entrance of the pot that will allow the short, wide blue 

 crabs to enter but exclude the dome-shaped terrapins. 



Grant will test his insert to see how well it prevents terrapin 

 entrapment and to determine its effects on blue crab catches. If all goes 

 well, he could introduce his excluder to fishers. The excluder would add 

 less than 50 cents to the price of a crab pot. More importantly, it could 

 reduce turtle mortalities, keeping diamondback terrapins off the U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service's threatened or endangered species list and 

 eliminating the need for restrictions on commercial crabbing, m 



2 AUTUMN 1997 



