Twelve Carteret County women meet at the sea- 

 food lab each month to experiment with new 

 seafood dishes. 



A lab dealing in seafood 

 from dock to dinner plate 



You own a seafood processing plant. And you 

 want to turn out the tastiest crabcake on the 

 market. Or maybe you're tired of the way your wife 

 fries flounder and you want to get her some new 

 recipes. Where do you go for help? 



Tucked away on the second floor of the N. C. 

 Division of Commercial and Sports Fisheries build- 

 ing in Morehead City is a special seafood labora- 

 tory geared for questions from everyone between 

 the dock and the dinner plate. Information on the 

 science and technology of seafood is the lab's busi- 

 ness. 



Supported largely by Sea Grant advisory serv- 

 ices, the lab's staff answers all sizes of questions. 

 They help school girls with term projects. Restau- 

 rants come to them with "cooking" problems. And 

 they lend a hand when processors need help with 

 sanitation, a new deboning machine or making 

 better products. Staff members take pride that 

 theirs is the only seafood "technology" laboratory 

 serving North Carolina's unique fisheries process- 

 ing problems. 



For those who are tired of the same old seafood, 

 the lab is trying to add a little zest to life. Once 

 each month, a dozen Carteret County women 

 descend upon the lab to concoct new seafood de- 



lights — and delights that don't sound a bit like 

 seafood. Like mad scientists, they've made ham- 

 burgers with menhaden and sausage with grey 

 trout. And they've whipped up such dishes as 

 dolphin casserole and stewed bonito. 



The lab offers a gold mine of information, just 

 waiting for folks to come by and use it. 



Creating a new industry 

 and improving the old 



The idea of eel for dinner is not likely to set 

 American tastebuds to watering. But try it out on 

 the Japanese. To them, it's a delicacy. 



Eels grow in abundance off North Carolina's 

 coast. But how do you get them halfway around 

 the world to the people who want them? 



Developing an eel industry in North Carolina 

 poses the kind of challenge Sea Grant's engineer- 

 ing advisory services staff likes to grapple with. 

 Starting from scratch, the engineering advisory 

 specialists are designing pots, traps and holding 

 tanks and figuring how to best ship eels to distant 

 markets. 



But eels are only one part of the work of Sea 

 Grant's "advisory engineers," headquartered in 

 downtown New Bern. They tackle most anything 

 having to do with harvesting gear and handling 

 the catch from deck to dock. 



With Sea Grant help, North Carolina shrimpers 

 got their first time at bat with a new trawling 

 method using two small nets on each side of the 

 boat, instead of the traditional large single net. 

 Using the twin trawl method, they caught more 

 shrimp and less "trash" fish, and found their fuel 

 would take them farther. 



But what happens to the catch on board? Engi- 

 neering advisory services is there suggesting ways 

 to keep the catch fresh, even on old vessels. Insulat- 

 ing old boats took some thinking. But the advisory 

 engineers came up with polyurathene foam, spray- 

 ed into fish holds and ice bunkers, topped off with 

 layers of sheet metal and concrete as a way to 

 protect ice from heat. And with the price of ice 

 soaring and the distances they travel often long 

 that's exactly what every fisherman wants to do. 



Better use of sea products 



(Continued from page 1) 

 to branch beyond fishing. Who knows, besides new 

 seafood dishes, coastal visitors may find amuse- 

 ment parks featuring new brands of fun as Sea 

 Grant lends a hand to the recreation industry. 

 There may be fewer of those pesky mosquitoes as 

 Sea Grant assists in insect control. And coastal 

 property may just look better as Sea Grant advises 

 local governments in managing lands. 



