Doc 



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JANUARY, 1976 



1235 Burlington Laboratories 

 NCSU, Raleigh, N.C. 27607 Tel: (919) 737-2U5U 



The seafood 

 industry confronts 

 the water pollution problem 



Victor Salter's office isn't what you might expect, 

 considering that he presides over the books of a 

 million dollar business. Where you might expect 

 dark walnut paneling are lime green cinderblocks. 

 And where you'd expect to plant your foot on lush 

 shag carpet, you find cold tile. 



But then, the business that Salter manages 

 doesn't live up to some other expectations either. 

 It doesn't produce socks or sofas, like you might 

 guess a North Carolina industry would. And if you 

 guessed that this million dollar enterprise, which 

 in 1975 grossed some $2.5 million, had been de- 

 cades in the making, you'd be wrong. 



It's been a brief five years now since Bill Lam- 

 bert, retired from the lumber business with almost 

 no knowledge of the fishing industry, bought a 

 small trawler on the North Carolina coast. That 

 trawler was the seed that blossomed into Southern 



Seafood Co., today the nation's largest scallop pro- 

 cessing company, located in the Carteret County 

 countryside. 



Beyond the pastel walls of Salter's office is an 

 operation that makes you want to kick yourself and 

 ask, "Why didn't I think of that?" With a lot of 

 ingenuity and a knack for improving on what's 

 been done before — and a patent to show for some 

 of the equipment he's designed — Lambert has made 

 the job of shucking scallops look easy and fast- 

 moving. 



In fact, the maze of conveyors, washers, rollers, 

 screens and the plant's 25 employees can process 

 up to 1,000 gallons, that's 8,000 pounds of ready- 

 to-cook scallops in one day. By hand, shucking that 

 many would require 300 workers. When you hear 

 that scallops have recently sold for up to $18 per 



(See "Processors," p. 3) 



