Education is one of Sea Grant's primary functions. 

 The way we see it, the more people know about the 

 coast and the marine environment, the easier our 

 jobs become. That's one reason we're working to build 

 up our marine education program at all levels. 



Last summer Sea Grant money supported a 

 month-long educational workshop for 23 middle 

 school teachers (grades 4-8). The workshop, ap- 

 propriately titled "Man and the Seacoast— Past and 

 Future Perspectives," was used to develop marine in- 

 struction and teaching materials to be used in middle 

 schools as part of their regular science curricula. In 

 another project, a group of six teachers prepared 

 study plans for a marine science education program. 

 Under the direction of Dirk Frankenberg of UNC at 

 Chapel Hill, work will continue this year to 

 assimilate the workshop material and study plans 

 into a series of teachers' guides. The guides will cover 

 a variety of coastal topics, including geology, 

 oceanography, anthropology and economics, and will 

 include lesson plans and field study ideas. 



On the university level, Tom Schoenbaum of UNC 

 at Chapel Hill is continuing his work toward es- 

 tablishing an ocean and coastal law and policy 

 program at the University of North Carolina. The 

 program is designed to help law students, coastal 

 planners and scientists understand the complex maze 

 of state and federal laws which govern our use and 

 management of the coastal zone. As part of the 

 program, Schoenbaum instructed a five-week course 

 last summer on ocean and coastal law policy. A 

 lengthy text was prepared as a guide to the course, 

 highlighting areas of conflict in coastal law. This 

 summer, Schoenbaum will again teach the course and 

 will involve students in legal research on topics that 

 are of direct concern to North Carolina and its coastal 

 and ocean resources. 



Estuarine studies 



Estuaries are ecologically unique places where salt 

 water from the ocean mingles with fresh waters from 

 streams and rivers. The result is an area rich in 

 nutrients which is the crucial nursery for most of the 

 state's commercially important fish and shellfish. 

 Boaters and fishermen know it is a prime 

 recreational territory. And along our estuarine 

 shores lies some of the most valuable real estate in 

 coastal North Carolina. 



It's no wonder that pollution of these waters causes 

 concern in many quarters. Sewage contamination 

 from increased development on adjacent lands is 

 partially to blame. More than 80 percent of North 

 Carolina's coastal soil is not suitable for conventional 

 septic systems. Working with Sea Grant funding, 

 Bobby Carlile of NCSU has developed several alter- 

 native septic systems that have already solved 

 problems in some coastal areas. Carlile will continue 

 testing and improving the new systems this year. 



Septic tank pollution is one of the factors which led 

 to the continued closing of 448,098 acres of North 

 Carolina's shellfishing waters last year. The judg- 

 ments about which waters to close were based on 

 standard tests which determine levels of bacteria. 

 But Sea Grant researcher Mark Sobsey of UNC at 

 Chapel Hill believes that the standard tests are not 

 good indicators of viral contamination which cause 

 diseases such as hepetitus and polio. In 1977 he per- 

 fected a new test for virus contamination. This year 

 he'll be trying to establish the relationship between 

 sewage contamination and enteric virus levels in 

 oysters. One possible option for making more oysters 

 suitable for marketing is to transfer them from 

 polluted to uncontaminated waters, where they can 

 cleanse themselves. Sobsey will be looking at that 

 process to see how long it might take and what condi- 

 tions it will require. 



Another seafood that has piqued the interest of 

 many in recent years is the brackish water rangia 

 clam, which is abundant in North Carolina's es- 

 tuaries. The state's only venture with commercial 

 harvesting of this clam was aborted in the early 1970s 

 when a shipment failed to meet bacteriological stan- 

 dards for interstate commerce. But in recent years 

 the state's seafood industry has expressed a renewed 

 interest in the marketing potential of the rangia 

 clam. Bernard Kane of East Carolina University will 

 continue work that he began last year to find out if 

 the high standard plate counts have any real public 

 health significance. Early results show that there 

 may be conditions or seasons during which the clam 

 may be safely harvested for consumption. 



Human waste isn't the only kind of estuarine pollu- 

 tion that concerns scientists. All across the country, 

 industries are dumping chemical by-products into 

 streams and rivers. The effects of these chemicals on 

 marine life are, in many cases, unclear. In North 

 Carolina, a major phosphate operation on the 

 Pamlico River releases fluoride as a by-product. With 

 Sea Grant funding, Edgar Heckel of East Carolina 

 University is trying to determine whether fluoride 

 affects the molting of the blue crab, one of the state's 



Royal tern colony 



Septic tanks create coastal problems 



most valuable seafoods. If it is found to significantly 

 influence the population, federal and state regula- 

 tions concerning effluents will need to be re- 

 examined. 



It's no secret that the condition of bird populations 

 can tell the real story about the health of their en- 

 vironments. But in North Carolina, as in many other 

 areas, scientists have been thwarted because they 

 don't have accurate population counts of coastal 

 birds. Jim Parnell of UNC at Wilmington and Bob 

 Soots of Campbell College have been trying to change 

 that picture. Last year they completed the second an- 

 nual census of sea birds and wading birds which nest 

 in colonies on the North Carolina coast. It's the first 

 census of its kind and will provide a base for studying 

 the birds in the future. This year Parnell and Soots 

 will finish up an atlas which will provide detailed in- 

 formation about each colony and its nesting sites. 

 Already their studies have made a difference in the 

 way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages 

 dredge spoil islands, which are nesting sites for 85 

 percent of the state's colonial birds. 



Every year flooding of estuarine waters causes loss 

 of property in North Carolina. Some of it takes place 

 on the shores of the Pamlico Sound, the largest body 

 of water in North Carolina. This year Bob Weisberg, 

 Len Pietrafesa and Jerry Janowitz of NCSU will 

 measure the effects of wind on sea level in Pamlico 

 Sound in order to understand the sound's circulation 

 patterns. Their goal is to make accurate predictions 

 of storm surge and erosion by the time the study is 

 completed in 1980. This information could prove im- 

 portant to the Division of Civil Preparedness in plan- 

 ning for evacuation of areas surrounding the sound. 



Then there's the case of Eurasian watermilfoil in 

 Currituck Sound. Last year Sea Grant responded to 

 loud complaints from residents of the area who 

 claimed the aquatic weed bred mosquitoes, tangled 

 fishing lines, clogged boat motors and made life 

 generally unpleasant on some parts of the sound. 

 Several Sea Grant researchers tackled the problem, 

 trying to find the facts in the case. One preliminary 

 report has already been made to area residents and 

 the study goes on. Graham Davis of East Carolina 

 University will continue his studies of growth control 

 techniques, including experimental mechanical mow- 

 ing of milfoil. He'll also be taking a look at possible 

 commercial uses for the weed. Mel Huish and 

 Howard Kerby of NCSU will expand their studies of 

 the impact of milfoil on the vital black bass and com- 

 mercial fisheries in the area. 



