tion. But life is never dull around them. 



"Things really are dynamic," he 

 says. "You never know what's going to 

 happen." 



Words like "gregarious," "dedicated," 

 and "brilliant" pepper his speech. 



"They publish a lot and do all kinds 

 of work," says Rittschof, an assistant 

 professor of zoology. "The reason the 

 B's are so well known is because 

 when they say they're going to do 

 something, they do it. You can look at 

 their track record and tell." 



Charles Hamner, director of the N.C. 

 Biotechnology Center, has another 

 theory on the couple's success. 



"They're very, very innovative in ap- 

 plying marine biology to biotech- 

 nology," he says. 



They take fundamental science and 

 successfully apply it to products and 

 technologies that benefit us all. 



"The Bonaventuras are the most ef- 

 fective people I know who can suc- 

 cessfully make that transition," says 

 Joe Ramus, acting director of the 

 Duke Marine Lab. ' 'Almost all of their 

 applied work has come from funda- 

 mental science.' ' 



Take the jelly fishing worms. 



Mann's Bait Company wanted the 

 Bonaventuras to create a lure that 



would make it easier for a bass fisher- 

 man to make a catch. 



With a 15-second conversation in 

 the hall, Rittschof became a col- 

 laborator. And soon the team came up 

 with a plastic worm coated in a 

 chemical that roused the fishes' taste 

 buds and caused them to swallow. 



"It's really hard not to combine fun 

 and science when what we're doing is 

 so exciting," Celia says. 



"We've always had so much fun 

 with what we're doing that we've 

 never regarded it as work." 



Clinton Willis 



BY KATHY HA R T 



It's a pretty day and fishermen 

 around Clinton Willis' neck of waters, 

 Marshallberg, are off by Harkers Is- 

 land with their engines in full throttle 

 and their nets spread. 



But not Willis. He's sitting on a hard 

 chair in a stuffy room in Greenville 

 representing the commercial fisher- 

 men of Carteret County before the 

 N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission. 



Willis is president of the Carteret 

 County Waterman's Association and 

 has been since it formed four years ago. 



It's a position he laughingly says he 

 was elected to while out of the room. 

 But it's one others say he won be- 

 cause he was fair-minded, even- 

 tempered and hard working. 



And work hard he has. He's spent 

 hours collecting fishermen's views on 

 everything from size limits on fish to 

 turtle excluders. And he's been to count- 

 less meetings and hearings airing 

 those views for public officials to hear. 



"I used to be a fisherman," Willis 

 says. "Now, I'm a politician, a lobbyist 

 and a diplomat, too.' ' 



When proposed regulations have fish- 

 ermen riled, Willis may spend almost 

 all day and night on the phone. But 

 even during lulls, he works a few hours 

 of each day on association business. 



"He's an unselfish man," says Jerry 



Schill, executive "Very few people 



director of the 



N.C. Fisheries would be 

 Association. 



"He's not paid. willing to do 



Only his ex- 

 penses are reim- what he does, 



bursed. Very few 



people would be and fishermen 



willing to do 



what he does, are better off 



and fishermen 



are better off because of it." 



because of it.' ' 



Bill Fulford, a Beaufort fisherman 

 and a member of the Waterman's Asso- 

 ciation, says Carteret County fishermen 

 appreciate Willis' time and devotion. 



"He's put untold hours into it," 

 Fulford says. "Not anybody else could 

 have done any better. It's a full-time 

 job. He eats, sleeps and breathes the 

 association." 



And, Fulford says, Willis is also 

 respected as a fisherman. On the 

 water, he's innovative and experi- 

 mental — a highlmer, says Sea Grant 

 sociologist Jeff Johnson. 



Many folks say Willis has performed 

 a feat just short of a miracle by 

 organizing and keeping fishermen, 

 who are notoriously independent, 

 assembled in an organization. 



"The Waterman's Association is one 

 of the most effective local groups in 

 the state and a lot of that is due to 

 Clint," Schill says. "A lot of times a 

 local group organizes because of a 

 particular issue. When that issue is 

 lost or won, the group fades away But 

 not the Waterman's Association." 



The association began four years 

 ago with nine fishermen. The next 

 meeting 12 fishermen came, and 

 since then the group has been ex- 

 panding. Now membership fluctuates 

 between 125 and 300 fishermen. 



The association divided the county 

 into nine districts that represent areas 

 such as Salter Path, Harkers Island, 

 Cedar Island and Marshallberg. Each 

 district has two representatives who 

 sit on the executive board. 



Willis feels that with formation of 

 the association, fishermen established 

 better lines of communication. 



"Now we more or less know what's 

 going on before it's too late," Willis 

 says. "We learned that if you wait to 

 read things in the newspaper, it's too 

 late to fight them or support them. 

 You've got to stay ahead of things " 



So Willis uses a network of contacts 

 to stay abreast of proposed regula- 

 tions, rule changes and catch limits. 

 By doing his homework and speaking 



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