& f t deck 



Hold Off On 

 The Hot Sauce 



Recent news reports have touted 

 Louisiana hot sauce as a killer of a deadly 

 bacteria that can contaminate raw oysters. 

 But before you start pouring Louisiana's 

 fiery concoctions over your raw oysters, 

 beware, says Joyce Taylor, N.C. Sea 

 Grant's seafood education agent. 



Laboratory tests at Louisiana State 

 University Medical Center did show that 

 six brands of hot sauce killed cultured 

 Vibrio vulnificus, a deadly bacteria. The 

 doctors who performed the research 

 clearly say their test results are preliminary 

 and apply only to cultured bacteria. The 

 results don't apply to oysters or to people. 



Vibrio vulnificus is one of several 

 Vibrio species that occur naturally in 

 warm, brackish waters along the Atlantic, 

 Pacific and Gulf coasts. Consumption of 

 Vibrio vulnificus can cause illness or even 

 death in certain susceptible people, par- 

 ticularly those with chronic liver disease or 

 an impaired immune system. 



Although tests proved positive, the 

 doctors aren't sure how hot sauce affects 

 naturally occurring Vibrio occasionally 

 found in oysters harvested from estuarine 

 shellfish beds. 



However, some media reports have 

 already made the leap from the test tube to 

 the table, and that is a jump that could 

 create a health hazard, Taylor says. 



"Eating raw oysters is risky business, 

 and this research in no way diminishes that 

 risk," she says. 



Until more research on hot sauces is 

 completed, Taylor says the only safe 

 oyster is a thoroughly cooked one. 



Two Tar Heel Students 

 Named Knauss Fellows 



Two graduate students sponsored by 

 N.C. Sea Grant were recently named 

 Dean John A. Knauss Policy Fellows by 

 the National Sea Grant College Program. 



Both students, Steve Whitesell and 

 Jessica Cogan, are graduate students at 

 the University of North Carolina at 

 Chapel Hill. 



Whitesell was awarded a law degree 

 in December 1993 after receiving a 

 master's degree in regional planning in 

 May. He has a strong interest in coastal 

 management and environmental law 

 policy. 



Last summer, Whitesell worked as a 

 legal intern for Walter Clark, N.C. Sea 

 Grant's coastal law specialist, assisting 

 with the formation of an ocean policy 

 framework for the state's coastal ocean 

 management initiative. 



Cogan is currently working toward 

 her master's degree in regional planning. 

 She has concentrated her studies in land 

 use and environmental planning with an 

 emphasis on coastal management. 



Last summer, Cogan worked as an 

 environmental analyst for Connecticut's 

 Office of Long Island Sound Programs. 

 And she has given presentations about 

 coastal issues at Coastal Zone '93 and the 

 International Coastal Society. 



The Knauss program matches highly 

 qualified graduate students with hosts in 

 Congress, the executive branch or appro- 

 priate associations/institutions for a 

 one-year paid fellowship in Washington, 

 D.C. Whitesell and Cogan have been 

 selected to work in the executive branch. 



Governor Establishes 

 Coastal Futures 

 Committee 



Gov. James B. Hunt has named a 

 15-member panel, the Coastal Futures 

 Committee, to study coastal issues and 

 chart the future of coastal management 

 for North Carolina. 



Among those named to the committee 

 is N.C. Sea Grant researcher JoAnn 

 Burkholder, a botanist at N.C. State Uni- 

 versity. Burkholder is a nationally re- 

 nowned expert on the effects of water qual- 

 ity on estuarine habitat. She is also credited 

 with discovering a toxic dinoflagellate that 

 attacks and kills fish. 



Joining Burkholder on the committee 

 are Richardson Preyer of Guilford County, 

 Justus Ammons of Wake County, Parker 

 Chesson of Wake County, W.B. Fowler of 

 Carteret County, John Greene of Wake 

 County, Stephen Hicks of Jones County, 

 James Holshouser of Moore County, 

 Anne-Marie Kelly' of Chowan County, 

 Alex MacFadyen of Wake County, Smith 

 Richardson of New Hanover County, Alice 

 Wells Sadler of Beaufort County, Eugene 

 Tomlinson of Brunswick County, John 

 Wilson of Dare County, David Womack of 

 Pitt County and Milton Heath of Orange 

 County. 



Hunt has also proclaimed 1994 the 

 "Year of the Coast" in North Carolina in 

 honor of the 20th anniversary of the 

 Coastal Area Management Act. North 

 Carolina's CAMA governs land-use plan- 

 ning in a 20-county coastal area and has 

 served as model legislation for other states. 



Coral May Help in 

 Fight Against Cancer 



Sea Grant scientists at the University 

 of Hawaii have taken the first steps toward 

 developing a drug that may prevent cancer. 



Since the mid-1980s, chemist Marcus 

 Tius has been investigating a soft coral, 

 Sarcophyton glaucum, that inhibits tumor 

 growth. Japanese researchers isolated a 

 compound, sarcophytol A, from the coral 

 that limits cancerous activity. 



But harvesting large quantities of the 

 coral for drug development proved prob- 

 lematic. It raised environmental questions, 

 and culturing the slow-growing coral was 

 not cost-effective. Also, the cultured organ- 

 ism may not have the same secondary 

 metabolites as the wild organism, meaning 

 the substances responsible for the anti- 

 tumor activity may not appear. 



With the possibility of wild harvest 

 Continued 



COASTWATCH 23 



