The tally cards, a modified version 

 of the ones used in national and interna- 

 tional beach cleanups, were placed on 

 participating boats for about four 

 weeks. 



"The weed line has always been a 

 fascinating treasure trove of seaweed, 

 fish, Portuguese man-of-wars, even 

 coconuts," says Spence. "It will also 

 bring up anything that's been floating 

 for a while, like trash. The intent of this 

 project is to establish a base of knowl- 

 edge for what is found floating in the 

 coastal waters and in the Gulf Stream." 



N.C. Sea Grant will evaluate the 

 information and forward copies of the 

 data cards to the nonprofit Center for 

 Marine Conservation, based in Wash- 

 ington, D.C. The center keeps a data 

 base of the items collected during the 

 annual international beach cleanups. 

 But this information — debris observed 

 offshore and in the Gulf Stream — is 

 unique, says Kathy O'Hara, the director 

 of the center's marine pollution preven- 

 tion program. 



Future in Summer 

 Flounder Forming 



The regulatory answer to declines 

 in summer flounder stocks has been a 

 size limit on those that didn't get away. 

 Thirteen inches and more in inside 

 waters, they're good for the cooler. 

 Smaller, they go back into the water for 

 a chance to spawn. Likewise for those 

 smaller than 14 inches in the ocean. 



But Sea Grant researchers are 

 looking for another solution — farm 

 raising new ocean stock. 



The research project, funded by a 

 grant through the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, aims to grow young 

 l-to-2-inch "fingerlings" that can be 

 released into the ocean to enhance 

 flounder stocks weakened by overfish- 

 ing, pollution and habitat degradation. 

 This restocking approach has been 

 effective in Texas bays with red drum, 

 says researcher Ron Hodson, associate 

 director of N.C. Sea Grant. 



Additionally, the project aims to 

 grow summer flounder to maturity for 

 the seafood market. "Flounder, in 

 general, is one of the most popular fish 

 worldwide," Hodson says. "Most 

 inland people like it because it's mild, 



and it's popular along the coast as 

 well." 



Overseas, flounder is also a 

 favorite for sashimi, a Japanese dish of 

 thinly sliced raw fish. 



The summer flounder will be 

 raised in an aquaculture setting using 

 technology funded by Sea Grant and 

 developed by Hodson and Craig 

 Sullivan, an associate professor of 

 zoology at N.C. State University. In 

 September, Sea Grant agents Bob 

 Hines and Rich Novak began collect- 

 ing the "broodstock" of parent 

 flounders from coastal waters near 

 Morehead City and Manteo. 



The next step is to domesticate 

 these fish, acclimating them to life in 

 holding ponds and training them to eat 

 fish feed, Hodson says. Over the course 

 of a year, they will be prepared to 

 spawn to assure a ready supply of 

 larvae and fingerlings. 



Hodson and Sullivan will draw on 

 their seven years of experience 

 researching the reproductive cycles of 

 striped bass. The research team has 

 worked to understand and gain control 

 of the fish's cycles in hopes of 

 spawning them more than once a year. 

 Carefully timed hormonal injections 

 cause the fish to spawn. 



The logistics of the flounder 

 project, however, will be more 

 complicated than those of the striped 

 bass research. The summer flounder, 

 often called ocean flounder, prefer 

 saline water from 25 to 28 parts per 

 thousand. Typically, they come inshore 

 to feed in the summer and return to the 

 ocean in fall to prepare for a December 

 or January spawn in water 60.8 F to 

 64.4 F. 



The project will have to mimic the 

 migrations of these fish from salty to 

 brackish water and back again, Hodson 

 says. The work will take place at the 

 Pamlico Aquaculture Field Laboratory 

 in Aurora and on the NCSU campus. 



Eventually, the technology gained 

 from this project can be applied to 

 southern flounder, which prefer low- 

 salinity water. They venture into the 

 ocean only to spawn and then return 

 inland. In fact, farm-raising southern 

 flounder has great potential in North 

 Carolina because these fish could 



possibly be grown in ponds using 

 groundwater resources. Brackish water 

 might be mined from deep coastal 

 aquifers, making flounder farming 

 possible inland, Hodson says. 



Public Trust Debate 



The N.C. Legislature will ulti- 

 mately decide how much the state 

 should charge private marinas to use 

 public lands and waters for a profit. 



The July/August issue of 

 Coastwatch explored the controversial 

 issue of requiring marinas to apply for 

 easements — in this case, a land transfer 

 recognizing a right to build docks on 

 state-owned waters — and pay the 

 associated fair market value. 



At the time, the Department of 

 Administration's State Property Office 

 had recommended a 10-cent charge on 

 every square foot of public land or water 

 claimed exclusively by marinas. But 

 marinas claimed that the fee would be 

 too high and a burden to their busi- 

 nesses; environmentalists countered that 

 it wasn't high enough to represent the 

 market value. 



The N.C. Council of State, which 

 was in the position of accepting or 

 rejecting the 10-cent fee, responded in 

 August by sending the question directly 

 to the Legislature for resolution. 



In the interim, the state will grant 

 marinas one-year easements with two 

 one-year renewals. They will be charged 

 administrative fees of $250 or 1 cent per 

 square foot, whichever is greater. 



The issue erupted in North Carolina 

 in the wake of two recent court rulings 

 that found the state wasn't following the 

 letter of its own law. 



The Department of Administration 

 — charged with managing the state's 

 submerged lands — has always 

 exempted marinas and docks from a 

 state law requiring for-profit, exclusive 

 users of public trust areas to apply for an 

 easement and pay fair market value. The 

 rationale was that they had riparian 

 rights to the water as owners of water- 

 front property. 



The courts found, however, that 

 riparian rights are not adequate to 

 exempt marinas from the process. As a 

 result, the state is requiring marinas to 

 apply for easements. 



COASTWATCH 25 



