COASTAL 



TIDINGS 



Low-Cost Erosion Protection — 



and its Environmentally Friendly 



lorth Carolina 

 Sea Grant has perfected 

 a low-cost wooden 

 breakwater design to 

 control estuarine 

 erosion. The design calls 

 for the property owner 

 to plant and maintain a 

 salt marsh on a 

 previously eroding 

 beach and build a small 

 structure offshore. The 

 structure helps to 

 establish and protect 

 the salt marsh. Fifteen 

 or 20 feet of marsh will, 

 in turn, prevent erosion 

 of upland shorelines. 



Using this marsh/breakwater design, 

 an estuarine property owner can reduce 

 erosion-control costs from about $1 00 per 

 foot for a bulkhead to less than $40 per 

 foot. It's also one of the few coastal 

 construction efforts that scientists, coastal 

 managers and property owners agree is an 

 environmental asset, says Spencer Rogers, 

 North Carolina Sea Grant's coastal erosion 

 and construction specialist. 



Shoreline Erosion Control 

 Using Marsh Vegetation and 

 Low-Cost Structures 



Between 1992 

 and 1 996, Sea Grant 

 worked with NC State 

 University's Depart- 

 ment of Soil Science, 

 Albemarle-Pamlico 

 Estuarine Study, N.C. 

 Cooperative Extension 

 Service and the N.C. 

 Sediment Control 

 Commission to 

 establish more than a 

 dozen demonstration 

 sites from Currituck to 

 Brunswick counties. 



Sea Grant and NC 

 State University have 

 published a planting 

 and construction guide. Shoreline Erosion 

 Control Using Marsh Vegetation and Low-Cost 

 Structures costs $2.50. Make your check 

 payable to Sea Grant and mail it to North 

 Carolina Sea Grant, NC State University, 

 Box 8605, Raleigh NC 27695-8605. Ask 

 for UNC-SG-92-1 2. Or contact Rogers at 

 91 0/256-2083. Turn to page 24 for a 

 related story. — J.F.N. 



Bycatch Defined 



The word "bycatch" makes most 

 people think of the unwanted fish that 

 are pulled in during shrimp trawling or 

 net fishing. Some worry that the ratios 

 of bycatch to desired catch are too high. 

 Five pounds of bycatch to a pound of 

 shrimp can be a frightening statistic. 



But bycatch is any catch that isn't 

 the target for fishers. "Bycatch doesn't 

 even have to be fish," says Jim Bahen, a 

 North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries 

 agent. "Bycatch can be beer cans, old 

 tennis shoes, grass, stumps." All those 

 items contribute to the bycatch weight 

 ratios but have no impact on fish 

 populations. 



Another misperception is that only 

 commercial fishers have bycatch. Both 

 recreational and commercial fishers pull 

 in fish they don't set out to catch. For 

 pier fishers, bycatch can mean unwanted 

 dogfish, skates and blowfish. Like 

 commercial fishers, they can throw such 

 fish back. With new developments like 

 the Turtle Excluder Device and skimmer 

 trawl, much bycatch lives to swim 

 another day . — R.W. S. 



Operation Pathfinder Offers 

 K-12 Teachers Summer Opportunities 



North Carolina Sea Grant, Virginia 

 Sea Grant and the N.C. Aquarium at 

 Roanoke Island will host the 1999 mid- 

 Atlantic region CO AST/Operation Path- 

 finder. The course for K-12 teachers will be 

 June 19 to July 2 along the Outer Banks of 

 North Carolina and Virginia shores of the 

 Chesapeake Bay. Participants will receive 

 three semester credits. 



Teachers from North Carolina, 

 Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey 

 and the District of Columbia may apply for 

 26 in-service slots. Education majors in these 

 states may apply for four preservice spaces. 



This fully supported program provides 



tuition at North Carolina State University, 

 room and board, a travel allotment, $300 

 stipend and resource materials. Oceanogra- 

 phy and coastal processes topics will include 

 marine and aquatic habitats, plate tectonics, 

 marine pollution, physical and chemical 

 parameters, deep-sea technologies and 

 marine and aquatic resources. 



Participants also will receive training in 

 integrated curriculum development, Web 

 page construction and computational 

 science tools. 



COAST is funded through the National 

 Ocean Partnership Program by the Office of 

 Naval Research in cooperation with the 



National Marine Educators Association, 

 the University of Southern Mississippi and 

 the National Sea Grant College programs. 



Information and application forms 

 can be obtained from Lundie Spence, 

 North Carolina Sea Grant, NC State 

 University, Box 8605, Raleigh, NC 27695 

 (lundie_spence@ncsu.edu) or Vicki Clark. 

 Virginia Sea Grant, VIMS, P.O. Box 1346, 

 Gloucester Point, VA 23062 

 (vclark@vims.edu). 



The deadline for applications is April 1 . 



See the COAST/Operation Pathfinder 

 Web site at http://www.coast-nopp.org/. 



— KM. 



COASTWATCH 5 



