the beach at high tide. 



The existence of hardbottoms has 

 been no secret. For decades fisher- 

 men have pursued the irregular 

 topography with depth-finders, then 

 anchored above these fertile fishing 

 holes, hauling in grouper as long as 

 their arms span. But as pressure has 

 increased on these bountiful bottom- 

 lands, the catch has shrunk in size 

 and quantity. The majority of North 

 Carolina's reef species are over- 

 fished, and fisheries managers are in 

 a quandary over how to preserve the 

 resource. Size and bag limits are the 

 extent of management so far, but the 

 impact of these tactics is like trying 

 to fend off a swarm of bees with a 

 flyswatter. 



Gene Huntsman, reef resources 

 and coastal pelagics team leader for 

 the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service's Southeast Fisheries Science 

 Center in Beaufort, painted a bleak 

 outlook for reef species at the 1992 

 N.C. Marine Recreational Fishing 

 Forum. 



"We try with basic regulations to 

 protect reef fish, but many reef 

 scientists are skeptical that we know 

 enough to protect their populations 

 by using ordinary means," he said in 

 his address. "Reef fish don't exist as 

 individuals. The species do not live 

 isolated from others. They live in 

 complex communities. 



"We have only fragmentary data 

 on some species, and our models are 

 very simplistic," says Huntsman. 

 "We know that life histories of many 

 animals are very complex and poorly 

 understood. We know, for instance, 

 that grouper change sex. They are 

 born girls and become boys late in 

 life. So an intense fishery that takes 

 the old fish would remove the males 

 from the population, perhaps to the 

 detriment of the overall spawning 

 success of the species." 



Grouper, one of the most sought 

 after reef species, don't reach sexual 



maturity until six years and older; 

 they can thrive to 20 or 30 years. 



While stocks dwindle, scientists 

 are just beginning to get a close look 

 at reef habitats and how they func- 

 tion. 



Meanwhile, the state has sunk 

 more than 60 artificial reefs to the 

 ocean's depths to create more habitat 

 for snapper, grouper, king mackerel 

 and black sea bass. Placement has 

 often been arbitrary and recruitment 

 poorly monitored; artificial reef 

 managers aren't even sure if the 

 structures actually foster productivity 

 or merely lure fish from another reef. 



"In order to understand artificial 

 reefs, we need to first understand the 

 real reefs," says Riggs. 



With the multimillion-dollar 



resource of reef fish threatened, 

 federal agencies have loosed the flow 

 of dollars to study the hows and whys 

 of hardbottoms. 



"As long as people were catching 

 fish, noboby cared," says Riggs, who 

 has been probing and pondering 

 hardbottoms since 1964. "People 

 now recognize the importance of 

 hardbottoms; it's one of the 'in' 

 things right now." 



Riggs assembled a multidisciplin- 

 ary team of scientists to look at the 

 interactive geology, biology and 

 chemistry of hardbottom habitats. 

 The team's research is funded by Sea 

 Grant and the University of North 

 Carolina at Wilmington's National 

 Undersea Research Center, both 

 programs of the National Oceanic 



and Atmospheric Administration, and 

 the Cooperative Institute for Fisheries 

 Oceanography, which is comprised 

 of the University of North Carolina, 

 Duke University and the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service. 



"Our whole objective in putting 

 this project together was to force the 

 interaction between disciplines," says 

 Riggs, whose principal investigative 

 team includes fellow ECU paleon- 

 tologist Scott Snyder and ECU 

 biologist Will Ambrose, N.C. State 

 University geological oceanographer 

 Steve Snyder, UNC-W biologist 

 Martin Posey and Florida State 

 University geochemist Bill Burnett. 

 "It's not unusual to do these interdis- 

 ciplinary projects. What's unusual is 

 to have it work." 



All hardbottom habitats aren't 

 equally productive, and discovering 

 the reasons for this is at the heart of 

 the research team's mission. The 

 scientists also want to know how 

 much productivity an individual reef 

 can sustain. There's more to attract- 

 ing fish and other organisms than 

 plopping a piece of rock down on the 

 seafloor. You're always going to 

 attract critters; but they'll only stay as 

 long as there is food to eat. 



People who have never dove to 

 the floor of Onslow Bay may have a 

 hard time picturing the kind of reef 

 habitats common to North Carolina. 

 They probably never imagined that 

 the richness and diversity typical of 

 Florida's coral reefs exist here. 



Continued 



People who have never dove to the floor of Onslow Bay 

 may have a hard time picturing the kind of reef habitats 

 common to North Carolina. They probably never imagined 

 that the richness and diversity 

 typical of Florida's coral reefs exist here. 



COASTWATCH 3 



