THE BACK PAGE 



"The Back Page" is an update 

 on Sea Grant activities — on 

 research, marine education and 

 advisory services. It's also a good 

 place to find out about meetings, 

 workshops and new publications. 

 For more information on any of 

 the projects described, contact the 

 Sea Grant offices in Raleigh 

 (919/737-2454). 



Seafood. It's high in 

 protein and low in cal- 

 ories, but many North 

 Carolinians shy away 

 from cooking seafood at 

 home. Nadine Tope, a 

 food and nutrition spe- 

 cialist with the N.C. Agricultural Ex- 

 tension Service, is trying to teach more 

 people about the value and ease of 

 cooking seafood. 



Tope, Joyce Taylor of the NCSU 

 Seafood Laboratory in Morehead City, 

 Hilda Livingstone of the N.C. Marine 

 Resources Center on Roanoke Island, 

 and Hallie Hooper, Maureen Rickards 

 and Joy Frauson, home economics 

 agents in Dare, Carteret and New 

 Hanover counties, respectively, are 

 putting together a slide show funded 

 by a UNC Sea Grant mini-grant. The 

 slide show will demonstrate methods 

 for preparing and storing seafood, in- 

 troduce unusual species to 

 homemakers and stress the nutritional 

 value of seafood. 



The slides will be used in county ex- 

 tension demonstrations and also in 

 seafood demonstrations at the N.C. 

 Marine Resources Centers and at the 

 NCSU Seafood Laboratory. 



Another Sea Grant mini-grant will 

 focus on peeler crabs — crabs about to 

 shed their shells. Rhett White, director 

 of the Marine Resources Center at 

 Roanoke Island, and Hughes Tillett, 

 Sea Grant's marine advisory services 

 agent in that area, have received funds 

 to set up a permanent peeler crab 

 demonstration. 



The exhibit will be built near the 

 center, and will include two crab- 



shedders and panels describing the 

 shedding process. The exhibit, which 

 will be built this spring, will be used by 

 Sea Grant and Marine Resources Cen- 

 ter staff for demonstrations and 

 educational lectures. 



The beach environ- 

 ment can be hostile to 

 plants. Not every spe- 

 cies can tolerate sand, 

 salt spray, intense heat 

 and harsh winds. And, 

 those species that can 

 survive these elements require careful 

 planting and maintenance. 



Seacoast Plants of the Carolinas 

 for Conservation and Beautifica- 

 tion is a handbook for coastal 

 property owners interested in using 

 plants for landscaping and protection. 

 Written by Karl Graetz, a retired Soil 

 Conservation Service agent, it 

 provides descriptive information and 

 photography on each plant species in 

 addition to tips on planting and 

 propagation. 



To obtain a copy of this 206-page 

 handbook, write Sea Grant, Box 5001, 

 Raleigh, N.C. 27650-5001. Request 

 publication number UNC-SG-73-06. 

 The cost is $2.00. 



Women have tradi- 

 tionally been an import- 

 ant force in the North 

 Carolina seafood indus- 

 try. Often they head 

 shrimp, shuck scallops, 

 pick crabs and manage 

 the family seafood business while the 

 men are out fishing. 



But female commercial fishermen 

 are rare. The clamming fishery in Car- 

 teret County is an exception. 



While doing an analysis of clam 

 licenses for a Sea Grant project, 

 Marcus Hepburn discovered that a 

 significant percentage of the clam- 

 mers in the county were women. Hep- 

 burn, an anthropologist with the In- 

 stitute for Coastal and Marine 

 Resources at East Carolina Univer- 



sity, says a breakdown of 2,100 li- 

 censed clammers averaged one female 

 to every five-and-a-half males. On 

 Harkers Island, one out of every three 

 clammers is female. 



"The opportunity for women is 

 definitely there," Hepburn says. 

 "Clamming provides an easy source of 

 income because you don't need a boat 

 or a lot of gear." Hepburn found that 

 95 percent of the female clammers 

 work in the warmer months, either 

 raking or swimming for clams. Many 

 women occasionally accompany their 

 husbands who go out clamming, too. 



But, the significant percentage of 

 women clammers comes as no surprise 

 to Hepburn. "The participation of 

 women in the clam fishery," he says, 

 "has always been higher than the other 

 fisheries, fifty years ago and today." 



Socioeconomic As- 

 pects of the Bay Scal- 

 lop Fishery in Car- 

 teret County, North 

 Carolina, by Peter H. 

 Fricke of the Institute 

 for Coastal and Marine 

 Resources at East Carolina Univer- 

 sity, takes a look at fishing communi- 

 ties along Bogue and Core Sounds and 

 their dependence on the bay scallop 

 fishery. 



For a copy of the report, write UNC 

 Sea Grant, P.O. Box 5001, Raleigh, 

 N.C. 27650-5001. Ask for publication 

 number UNC-SG-WP-81-12. The cost 

 is $1.25. 



The Variability of Sea Level in 

 the Carolina Capes, by Leonard J. 

 Pietrafesa, Shenn-Yu Chao and Gerald 

 S. Janowitz of the Department of 

 Marine, Earth and Atmospheric 

 Sciences at North Carolina State Uni- 

 versity, is the study of coastal sea level 

 and its relationship to atmospheric for- 

 cing along the Carolina Capes. 



To receive a copy of this report, 

 write UNC Sea Grant. Ask for publica- 

 tion number UNC-SG-WP-81-11. The 

 cost is $1.75. 



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