Pushing facts, 

 Not paper 



"Anytime I have to call on Bob he's 

 available to give me the latest infor- 

 mation on a new piece of gear or check 

 into some new ideas I'm interested in. 

 He's a really great listener, and I've 

 got a lot of confidence in what he tells 

 me." 



Jim Etheridge, owner of Lowland 

 Marine Supply in Bayboro, says he 

 sees or calls Bob Hines at least once a 

 month with questions and ideas. Hines 

 is a Sea Grant marine advisory agent. 

 His office is in the N.C. Marine 

 Resource Center at Bogue Banks. But 

 during the course of the day, he's just 

 as likely to be found in Bayboro or 

 Harkers Island or, even better, 

 somewhere out in the Atlantic. He 

 talks to commercial fishermen. He 

 teaches surf-fishing. He leads a field 

 trip. He's the information man, if 

 you're interested in fishing in the cen- 

 tral coastal area of the state — in 

 Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Onslow 

 and Pamlico counties. 



Here's some of what Hines has been 

 up to lately: — Marine fouling on 

 crab pots is a big problem for crabbers. 

 A new anti-fouling paint, which was 

 tested in Maryland in a Sea Grant pro- 

 ject, not only significantly reduced 

 fouling, but also extended crab pot life. 

 Catch figures gathered over time also 

 indicated that the pots treated with 

 the new paint caught more crabs. 

 Would the anti-fouling paint work in 

 North Carolina? Hines received a Sea 

 Grant mini-grant to find out and has 

 set out 30 pots, treated and untreated, 

 to do his own study. He also set up two 

 demonstrations to introduce the new 

 paint to crabbers, and gave them a 

 chance to have some of their pots 

 painted in exchange for data. 



— In 1981, Sea Grant marine agent 

 Jim Bahen organized a first for com- 

 mercial fishermen in North Carolina — 

 a work boat show. The show was held 

 in Wilmington and featured the new 

 boats and fishery products on the 

 market. This past spring, a second 

 work boat show, held in Morehead 

 City, was co-organized by Hines and 

 Larry Giardina, another Sea Grant 

 marine advisory agent. Attended by 

 over 4,000 people, the show featured 

 45 commercial exhibits and a series of 

 short seminars with topics ranging 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



Hines checks crab pots in a marine- fouling study 



from tax management to diesel main- 

 tenance. At the show, Hines conducted 

 a seminar on maintaining boats and 

 gear. 



— To provide timely information on 

 Sea Grant activities and other marine 

 topics of local interest, Hines and Giar- 

 dina started Marine Advisory News 

 last year. Published 12 times a year, 

 the free newsletter now has over 1,000 

 fishermen, seafood dealers, marina 

 operators and coastal property owners 

 for subscribers. 



— To encourage more young people 

 to consider the seafood industry as a 

 career choice, Hines works with Lun- 

 die Spence, Sea Grant's marine educa- 

 tion specialist, in vocational in-service 



training programs. Each summer, 

 Spence runs summer workshops 

 designed to teach educators more 

 about commercial fishing and seafood 

 processing and preparation. In his sec- 

 tion on commercial fishing, Hines dis- 

 cusses the different types of gear used 

 to catch the various types of seafood 

 harvested in the state. 



Probably the most frequent and 

 most numerous requests Hines gets are 

 for information on recreational 

 fishing — what can I catch when, where 

 and how. "People call or come in the 

 office all the time," Hines says, "and 

 they want to know where they can go 

 crabbing, when's the best time and 

 how many can they catch. Or, they 



