THE HACK 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). 



It's not too late in the 

 season for farming, es- 

 pecially if the crop is rain- 

 bow trout. And this year 

 for the first time, Sea 

 Grant aquaculturists and 

 a Belhaven businessman 

 are teaming up to help put prospective 

 trout-farmers in business. 



In May, Johnny Foster and Randy 

 Rouse of Sea Grant's Aquaculture 

 Demonstration Project in Aurora har- 

 vested their first crop of rainbow trout 

 grown in brackish water off a pier in 

 South Creek. While the fish grow best in 

 waters between 38° F and 70° F— the 

 normal range of water temperatures in 

 the mountains — Foster and Rouse 

 proved the pan-size trout can be raised 

 in the state's coastal waters during win- 

 ter. 



Encouraged by their results, Doug 

 Clark of Belhaven bought a trUckload of 

 tiny trout, 2 580 of the 5-inch f ingerlings. 

 He's selling them complete with cage 

 and feed for the winter growing season. 



Foster hopes to get some help with his 

 research from Clark's customers. "It's a 

 way for us to get information from peo- 

 ple other than researchers about raising 

 fish. It'll be more representative of the 

 general public," he says. 



Foster will be checking with people 

 who buy the fish to find out what 

 problems they have, how they deal with 

 them and what their final productions 

 are. 



Already, Clark has had calls from 

 Roanoke Rapids to Wilmington. He 

 recommends 250 fingerlings per cage. 



With cage and feed, the cost is $250. For 

 more information, call Clark at (919) 

 943-2257, weekdays, and (919) 943- 

 3346, evenings. 



Why would 1 0,000 fishermen flock to 

 a convention center in Baltimore? The 

 answer: to see new gear, compare 

 products, learn new fishing tips and visit 

 with old buddies. The East Coast Com- 

 mercial Fishermen's Trade Show will be 

 held Jan. 21-23 in the Baltimore Con- 

 vention Center in Baltimore. The con- 

 vention, sponsored by the Maryland 

 Watermen's Association, is geared 

 toward small-boat fishermen. 



Agents and specialists from the mid- 

 Atlantic Sea Grant marine advisory ser- 

 vices staffs will be conducting the 

 seminars at the Expo. Bob Hines, the 

 UNC Sea Grant agent at Bogue Banks, 

 will give seminars on small-boat main- 

 tenance and on his experiments with 

 anti-fouling treatments for crab pots. 



The cure to that 

 queasy feeling you get 

 from tossing on the rolling 

 sea may be stashed away 

 in your spice rack. 

 Ginger, used as a spice 

 and as medicine for years, 

 may replace the old treatments for 

 seasickness, says Larry Giardina, a 

 marine advisory services agent. 



Two psychiatrists recently tested 

 powdered ginger root to determine its ef- 

 fectiveness in preventing seasickness 

 and found it to be twice as effective as 

 dimenhydrinate, a drug often used to 

 prevent motion sickness. 



While ginger is available in powder 

 form in grocery stores, doctors caution 

 that it may burn the throat, Giardina 

 says. They advise buying the capsule 

 form which is available in health food 

 stores. 



The capsules come with a built-in 

 dosage meter known as the "ginger 

 burp," say the psychiatrists. They 

 prescribe two to four capsules to start. If 

 you haven't burped in about five 

 minutes, take four more capsules. When 



you burp after the last capsule, you've 

 had enough. 



So far, Giardina has seen no con- 

 clusive evidence that ginger is effective 

 against seasickness. While some folks 

 have tried the new remedy and still got- 

 ten sick, others have said they thought it 

 worked, Giardina says. 



He sees another problem testing the 

 ginger cure: "If it works, there's no way 

 of knowing if it was the ginger that 

 worked or if you wouldn't have gotten 

 sick anyway." 



John Sanders, Sea 

 Grant's coastal weather 

 awareness specialist, 

 traveled the Outer Banks 

 between Hatteras and 

 Corolla during the Oc- 

 *^!!tZS tober 24th northeaster. 

 He would have gone farther north past 

 Corolla, but his car wouldn't make it 

 through the six to eight feet of sand that 

 had washed over the roadway. 



Sanders saw the worst flooding at 

 Rodanthe and Waves where the storm 

 left two feet of water standing in the 

 streets. 



Offshore from Hatteras at Diamond 

 Shoals, weather service specialist Robin 

 Seib reported winds of 60 to 70 mph with 

 gusts up to 80 mph. 



Farther south at Frying Pan Shoals, 

 the National Weather Service reported 

 windspeeds of hurricane intensity with 

 sustained winds of 84 mph and gusts of 

 94 mph. 



Even so, Sanders says this storm had 

 two major differences from a hurricane. 

 While a hurricane has a warm core (the 

 temperature in the center of the storm), 

 this storm's core was cold. And, on land, 

 the wind velocity didn't reach the 

 hurricane intensity of 74 mph. 



"For those who've never been in a 

 hurricane, they can see this storm . . . 

 and get a better feeling for what a 

 hurricane might mean," Sanders says. 



"This particular storm happened 

 very suddenly," he says, adding that 



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