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). 



The Albemarle shad 

 boat may have seen 

 some better days, but 

 Mike Alford, curator of 

 historical maritime 

 research at the Hampton 

 Mariner's Museum in 

 Beaufort, is trying to change that for 

 one old vessel. 



He and a boat builder from Beaufort 

 are restoring a shad boat to its original 

 1915 state. But what took a month to 

 accomplish then will take Alford at 

 least six months, including time for 

 researching the boat's construction. 



Alford says, "The first shad boat 

 was apparently built in the 1870s on 

 the east end of Roanoke Island by 

 George Washington Creef. And where 

 he got his ideas from we don't exactly 

 know, but the boat is unique and very 

 successful and was rapidly adopted by 

 fishermen on the Outer Banks and 

 Roanoke Island." 



Originally sail-powered, most of the 

 shad boats were converted in the early 

 1900s to use automobile engines for 

 power. These days, there are only 

 about a dozen in use. 



In its day the boat was a favorite of 

 fishermen because of its distinctive 

 round bottom and its unique style of 

 construction. 



"The boats are real seaworthy," 

 says Alford. "Fishermen like them. 

 They're safe and comfortable to work 

 in rough water." 



An international conference on sail- 

 assisted commercial fishing vessels 

 will be held May 15-16 at the Tarpon 

 Springs Yacht Club in Tarpon Springs, 



Florida. The conference will be spon- 

 sored in part by Sea Grant programs in 

 Florida and Virginia. Registration is 

 $30 for commercial fishermen and $60 

 for others. Register in advance by con- 

 tacting John W. Shortall, University 

 of South Florida College of Engineer- 

 ing, Tampa, Fla. 33620. 



It's not unusual for 

 Sea Grant agent Larry 

 Giardina to advise a 

 fisherman about taxes or 

 Bob Hines to tell an 

 angler how to maintain 

 his gear. But what is un- 

 usual is that Giardina and Hines are 

 doing their advising via the television 

 set. 



Giardina and Hines, the Sea Grant 

 marine advisory agents at Bogue 

 Banks, appear on Vision Cable channel 

 12 every other Wednesday evening at 

 7 p.m. in Carteret County. Their 30- 

 minute show, called "The Sea Grant 

 Program," focuses on topics of interest 

 to the marine community — boat and 

 gear maintenance, marine electronics, 

 smoking fish and more. Other UNC 

 Sea Grant agents and specialists will 

 make guest appearances on the 

 program, produced by Vision Cable. 



On the weeks Giardina and Hines 

 aren't on the air, the time slot is filled 

 by a program from the N.C. Marine 

 Resources Center at Bogue Banks. 

 Center staff tell audiences about the 

 state's coastal creatures and habitats. 



Lundie Spence's 

 ''Oceans'' course, 

 taught as an inter- 

 disciplinary course at 

 North Carolina State 

 University, has been 

 evaluated as one of the best courses in 

 the Department of University Studies. 

 Spence, UNC Sea Grant's marine 

 education specialist, has been teaching 

 the course during fall semester to 

 about 30 college students since 1979. 

 Spence teaches students about many 

 aspects of the ocean environment — 



coastal geology, estuarine ecology, 

 marine biology, coastal history — often 

 drawing on Sea Grant staff and 

 researchers for their expertise. 



While Spence was collecting kudos 

 from the university, John Sanders, Sea 

 Grant's marine weather awareness 

 specialist, was collecting an award 

 from the National Weather Service. In 

 a March 23 luncheon, Sanders was 

 given a Special Service Award from 

 Richard Augulis, director of the 

 National Weather Service Eastern 

 Region, for increasing the public 

 awareness about coastal storms, par- 

 ticularly hurricanes, through emphasis 

 on preparedness and storm education. 



"We feel John has heightened 

 coastal awareness of hurricanes," says 

 Joe Pelissier, deputy meteorologist-in- 

 charge of the National Weather Ser- 

 vice office in Raleigh. "We feel the 

 next time a devastating storm like 

 Hazel comes along, people on the coast 

 will better understand the threat, 

 know what things like storm surge 

 mean and take the precautionary 

 measures necessary." Sanders com- 

 pleted his two-year project in March. 



Since 1978 a colony of 

 endangered brown 

 pelicans has nested on 

 two dredge-spoil islands 

 in the lower Cape Fear 

 River. But for the last 

 two years, erosion has 

 threatened the homes of some 800 

 feathery residents of the islands. 



"The south island is eroding much 

 more rapidly than the northern island 

 and is down to a level that I would es- 

 timate there would be probably no 

 more than about a foot above mean 

 high tide," says Jim Parnell, a 

 biologist at the University of North 

 Carolina at Wilmington. 



Parnell, whose Sea Grant research 

 has shown the value of dredge-spoil 

 islands as nesting grounds for water- 

 birds, recently advised the Army 

 Corps of Engineers on an effort to save 

 the birds' homes. The Corps dumped 



