THE BACK mini 



"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). 



A fishing method — 

 handed down from the 

 Stone Age — is still put- 

 ting fish on the table to- 

 day. The method? 

 Spearing. Today fisher- 

 men spear or gig flound- 



er during the fall. 



But unlike Stone Age men, fisher- 

 men today stalk their prey at night, 

 using lights they can immerse under 

 water. Fishermen gig flounder along 

 the shallow edges of sounds, bays and 

 creeks. Or, they work the beach, be- 

 tween the surf line and tide line. They 

 use immersible lights to reveal the 

 shadowy outline of a flounder hiding in 

 the sand. The fisherman spots his prey 

 and spears it. 



Larry Giardina, the Sea Grant 

 marine advisory agent at Bogue 

 Banks, says it's important to spear the 

 fish just behind the gills to save as 

 much meat as possible. Once caught, 

 the flounder are pushed up the metal 

 gig and threaded onto a stringer. By 

 placing the fish on the stringer and 

 trailing them along in the surf, the fish 

 can be kept alive during fishing. 



The best times for gigging are one- 

 and-a-half hours before and after low 

 tide on a moonless night. For surf-gig- 

 ging, choose a calm night when waves 

 are less than one foot. 



For more information about gigging 

 flounder, contact the marine advisory 

 agent nearest you. (Jim Bahen, 

 Marine Resources Center/Ft. Fisher, 

 458-5498; Bob Hines or Larry Giar- 

 dina, Marine Resources Center/Bogue 

 Banks, 247-4007; Wayne Wescott or 

 Rich Novak, Marine Resources 

 Center/Roanoke Island, 473-3937.) 



UNC Sea Grant and the 

 South Carolina Sea 

 Grant Consortium are 

 sponsoring a longlining 

 conference Nov. 2 at the 

 Blockade Runner Mo- 

 tor Hotel in Wrights- 

 ville Beach, N.C. 



The program, geared toward fisher- 

 men interested in longlining for snap- 

 per and grouper, will include sessions 

 on the reef and bottom-fish resources, 

 gear and fishing methods, and the 

 economics of converting to longlining. 

 Discussions will also include informa- 

 tion on longlining for shark and the 

 marketing of shark. 



The day-long conference is spon- 

 sored in cooperation with the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service's Beaufort 

 Lab, the N.C. Division of Marine 

 Fisheries, the N.C. Fisheries Associa- 

 tion, the South Atlantic Fishery 

 Management Council, and the S.C. 

 Wildlife and Marine Resources 

 Department. 



To register, send $7.50 (before Oc- 

 tober 19) or $10 (after October 19) to 

 Jim Murray, UNC Sea Grant, 105 

 1911 Building, North Carolina State 

 University, Raleigh, N.C. 27650. For 

 more information, call (919) 737-2454. 



Jim Murray, director 

 / M \ \ of Sea Grant's Marine 

 I »^^\ l Advisory Service, and 

 U^^iilH I Jeff Johnson, of the In- 

 \ flT lljlfs/ stitute for Coastal and 

 ^^m^^W Marine Resources at 

 East Carolina Univer- 

 sity, have received a grant from the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service's 

 Southeast Regional Office to develop a 

 program to increase the demand for 

 underutilized species among marine 

 recreational fishermen. 



The National Marine Fisheries Ser- 

 vice estimates that over 30 percent of 

 the total poundage of finfish harvest- 

 ed for food is caught by recreational 

 fishermen. Often these fishermen seek 

 the same species of fish as commercial 

 fishermen, while other, under-used 

 species go unharvested. 



In the first year of the study, 



Murray and Johnson will be develop- 

 ing a program to educate the public 

 about the merits of underutilized 

 species in the waters from Texas to 

 North Carolina. They hope they can 

 make species such as sea catfishes, 

 dogfish and toadfish as sought-after as 

 striped bass, bluefish and flounder. 



If you're thinking of 

 selling some coastal 

 property and you're con- 

 cerned about how the 

 land will be used, there's 

 something you can do 

 about it. Walter Clark, 



Sea Grant's coastal law specialist, says 

 that property owners can protect the 

 aesthetic and environmental qualities 

 of their land by using several non- 

 regulatory devices that will impose 

 limitations on the future use of the 

 land. 



Suppose a coastal developer owns a 

 large tract of land that includes a 

 maritime forest — a forest that he'd like 

 to protect. Clark says the developer, in 

 subdividing his property, might in- 

 clude restrictive covenants in each of 

 the deeds to protect the forest. 



Clark says that towns and counties 

 also have other options, such as conser- 

 vation easements, to protect the future 

 use of property. For more information, 

 write Clark at 105 1911 Building, 

 North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, N.C. 27650 or call (919) 737- 

 2454. 



Is the estuary's role as a nursery 

 more important than its role as an out- 

 let for water drained from agricultural 

 fields? Resource managers can only 

 vaguely estimate the answer. 



But John Miller, a zoologist at 

 North Carolina State University, and 

 Steve Ross of the N.C. Division of 

 Marine Fisheries, are working on a 

 way to help managers make such deci- 

 sions easier. Using mini-grant funds 

 awarded by Sea Grant Director B.J. 

 Copeland, the researchers will compile 

 an extensive bibliography of estuarine 

 research. They will be looking 



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