"Because fishers move from one territory to another to fish, shift from crab pots to shrimp 



trawls or from gill nets to clam rakes, because they land croaker during one season and 



mullet or blue crabs during another, they are 

 thegtvup of people best situated to monitor 



the health of coastal rivers, sounds, ocean 



waters and estuaries.' 



■ "THE ESTUARY'S GIFT" 



Oystering, Washington, NC, c. 1884. 



Courtesy of the NC Division of Archives and Histoiy 



He points to the dramatic change that 

 has come to the Outer Banks in the past 

 10 years. "From Nags Head to Corolla - 

 now it looks like a suburb of Los 

 Angeles," he says. 



While marine scientists are 

 evaluating the environmental impact 

 of such change, attention also must be 

 focused on societal forces that drive 

 the change. Griffith, working with 

 ECU sociologist Jeff Johnson, has 

 given North Carolina a reputation of 

 being on the cutting edge of social 

 science research on coastal topics, 

 Queen says. "Programs in other states 

 use this as a model," he adds. 



And, their research results have 

 provided critical input for state advisory 

 panels, legislators and regulators. "It 

 paints a true picture of what is taking 

 place," says Twila Nelson, who met 

 Griffith when she served on the N.C. 

 Marine Fisheries Commission. 



West, who served on the Fisheries 



Moratorium Steering Committee in the 

 mid-1990s, agrees. Tve been impressed 

 with the perspective he's brought to 

 discussion of fisheries issues," she says. 

 "You're not just talking about managing 

 fish, you are talking about managing 

 people and communities." 



Coastal 

 Studies 



Griffith, now 48, arrived in North 

 Carolina in 1 983 to work on a research 

 project on underutilized fish species. Jim 

 Murray, then extension director for North 

 Carolina Sea Grant, and Johnson led the 

 work, which was funded by the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service. 



Griffith prepared a detailed format 

 and sequence for interviews of fishers 

 along the coast. He also conducted the 

 interviews along the docks and sent 



regular reports from the field. But the 

 reports showed a certain style from 

 Griffith, who had attended the prestigious 

 Iowa Writers' Workshop. 



"I used to love reading his field 

 notes," recalls Murray, now director of 

 extension programs for the National Sea 

 Grant College Program. "He would send 

 us these elaborate, flowery field notes. He 

 would muse about the sunrise... . He must 

 have had a great time going back to the 

 motel room to write them up." 



While Griffith's poetry background 

 sparks his academic prose, the anthropol- 

 ogy field experiences also provide fuel 

 for his creative writing, Murray explains. 

 "He has been able to marry the two 

 disciplines. Each helps the other," he says. 



That first project gave Griffith an 

 introduction to North Carolina issues, and 

 introduced him to the Sea Grant program. 

 It also sparked continuing collaboration 

 with Johnson. Such collaboration lends 

 integrity to the projects, Griffith says. 



12 EARLY S UMMER 2000 



