I 



New 

 Project 

 Keeps 

 Blue Crab 

 Industry 

 on Track 



By Cynthia Henderson 

 Photos by Michael Halminski 



t's the end of a long road in 

 coastal Columbia, North Carolina, 

 where the pocosin meets the 

 Little Alligator River — little only 

 in comparison to its big sister, 

 the enormous Alligator that 

 separates Tyrrell and Dare counties. 

 The gray waters are churlish, 

 spitting white foam as if in disgust 

 at the unseasonably cool, wet day. 



WILLY PHILLIPS, LEFT, SORTS CRABS WITH HELP FROM MARC TURANO. 



Here Willy Phillips' split-level mobile 

 home looks out toward the river. Artwork is 

 everywhere — from the combat helmeted, 

 gnarled heartwood jutting out of the front 

 yard to an ornamental metal overlay on the 

 board-and-batten shed out back. Phillips' 

 wife, Feather, is the founder of Pocosin Arts 

 in town. Willy is a crabber, has been for 20 

 of his 25 years in commercial fishing. 



He is a hardy man with shoulder-length 

 blond hair, a steady, sometimes mischievous 

 gaze and a quick smile. In town, he seems to 

 know everyone. He definitely knows 

 crabbing, both as a job and as a culture. 



That's why Marc Turano of North 

 Carolina Sea Grant has driven all the way 

 from Wilmington to meet Phillips. Turano is 

 heading up a blue crab project initiated by 

 the N.C. General Assembly last year to 

 support this, the state's most lucrative 

 fishing industry. The program is allocated 

 $500,000 annually to be administered by 

 North Carolina Sea Grant. 



Turano has a bachelor's degree in 

 marine biology from the University of North 

 Carolina at Wilmington and a master's in 



mariculture from Texas A&M-Corpus 

 Christi. A native Long Islander, he may be 

 the proverbial "new kid on the block," but 

 Turano is acclimating well. Eager to learn 

 about the culture of crabbing, he has driven 

 countless miles along the jagged Carolina 

 coastline getting to know crabbers. 



Such knowledge can increase 

 credibility with an independent group 

 whose livelihoods depend on the skills, wit 

 and wisdom accumulated from a lifetime or 

 even generations of working on the water. 

 Crabbers aren't inclined to listen to people 

 who don't seem to know what they're 

 talking about, says Phillips. "A lot of these 

 guys are just on the verge of not listening to 

 anybody, anyway," he adds. 



So Turano set out to get crabbers 

 together to talk about problems facing the 

 industry and to identify research needs. The 

 Blue Crab Research Program will provide 

 funds for research projects that include 

 significant participation by people in the 

 crab industry. 



More than 3,000 notices were sent out 

 — one for every known crabber in the state 



32 HIGH SEASON 2001 



