TOP: Gene Ballance gets a hand from his father, Elisha, while setting up 

 equipment for his FRG mapping project. BOTTOM: Data gathered in 

 the field is then run through a computer analysis. 



Complex 



By Cynthia Henderson 



A 



i accountant who likes to fish might 

 think Gene Ballance has it backward. Ballance 

 fishes for a living and studies math "to relax." 



Why, with a degree in math from 

 Campbell University and a strong interest in 

 science, does he choose to fish commercially? 

 After graduation, Ballance says, he realized he 

 "could make more money crabbing than 

 teaching." As for other white-collar possibili- 

 ties, "I'm too much of an outdoor type," he 

 says. 



Ballance was able to 

 bring his varied interests 

 together with help from a 

 unique grant program 

 targeted for people in 

 fishing-related industries. 



In 1998, Ballance 

 applied for and received 

 funding from the North 

 Carolina Fisheries Resource 

 Grant Program (FRG), to 

 use a global positioning 

 system (GPS) to map 

 geographic features and 

 hazards in blue crab 

 sanctuaries from Ocracoke 

 to Hatteras inlets. The 

 resulting map is more than a 

 delineation of land and 

 underwater structures. Its 

 implications reach from 

 where to fish for red drum 

 to where not to drill for oil. 

 And the mapping project 

 stands as a poster child for 

 FRG and for the unexpected 

 benefits of blending fishing 

 expertise with science. 

 The North Carolina 

 General Assembly created the FRG program 

 in 1994 to "protect and enhance the state's 

 coastal fishery resources through individual 

 grants." The program was custom-designed 

 for people who, like Ballance, make a living 

 from the water and have special insights for 

 improving or protecting coastal resources. 



The legislature provides $1 million each 

 year for FRG projects. North Carolina Sea 

 Grant was chosen to administer the program 

 because of its success with applied research. 

 This year, 22 projects have been approved for 

 funding in each of the four designated research 

 categories: fisheries equipment and gear, 

 aquaculture and mariculture, environmental 

 pilot studies and seafood technology. 



To B.J. Copeland, vice-chair of the N.C. 

 Marine Fisheries Commission and former 

 director of North Carolina Sea Grant, it's a 

 matter of taking advantage of what he calls 

 "native creativity," which, he says, usually 

 results in good things. "Nobody has a comer 

 on creativity," he says. 



For Ballance, native creative elements 

 include a fascination with celestial navigation 

 and astronomy that led to the skills of mapping 

 and using a sextant. While in college, he tutored 

 calculus, and for the last few years has been 

 working on assembly language programs for a 

 scientific calculator. 



"While 99 percent of my income comes 

 from fishing and crabbing, at heart I am more of 

 a scientist and mathematician," Ballance writes 

 of himself. But having a scientific background 

 is not a requisite for receiving a grant. FRG 

 often pairs grantees with graduate students or 

 academic researchers to help design projects 

 and interpret results. 



Research results are not always what was 

 expected. A study on eel migration patterns, for 

 instance, was looking for ways in which dams 

 were having an effect on declines in eel 

 abundance. Instead, a new parasitic infection of 

 eels was discovered. Getting unexpected results 

 is just the nature of research, according to 

 Copeland. "If we knew the answers, we 

 wouldn't need to do research in the first place," 

 he says. 



Sometimes impacts of projects are 

 difficult to quantify; such as when FRG data are 

 made available for use by different agencies. 

 But any data that add to a body of knowledge 

 can be valuable, Copeland says, even if the 

 value is not immediately apparent. 



One Project: Several Impacts 



Ballance's project mapped navigational 

 hazards such as abandoned sinkboxes — 

 structures used by waterfowl hunters — as well 

 as areas sensitive to navigation, such as those 

 with submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). 

 Plotting S AVs is vital for both coastal and 

 fishery management plans, such as one for blue 

 crabs. 



As Ballance notes in his final report, 

 "SAV is a critical component of shallow marine 

 ecosystems worldwide." They provide refuge 

 and food for waterfowl, shellfish, blue crabs 

 and a variety of recreational and commercially 

 important fishes. 



Ballance mapped more than 19,000 acres 

 of SAV, including 450 acres previously 

 undocumented by state or federal agencies. This 

 totals more than in the Chesapeake Bay and is 

 part of the biggest area of SAV north of Florida, 



38 HIGH SEASON 2001 



