COASTAL 



TIDINGS 



Three North Carolina Students 

 Win Prestigious Knauss Fellowships 



Katherine Colborn 



Three graduate 

 students from North 

 Carolina are heading 

 for Washington, D.C., 

 after being selected for 

 the 1998 Dean John A. 

 Knauss Fellowship 

 program. Created in 

 1979, the program 

 offers a unique 

 educational experience 

 to students with an 

 interest in marine, ocean and Great 

 Lakes resources and in the national 

 policy decisions affecting those 

 resources. 



The program is sponsored by the 

 National Sea Grant College Program 

 and matches highly qualified graduate 

 students with hosts in the legislative 

 branch, executive branch or appropriate 

 associations in the nation's capital for a 

 one-year paid fellowship. 



North Carolina's recipients are 

 Katherine Colborn, Matthew Kendall 

 and Kristopher Pickler. 



Matthew Kendall 



Kristopher Pickle} 



• Colborn is a second-year student 

 at Duke University's Nicholas School of 

 the Environment. Her master's project at 

 Duke examines how commercial touring 

 operations that feed wild bottlenose 

 dolphins along the Southeast coast affect 

 the animals' behavior. She has experi- 

 ence as an advocate, educator and policy 

 coordinator. She has been assigned to 

 the executive branch for her fellowship. 



• Kendall is completing his 

 graduate study in reproductive ecology 

 at North Carolina State University's 

 Department of Marine, Earth and 



Atmospheric Sciences. His 

 master's project examines 

 the practice of harvesting 

 large male blue crabs and 

 how that affects the 

 population's reproductive 

 potential. This work could 

 ^ have practical implications 



on an industry valuable to the 

 ^B____l mid-Atlantic. He has been 

 assigned to the executive 

 branch for his fellowship. 

 • Pickler is completing his graduate 

 study at Duke University's Nicholas 

 School of the Environment. His master's 

 project compares North Carolina's 

 policies of hardening and stabilizing its 

 estuarine and ocean shoreline. Recently, 

 Pickler worked as an intern at North 

 Carolina Sea Grant researching and 

 analyzing the state's public trust 

 doctrine (policies that determine public 

 and private rights to submerged land 

 and overlying waters). Pickler was 

 assigned to the legislative branch for 

 his fellowship. □ 



Specialists in Tourism and Seafood Join Sea Grant 



Tourism and seafood are 

 linchpins in the economic well- 

 being of the North Carolina coast. 

 Two new extension specialists 

 with North Carolina Sea Grant 

 will work to encourage a thriving 

 tourism industry and safer 

 seafood for us all. 



JackThigpen, the coastal recre- 

 ation and tourism area specialist in 

 Manteo, will handle tourism and 

 the emerging field of ecotourism. 

 Barry Nash, the extension seafood 

 safety specialist in Morehead City, 

 will cover seafood with an emphasis 

 on industry compliance with new 

 federal safety regulations. 



Thigpen will orchestrate research 

 and supply information to help coastal 

 communities and the tourism industry 

 better plan for visitors. This issue is 

 critical to North Carolina as its coast 

 grows more popular as a tourist desti- 

 nation. Thigpen holds doctorate and 

 master's degrees with emphases on 

 natural resources and rural develop- 

 ment. For nearly a decade, he has 

 worked with the Texas Agricultural 

 Extension Service developing programs 

 to train community leaders, businesses 

 and extension faculty in creating a 

 sustainable natural and economic 

 environment. 



Nash will focus on seafood safety 



and processing. This is a critical 

 issue to the seafood processing 

 industry as it works to comply with 

 new federal regulations aimed at 

 reducing and preventing health 

 hazards and contamination in 

 fishery products. Called HACCP 

 (Hazard Analysis and Critical 

 Control Points), this program 

 took effect Dec. 1 8. Nash has a 

 master's degree in food science. 

 His 1 2 years of experience in the 

 food industry includes seafood- 

 related work. 



Look for more about Thigpen 

 and Nash in upcoming issues of 

 Coastwatch. □ 



4 WINTER J99X 



