Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 N.C. Big Sweep, N.C. Department of 

 Environment, Health and Natural Re- 

 sources (divisions of Water Resources, 

 Coastal Management and Environmental 

 Management), N.C. Coastal Federation 

 and the city officials who handled the 

 stenciling kits and coordinated the 

 volunteer painting efforts. 



Fine Art 



Perhaps you've noticed the lovely 

 pen-and-ink drawings adorning our nature 

 pages in recent issues. These are the work 

 of Raleigh artist Anne Marshall Runyon. 



Runyon specializes in animal por- 

 traits and nature drawings. You may have 

 seen her detailed drawings in Wildlife in 

 North Carolina, North Carolina Wild 

 Places — a Closer Look or Coastal Ca- 

 pers, a Sea Grant publication. 



"I am fascinated by the diverse 

 beauty of all life and by the stories of our 

 natural world," Runyon says. "Sometimes, 

 I will act out a gesture that I am drawing 

 — trying to feel the bend of the branch, 

 the tension of the stalking predator or the 

 alarm widening the eyes of prey." 



The ability to accurately capture natu- 

 ral settings and animals on paper has 

 earned Runyon 's work plenty of praise. 



"Anne's drawings add a new dimen- 

 sion to the nature page," says Carla Bur- 

 gess, Coastwatch senior editor. "Her ca- 

 pacity for detail and accuracy makes her 

 drawings seem alive. It really helps our 

 readers visualize the animals and plants 

 we write about." 



Coastwatch Honored 



Coastwatch was recently chosen as 

 winner of the Conservation Communica- 

 tions Award in the 1994 Governor's 

 Conservation Achievement Awards 

 Program sponsored by the N.C. Wildlife 

 Federation and the National Wildlife 

 Federation. 



Each year, the N.C. Wildlife Federa- 

 tion honors a publication, person or media 

 outlet that educates the public about the 

 state's natural resources and urges the 

 conservation of our environment. 



"We were pleased to be selected for 



such a prestigious award," says Kathy 

 Hart, Coastwatch managing editor. "We 

 work hard to make Coastwatch an 

 educational magazine, and we are glad that 

 others have recognized our efforts." 



Knauss Fellow Named 



Another N.C. Sea Grant nominee has 

 been selected as a Dean John A. Knauss 

 Marine Policy Fellow by the National Sea 

 Grant College Program. 



Fernando Leyva, a first generation 

 Cuban-American, recently completed 

 his master's degree in marine biology 

 at the University of North Carolina at 

 Wilmington. He received his undergradu- 

 ate degree from Davidson College, where 

 he concentrated his efforts in chemistry, 

 biology, philosophy and education. 



Between his undergraduate studies 

 and graduate school, Leyva spent two 

 years teaching underprivileged teen-agers 

 in an alternative high school in Charlotte. 

 There, he learned to relay science to teens 

 who had little understanding of or interest 

 in the subject. 



Now Leyva would like to focus his 

 career on marine policy and bridging the 

 gap between good scientific information 

 and effective fisheries management policy. 



The Knauss program matches highly 

 qualified students with hosts in Congress, 

 the executive branch or appropriate 

 associations/institutions for a one-year 

 paid fellowship in Washington, D.C. The 

 fellowship will allow Leyva to begin 

 pursuing his goal. He will be working in 

 the Office of Sustainable Development 

 within the National Oceanic and Atmo- 

 spheric Administration. 



Files of Fish 



The N.C. Division of Marine Fisher- 

 ies (DMF) keeps a lot of fish in its files. 

 The endorsement-to-sell (ETS) law, which 

 requires commercial fishermen and 

 seafood dealers to be licensed to buy and 

 sell seafood, tracks everything fishy. By 

 keeping close tabs on what commercial 

 fisherman catch and sell, the program 

 delivers information — information about 

 fishing resources, what they are and where 

 to find them. 



The ETS program works in three steps. 

 First, all fishermen who sell their catch must 

 buy a license. All business owners who 

 purchase seafood — restaurateurs, fishing 

 pier owners and seafood dealers — must 

 buy a dealer's license. 



In the second step, a trip ticket is 

 completed. When fishermen sell their catch 

 to a dealer, they record the date, the number 

 and type of fish caught, the location where 

 the catch was made, their license number 

 and the gear they used. The dealers then 

 provide copies of the trip tickets to DMF 

 "port agents" in Wanchese, Washington, 

 Morehead City, Harkers Island and 

 Wilmington. The agents also help dealers 

 and fishermen by answering questions, 

 providing tickets and taking samples. 



The third step — data collection — 

 is also important. The information from 

 the trip tickets is compiled by computer. 

 Although an individual's information is 

 kept confidential, summaries of information 

 can be released and put to use. 



"ETS information gives us a solid 

 foundation on which to base management 

 decisions," says Rick E. Marks, the DMF 

 statistics coordinator. "Economically, the 

 landings from commercial fishermen show 

 us exactly what benefit the commercial 

 fishing industry has to North Carolina." 



ETS information can be used for many 

 purposes. Just recently, the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service reopened the East Coast 

 commercial shark season based on ETS 

 information from North Carolina. It can be 

 used by fishery management councils, trade 

 associations and the public. Most impor- 

 tantly, Sea Grant can use the information in 

 its state-supported fisheries study (see story, 

 page 22) to get a more accurate picture of 

 fishing effort in the state. 



The ETS law, which has been in effect 

 since January 1994, is part of a state effort 

 to gather information about the North 

 Carolina commercial fishing industry, 

 Marks says. "We need to get accurate 

 information to effectively manage our 

 marine resources, and we need the 

 commercial fishermen and dealers to 

 help us do it." 



For more information about the ETS 

 program, call Marks at 1-800/682-2632. 



COASTWATCH 25 



