SEA 



SCIENCE 



A Fishery for All Seasons 



By Pam Smith 



LEFT TO RIGHT: Elaine Logothetis displays the traditional wooden conch pot and a typical wire crab pot. 

 1 Octopus provided a lucrative bycatch during the FRG study. • While the horseshoe crab is said to be the 

 favored conch bait elsewhere, the FRG demonstrated effective alternatives. 



Y 



JLou c 



_ou can have your conch and eat it 

 too," says Dave Beresoff, a Brunswick County 

 commercial fisher. 



That's one conclusion he drew from a N.C. 

 Fishery Resource Grant (FRG) project he com- 

 pleted with Elaine Logothetis, a marine biologist 

 with the NG. Aquarium at Fort Fisher. 



The two set out to explore the feasibility 

 of a viable conch fishery in southeast North 

 Carolina. Could conch become an alternative 

 target fishery during the months other traditional 

 fisheries are less active? 



From October 2002 through March 2003, 

 they caught conch — and a few other surprises. 



"I'm convinced that I can make a day's pay 

 setting conch pots in winter," Beresoff happily 

 reports. 



Conch has become a general term used to 

 describe various large, spiral-shelled gastropods. 

 The whelk, a close cousin, is the predominant 

 edible mollusk in North Carolina waters. 



During the study, the researchers captured 

 a total of 1 3,876 conch — about 45 percent of 

 their overall catch. The predominant species 

 caught was channeled whelk (Busycotypus cana- 

 liculatus), with some knobbed whelk (Busycon 

 cancel). 



For their FRG study, Beresoff and Logo- 

 thetis used both wooden lathe conch pots and 



wire crab pots to compare effectiveness. They 

 placed the pots offshore, behind the breaking 

 surf, at ocean depths from 1 5 to 30 feet. 



Beresoff and Logothetis were more suc- 

 cessful with wire crab pots than with traditional 

 wooden conch pots; they caught the most conch 

 in February and March; and they caught the 

 largest individual animals in the fall. 



They used a variety of "opportunistic 

 bait," that is, whatever was readily available 

 — from menhaden to rays, fish heads and dead 

 crabs. 



"The more pungent the bait, the better," 

 Logothetis reports. Whelk, a predator, uses 

 its well-trained nose, or proboscis, to seek out 

 smelly prey. 



Tom Likos, a local crabber, was on board 

 as "baitmaster," Logothetis says. He helped 

 keep track of the type of bait that was used, 

 the type of trap, and each location. He also 

 pinpointed areas where he historically caught 

 whelk in his crab pots during the winter months. 



The bait issue also is important because 

 scientific literature indicates that horseshoe crab 

 is the preferred conch bait. But, with declining 

 horseshoe crab populations, the research team 

 was happy to demonstrate the effectiveness of 

 alternative baits. 



Catching a break 



The bycatch is even more interesting. 



"When we began the project, we worried 

 that bycatch might be a problem," Beresoff 

 recalls with amusement. 



But, when the economic value of the 

 bycatch — blue crab, stone crab and octopus 



— exceeds the target species, it's an enviable 

 problem, he concedes. 



In fact, the dollar and weight of marketable 

 bycatch landed surpassed that of conch in every 

 month except December, they report. 



Landing blue crab in the ocean during 

 winter months is a significant break, Beresoff 

 says. Ocean waters remain open to crabbing 

 year-round, according to the state's Blue Crab 

 Management Plan, even when inland waters 

 close for a brief period during January. 



"Marketing to the year-round blue crab 

 trade — in addition to the healthy conch market 



— is a huge economic benefit," Logothetis adds. 



20 HIGH SEASON 2004 



