SEA 



SCIENCE 



TOP: The whelk follows its nose into the pot, intent 

 upon eating some smelly morsel placed as bait. 

 BOTTOM: Once the meal is finished, the shell can 

 be recycled as a mini flower pot. 



created the FRG program in 1 994 to help protect 

 and enhance the state's fishery heritage. The Blue 

 Crab Research Program was added in 2000 to 

 focus exclusively on that fishery. 



The idea behind the programs — funded by 

 the General Assembly and administered by North 

 Carolina Sea Grant — is to match traditional 

 knowledge with research methodology to find 

 workable ways to improve or protect limited 

 marine resources. 



Beresoff and Logothetis agree that the key 

 to the success of these state-supported research 

 programs is the marriage of science and com- 

 mercial fishing. 



"There is no way a marine biologist can 

 simulate what fishers know about the water, 



where the fish are, where to lower the nets or 

 traps. The projects produce solid information 

 that can be used in developing or revising fish- 

 ery management plans," Logothetis says. 



The collaborative projects also enable 

 fishers to become involved in decision making. 

 "They understand the data because it comes 

 from them," she adds. 



"In other words, scientists help document 

 our truths," Beresoff comments. "Programs 

 such as the FRG help others view the reality of 

 our business." 



Projects also are learning vehicles for 

 participants. 



"All the projects are different," says Logo- 

 thetis, who also is doing the scientific work for 

 an FRG shrimp study. "Each one provides an 

 opportunity to grow as a scientist. There are 

 things to learn out on the water that you can't 

 duplicate in a laboratory." 



In turn, Beresoff is acquiring a taste for 

 scientific inquiry. "One thing leads to another. 

 For every answer, there is another question to 

 pursue," he says. 



The payoff 



When Beresoff and Logothetis began 

 the FRG conch project, they were focusing 

 on boosting the year-round livelihoods of 

 commercial fishers in North Carolina. New 

 and alternative fisheries and markets often are 

 sought to sustain commercial fishing families. 



Conch pot fishing from Massachusetts 

 to Virginia yielded $1 1 to $15 million in 1999, 

 they say. In Georgia the conch fishery is one 

 of the most productive mollusk fisheries. And, 

 South Carolina shrimpers fish for conch using 

 trawls after the shrimp season. 



In North Carolina a small conch fishery is 

 lucrative in Dare County during December and 

 January. 



Conch was once a profitable bycatch from 

 flounder trawls in the southeastern counties. 

 But, conch fishing disappeared in the region 

 during the 1 980s when flounder trawling ceased 

 due to the increase in flounder size limits. 



Beresoff plans to continue polishing his 

 conch fishing techniques — and the prospects 

 for a sustainable fishery along the Brunswick 

 County coast. 



Logothetis believes there still is a profitable 

 market for these edible snails that are known as 

 "squngili" in Italian markets. 



Conch may not provide a full-time fishery, 

 but conch plus bycatch could add up to a profit- 

 able winter activity — having your conch and 

 eating it too, as Beresoff puts it. 



"All in all, it was a successful FRG ex- 

 periment. The idea is to make money during the 

 typically slow season, and we showed it could be 

 done," Beresoff concludes. Q 



For information about the FRG program, 

 go to www.ncseagrant.org, and click on research. 



CHANNELED WHELK 



Phylum: Mollusca 

 Class: Gastropod 



Order: Neogastropoda (new snails) 

 Family: Melongenidae 

 Genus: Busycotypus 

 Species: canaliculatum 



• This large univalve can grow to 



8 inches. It is pear-shaped, with an elevated, 

 conical spire and a broad body whorl that 

 narrows into a long, slender, curved canal. 



• Grayish to yellow-white in color, 

 covered with a gray periostracum bearing 

 minute hairs; its aperture is yellow. 



• It is found on sandy bottoms, often 

 traveling just below the surface, plowing 

 through the sand with its strong, grey foot. 



• Its range is from Cape Cod, Mass., 

 to northern Florida; was introduced into San 

 Francisco Bay. 



• Strings of egg cases can hold up to 

 100 tiny shells. 



• Indians once used beads cut from 

 the whorls around the axis of the shell as 

 ornaments and money. 



• These whelk are mostly are "right- 

 handed," or dextral, meaning the shell coils 

 to the right. Hold the shell with the opening 

 facing you. If the opening is on the right side of 

 the shell, it is dextral. 



22 HIGH SEASON 2004 



