Coast watch

              Coastwatch R E S T O R I N G W E T L A N D S • C O A S T A L S H A R K S • R E D W O L V E S • R E M E M B E R I N G J O Y C E T A Y L O R
Oysters:
Economy, Environment
and Tradition
N O R T H C A R O L I N A S E A G R A N T • W I N T E R • 2 0 1 4 • I S S U E 1 • $ 3 . 7 5
F R O M T H E E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R
A NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW ENERGY
AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR NORTH
CAROLINA SEA GRANT.
We are pleased to welcome John Fear as our
newest member of the Sea Grant — and the Water
Resources Research Institute of the University of
North Carolina System — family. Granted, John’s
been a close colleague as a Sea Grant advisory board
member since 2006. His familiarity with our work
has allowed him to hit the ground running with his
new deputy director responsibilities for both programs.
John’s research background and proven track
record with building strategic partnerships from his
previous position as the research coordinator for the
N.C. Coastal Reserve program will serve him well
as he takes the reins of developing and executing the
research portfolios of Sea Grant and WRRI.
It is a pleasure to have his perspectives already
being integrated into both organizations. You’ll see his positive influence
over the coming year as we bring researchers, students and the public
together in new ways to ensure that the work we do meets the needs of
our state and is delivered effectively. Send your welcome notes to John at
jmfear@ncsu.edu.
In January, we convened the Sea Grant advisory board to kick off
the year with a renewed commitment of engagement from the board to
assist in program direction and goals. We made a good start to define
program “needs” to focus on in the coming five years — and will
continue to refine these together this year. It is clear to me that in order
for Sea Grant to be relevant in a rapidly changing funding and policy
environment, we will need to continue to support research and extension
excellence across a wide range of coastal resource needs.
This advisory board consists of committed individuals who
are critical to our success as we prioritize efforts, investments and
New Year, Renewed Focus
I N T H I S I S S U E
Contributing Writers:
Chuck Bangley T. DeLene Beeland Liz Biro Jack Horan Morgan Jones
E-Ching Lee Katie Mosher Chelsea Pierce Rhett Register
Contributing Photographers:
Chuck Bangley Becky Bartel Art Beyer Tim Burkit Camilla Calnan
Barron Crawford Steve Hillebrand Jack Horan Art Howard
Evan Knight Cecilia Krahforst E-Ching Lee Ryan Nordsven
Jackie Orsulak Rhett Register Sharon Settlage David Shiffman
Dee Shore Scott Taylor Marc Turano Roger Winstead
North Carolina’s diverse coast offers countless interesting subjects.
The map indicates story settings in this issue —
Dare, Hyde, Pamlico, Carteret and Brunswick counties
Alamance
Alexander
Alleghany
Anson
Ashe
Beaufort
Bertie
Bladen
Burke
Cabarrus
Caldwell
Caswell
Catawba
Chatham
Clay
Cleveland
Columbus
Craven
Cumberland
Davidson Dare
Davie
Duplin
Durham
Franklin Edgecombe
Gaston
Gates
Graham
Granville
Greene
Halifax
Harnett
Henderson
Hoke
Hyde
Iredell
Jackson
Johnston
Jones
Lenoir
Lincoln
McDowell
Macon
Madison
Martin
Mitchell
Moore
Nash
Northampton
Onslow
Orange
Pamlico
Pender
Person
Pitt
Polk
Robeson
Rowan
Rutherford
Sampson
Scotland
Stanly
Stokes
Surry
Swain
Transylvania
Tyrrell
Union
Vance
Wake
Warren
Washington
Watauga
Wayne
Wilkes
Wilson
Yadkin
Yancey
PKY
40
40
40
85 95
77 85
26
Asheville
Asheboro
Greensboro Durham
Charlotte
Raleigh
Nags
Head
Washington
Jacksonville
Wilmington
Fayetteville
Morehead City
New Bern
Rocky Mount
Winston-Salem
Haywood
Buncombe
Avery
Pasquotank
Perquimans
Currituck
Camden
Chowan
Randolph
Montgomery
Mecklenburg
Rockingham
Lee
Richmond
Forsyth Guilford
Carteret
Hertford
Brunswick
Cherokee
New Hanover
partnerships that ensure our product delivery and
program sustainability. Visit the About NCSG tab
at www.ncseagrant.org and look under Partners for
a full list of our current advisory board members.
We are actively looking for a few new
members to round out the board’s expertise. We
also seek volunteers who are interested in bringing
their own expertise to bear on our burgeoning
efforts on building strategic partnerships,
identifying research priorities, and diversifying
funding opportunities for internal and external
programs.
Supporting this board’s efforts and
contributions is my single largest commitment to
Sea Grant this year. I welcome your interests in
joining me in these discussions and growing efforts.
This spring also brings a number of engaging
activities. One of my favorites is the upcoming Blue
Heron Bowl that will be on March 1 at North Carolina State University.
North Carolina Sea Grant is among the returning sponsors for this
statewide marine science quiz. We wish these students the best of luck
in their competition! Find out more about the bowl at sites.google.com/
site/blueheronbowl. The winner will represent the state at the national
competition in Seattle this summer. I’ll be looking for these young
scholars in the coming years to bring their energies and interests to
support our state’s coastal resources.
Take some time to enjoy this issue of Coastwatch. As always,
there is a mix of stories about research and outreach, and even a story
for our young readers.
Be sure to check the back cover for information about our
North Carolina Sea Grant Research Symposium: Investments and
Opportunities that will be held April 16. I hope to see you there.
As always, feel free to contact me directly at snwhite3@ncsu.edu. Roger Winstead
Susan White, Executive Director,
North Carolina Sea Grant
F E A T U R E S
• COA S TA L T IDINGS ...................................................................................2
A LITTLE SLICE OF HYDE COUNTY:
Investigating the science of wetlands restoration
Farmers and scientists collaborate to reduce pollution in Pamlico Sound.
Rhett Register joins researchers as they help with wetlands restoration
on the Albemarle Peninsula. ................................................................................6
HOME IN AN OYSTER SHELL:
New oyster aquaculture operations grow seed, take root
E-Ching Lee talks to two oyster growers in North Carolina about their
new businesses and motivations. ......................................................................14
FINS OFF HATTERAS:
Research collaborations considers sharks
Chuck Bangley works with fisherman Chris Hickman to search the North
Carolina coast for sharks. They explain how the research can benefit
fisheries management. ........................................................................................20
Shark Research in the Rulifson Lab
Learn about nearly 20 years of collaborative shark research among
East Carolina University and commercial fishermen. ............................26
• AMA Z ING C OA S T:
Behind the Scenes: An Aquarium Adventure
Follow Chelsea Pierce’s tale of Caroline’s trip to the N.C. Aquarium at
Fort Fisher. ...........................................................................................................27
• P EOP L E A ND P L ACE S :
Bring Your Own Knives:
Shucking at the Varnamtown Oyster Roast
Experience a 60th anniversary oyster roast with Jack Horan, who traces the
shellfish from river to roast and back again. ...................................................30
• NAT UR A L I S T ’ S NOT EBOOK :
The Secret World of Red Wolves:
The Fight to Save North America’s Other Wolf
T. DeLene Beeland takes readers to a red wolf howling in an excerpt
from her book on this endangered animal. .....................................................33
• MA R INER’ S M ENU:
Our Coast’s Food: The Seafood Bible
Liz Biro remembers the late Joyce Taylor, the author of Mariner’s Menu
and North Carolina Sea Grant retiree. .............................................................36
A World of New Flavors
Enjoy some of Joyce Taylor’s most recent recipes. .................................37
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 1
Coastwatch
Climate Conference Crosses State Lines
The Carolinas Climate Resilience Conference is set for April 28 and 29 in Charlotte.
North Carolina Sea Grant and the Water Resources Research Institute of the University of
North Carolina System are among the event sponsors.
Practitioners, researchers, and staff from local, state and federal agencies will share
information and learn more about climate-related activities, experiences, tools and
resources in the Carolinas.
“We’re excited to share experiences with, and learn from, our regional partners,” says
Jessica Whitehead, Sea Grant coastal communities hazards adaptation specialist. She is
among the speakers for the conference closing session.
For early rates, register by March 10. Find out more at www.cisa.sc.edu/ccrc. — M.J.
2 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
NATIONALOCEANICANDATMOSPHERICADMINISTRATION
U S DEPARTMENTOFCOMMERCE
Coastwatch North Carolina Sea Grant • 2014 • Winter • Issue 1
Editor
Katie Mosher
Managing Editor
E-Ching Lee
Contributing Editors
Rhett Register
Pam Smith
Designer
Linda Noble
Circulation Manager
Sandra Harris
The North Carolina Sea Grant College Program
is a federal/state program that promotes
stewardship of coastal and marine resources
through research and outreach.
It joined the National Sea Grant College Network
in 1970 as an institutional program.
Six years later, it was designated a Sea Grant College.
Today, North Carolina Sea Grant supports
research projects, an extension program
and a communications staff.
Susan White is executive director.
The program is funded by the
U.S. Department of Commerce’s
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
and the state through the University of North Carolina.
Coastwatch (ISSN: 1068-784X;
USPS Periodical # 010464) is published
five times a year (January/February, March/April/May,
June/July, August/September/October, November/
December) by the North Carolina Sea Grant
College Program, North Carolina State University,
Box 8605, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8605.
Telephone: 919/515-2454. Fax: 919/515-7095.
Subscriptions are $15.
Email: eching_lee@ncsu.edu,
katie_mosher@ncsu.edu
World Wide Web address: http://www.ncseagrant.org
Periodical Postage paid at Raleigh, N.C.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Coastwatch, North Carolina Sea Grant,
North Carolina State University, Box 8605,
Raleigh, NC 27695-8605.
Cover photo of oyster by E-Ching Lee.
Table of contents graphic
based on photo of cattle-pen fencing.
Printed on recycled paper.
John Fear is now
deputy director of North
Carolina Sea Grant and the
Water Resources Research
Institute of the University of
North Carolina System.
“John’s experience
in relevant Sea Grant and
WRRI research areas — as
well as his successes in
building long-term, positive
partnerships across North
Carolina and the region
— will help us address
current efforts and our
strategic planning,” notes
Susan White, executive director for Sea Grant
and WRRI. “We are pleased to have him join our
team.”
Fear’s focus will be developing and
executing research portfolios for the two
interinstitutional programs that work with
academic, agency, business and community
partners across the state. Both programs
are headquartered at North Carolina State
University.
For nine years, Fear worked as research
coordinator for the N.C. Coastal Reserve pro-gram
within the N.C. Division of Coastal Man-agement.
The Coastal Reserve includes the N.C.
National Estuarine Research Reserve, a state-federal
partnership. From 2009 though 2012, he
also led a major, multipartner study of estuarine
shoreline stabilization options in the state.
“I look forward to joining the outstanding
team at Sea Grant and
WRRI. I have admired their
great body of work for years
and am excited about the
opportunity to contribute
toward the continued
growth and success of both
programs,” Fear says.
He holds a doctorate
in environmental sciences
and engineering from
the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill’s
School of Public Health. A
North Carolina native, he
also has a bachelor’s degree
in biology and chemistry from UNC-CH and
served as a postdoctoral fellow at its Institute of
Marine Sciences.
He has served on the North Carolina Sea
Grant Advisory Board, and was a member of
the steering committees for ocean policy and
inner coast studies led by Sea Grant and the
N.C. Coastal Resources Law, Planning and
Policy Center.
Fear is on the core management team
for the N.C. Sentinel Site Cooperative, a
multiagency partnership established as part
of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration effort to provide coastal
communities and resource managers with
information on potential impacts of sea-level
rise on coastal habitats.
Contact Fear at jmfear@ncsu.edu or 919-
515-9104. 	 — K.M.
C O A S T A L T I D I N G S
John Fear Joins Sea Grant, WRRI
Courtesy John Fear
John Fear
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 3
Support NC Sea Grant
through Online
Donations
North Carolina Sea Grant now
can receive online donations through
the North Carolina State University
Foundation.
To make a credit-card donation,
please go to giving.ncsu.edu and select Give
Now. On the next page, check the option
to give to a fund that is not listed, then
type “North Carolina Sea Grant Program
Enhancement Fund.” You can add a
notation if the donation is in honor or in
memory of someone.
Checks still are accepted. They
should be made payable to the “NC
State Foundation,” with “NC Sea Grant
Enhancement Fund” in the memo field.
Send to North Carolina Sea Grant, NCSU
Box 8605, Raleigh, NC 27695-8605.
“We thank all Coastwatch readers for
considering financial support of North
Carolina Sea
Grant’s research
and outreach,”
says Susan White,
executive director.
Donations
support Sea Grant
programming and
graduate studies in
fisheries, habitats,
seafood science
and technology,
marine education,
law and policy,
coastal hazards,
and community
development.
Thank you
to all who give
generously to Sea Grant. We recognize
Research Square, LLC, for its contribution
to our fund. In addition, recent donors
gave to Sea Grant in honor of Ann and
George Hamby, and of the work of our
marine educator, Terri Kirby Hathaway.
	 	 — C.P.
C O A S T A L T I D I N G S
Whole Foods Market in Raleigh raised awareness of local and regional seafood options
while also raising funds for North Carolina Sea Grant during its recent Sea-to-Table Tasting.
The event included small plates of a variety of fresh fish and shellfish, including wild-caught and
aquaculture species.
“As consumers, we all play a large role in the health and quality of our waters and the bounty
it provides,” says Jenn Dixon, team leader for the store near Sea Grant’s headquarters.
“Highlighting local options and honoring those that support local and responsibly sourced
seafood was an important part of the evening,” she adds.
Susan White, Sea Grant executive director, appreciates the more than $600 netted for the
North Carolina Sea Grant
Program Enhancement
Fund. “We equally thank
Whole Foods for its interest
in seafood consumer
education, and the efforts
from so many store team
members to pull off multiple
courses,” she says. “And we
offer special thanks to the
enthusiastic and inquisitive
diners.”
Executive Chef
John Knox from 18
Seaboard offered a mix
of cooking styles and
seasonings, chosen to
enhance the natural flavors
of each species. He also explained the Raleigh restaurant’s commitment to fresh, local seafood,
including offering lesser-known options such as tilefish.
The evening highlighted Carolina Classics catfish, with Joe Stofer describing the company’s
aquaculture operations in the coastal plain. John Bowler, from Whole Foods Market southern
seafood division, explained the company’s regional and national focus on seafood.
Participants declared the evening as a success on many levels, offering comments that it was
“perfect in every detail” and a “first-rate” event. 	 	 — K.M.
Sea-to-Table Event Benefits Sea Grant
ABOVE: The Raleigh seafood event drew a crowd of engaged and adventurous diners.
Art Howard
Roger Winstead/NC State University
Donations support Sea Grant programming and
graduate studies in fisheries, habitats, seafood science
and technology, marine education, law and policy,
coastal hazards, and community development.
Gathering to Focus
on Aquaculture
Research, Marketing
Each winter, the North Carolina
Aquaculture Development Conference
draws more than 200 fish farmers, scien-tists
and industry newcomers from across
the Southeast to discuss research and cur-rent
marketing trends for farm-raised fish
and seafood. The 2014 gathering — titled
Navigating Currents of Change — will be in
New Bern, Feb. 20 to 22, at the Doubletree
by Hilton.
Keynote speaker Debbie Hamrick,
director of specialty crops for the N.C.
Farm Bureau Federation, will discuss
trends in consumer spending and
agriculture, such as the roles of millennials
and urban consumers. Hamrick has
served on the statewide Local Sustainable
Foods Advisory Council and the North
Carolina Catch board, while also advising
more than a dozen specialty-crops
organizations.
A preconference workshop on
aquaponics will be offered Feb. 19.
The program opens with tours of fish
farms and facilities Feb. 20. General
presentations will be offered Feb. 21, along
with the AquaFood Fest, featuring some
of the state’s finest farm-raised fish and
shellfish. The agenda concludes Feb. 22
with concurrent workshops on freshwater
and marine aquaculture.
North Carolina Sea Grant is among
the conference sponsors, along with
the N.C. Aquaculture Association, N.C.
Cooperative Extension, N.C. Department
of Agriculture & Consumer Services, N.C.
Farm Bureau Federation and the N.C.
Shellfish Growers Association. Additional
support comes from the N.C. Small
Business & Technology Development
Center and NC State University’s College of
Agriculture & Life Sciences.
Conference registration and event de-tails
are available at www.ncaquaculture.org.
For questions, email cathy_smith@ncsu.edu.
Read about two shellfish aquaculture
producers in North Carolina on page 14.
— K.M.
4 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
NC Coastal Policy Fellows Selected
Michael Goralnik and Kimberly Hernandez are the 2014 Coastal
Policy Fellows. This program is offered by North Carolina Sea Grant and the
N.C. Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center.
“Sea Grant and the center are proud to fund timely research on issues
important to our coastal communities. We look forward to working with
the fellows over the next year on their projects,” says Lisa Schiavinato, Sea
Grant law, policy and community development specialist and co-director
of the center. “Engaging communities during the research phase and then
communicating results are equally important. We will work closely with the
fellows on outreach to coastal communities about how the research results
will benefit them.”
Goralnik is working toward a master’s degree in landscape
architecture at North Carolina State University, as well as a master’s in city
and regional planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A native of St. Louis, Goralnik earned his bachelor’s degree in American
studies from Tufts University in Boston.
He will identify and evaluate federal, state and local policies that
determine coastal design, and how designers can work with coastal
planners and officials. Also, he will highlight how coastal policy affects
responses to disaster events.
“I believe this exciting fellowship is another step toward achieving
greater coastal resiliency and sustainable disaster-preparedness and response policies within our
region,” says Andrew Fox, Goralnik’s academic advisor in the NC State College of Design.
Hernandez, who is pursuing a master’s degree in coastal environmental management at
Duke University, will study how the state can protect beaches, as well as the federally threatened
loggerhead sea turtle, in the face of rising sea levels. She will analyze how beach protection efforts
may influence sea turtle nesting. She works with Andy Read, a marine biologist at Duke.
Hernandez, who hails from Hutchinson, Kan., holds an undergraduate degree in
environmental and international studies from the University of Kansas. 	 — E.L.
Kimberly Hernadez
Michael Goralnik
Courtesy Kimberly Hernadez Courtesy Michael Goralnik
The annual conference of the Water
	
Resources Research Institute of the University
of North Carolina System will be March 19
and 20 at North Carolina State University’s
McKimmon Center in Raleigh.
The conference will focus on issues,
solutions and opportunities related to North
Carolina’s water resources. Students, research-ers
and environmental professionals are invited
to attend, as are representatives of nonprofit
environmental organizations, governmental
agencies, businesses and industries involved in
water-related issues.
The N.C. Water Resources Associa-tion
Annual Symposium also takes place in
conjunction with the conference. This year’s
event — Local Governments as Keystone Water
Resource Managers — will explore the role that
communities play in managing and shaping the
future of water resources in North Carolina.
Symposium panelists will discuss this local
management capacity, and will compare and
contrast local management with other adminis-tration
models.
For early rates, register by March 14.
	
For details, visit www.ncsu.edu/wrri/. — R.R.
Water Resources Meeting Set for March
C O A S T A L T I D I N G S
Sea Grant, Coastal Reserve Award Two Fellowships
North Carolina and the N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve
Program have selected Shannon Brown and Justin Ridge as 2014 Coastal Reserve Fellows. This joint
program is designed to foster research within the boundaries of the NCRR/
NCNERR and address a coastal management issue.
“This fellowship is a great collaboration between Sea Grant and the
Reserve that provides additional opportunities for graduate students to
study coastal ecosystems within our state. The funding enables recipients
to conduct their fieldwork, gather additional data, and extend their
research through targeted education and outreach efforts to a broad public
audience,” says Susan White, Sea Grant executive director. “It is a win for
all parties involved — fellows, their advisors, Sea Grant and the Reserve
program.”
Brown, who is a master’s student with David Eggleston at North
Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology,
will be characterizing the biological, physical and human-produced sounds
in different habitats within the Rachel Carson Reserve. In the marine
environment, sound is used and made by animals for communicating
and sensing, and is associated with many other biological processes.
Hailing from Putnam Valley, N.Y., Brown received her bachelor’s degree
in marine science from the University of Maine.
Ridge, a doctoral student with Antonio Rodriguez and Joel Fodrie at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences,
will be studying how salt marshes and oyster reefs have grown over the past
century in the Rachel Carson Reserve. This study also will compare restored
reef growth to that of naturally occurring reefs within the reserve to understand what conditions
make oyster reefs thrive.
A native of Nashville, Ind., Ridge holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hanover College
in Indiana, and a master’s degree in biological oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology.
He is a founding member of the Scientific Research and Education Network, or SciREN, a
graduate-student initiative that fosters collaboration between researchers and educators across
North Carolina. 	 	 	 	 	 	 — E.L.
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 5
Coastwatch
Recognized by
NC Peers
Coastwatch, North Carolina
Sea Grant’s flagship publication, was
honored during the 2013 Excellence in
Communications Competition, organized
by the N.C. Association of Government
Information Officers.
The Summer 2013 issue of the
magazine won the print publication
category. Entries were judged on writing,
graphics and design. “The winners stood
out because of their attention to detail,”
the judges noted.
“We are especially pleased to be
recognized by peers who understand
the wide range of audiences that we
serve through Coastwatch,” says Katie
Mosher, Sea Grant communications
director. “E-Ching Lee is truly a managing
editor, pulling together a variety of stories
for each issue.”
The communications team also
includes Rhett Register, science writer/
editor, and circulation manager Sandra
Harris. Linda Noble designs the
publication.
In addition, contributing writer
Pam Smith, Sea Grant marine education
specialist Terri Kirby Hathaway, former
Sea Grant extension specialist Brian
Efland, graduate intern Sharon Settlage,
and undergraduate interns Megan Sharp
and Chelsea Pierce contributed to the
winning issue.
To read select articles, visit www.
nccoastwatch.org. 	 — E.L.
C O A S T A L T I D I N G S
N O R T H C A R O L I N A S E A G R A N T • S U M M E R • 2 0 1 3 • I S S U E 3 • $ 3 . 7 5 Coastwatch
Amazing Places:
Via Book, Trail, Byway
R I P C U R R E N T S • F I S H E R Y R E S E A R C H • F U T U R E L E A D E R S • B O G U E B U T T E R F L Y
The Offshore Energy in the Southeast
Conference is set for March 24 to 25 at the
University of North Carolina Wilmington’s
Burney Center.
The N.C. Coastal Resources Law, Planning
and Policy Center will host the meeting, along
with the UNC Center for Law, Environment,
Adaptation and Resources, and UNCW.
Federal, state and local officials,
attorneys, engineers, and scientists will highlight
topics on offshore wind leases, natural gas
reserves, energy markets, safety issues and
other emerging technologies.
Renewable and fossil fuel energy develop-ment,
and resulting effects on the economy
and environment, also will be discussed.
Attendees can expect presentations
to cover recent legislation and case law, as
well as other policy issues that affect coastal
communities and property owners. For more
information, visit nccoastallaw.org/conference.
	 	 — C.P.
Offshore Energy Conference Rescheduled
Courtesy Shannon Brown
Justin Ridge
Shannon Brown
Courtesy Justin Ridge
6 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
Steve Hillebrand
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 7
C o n t i n u e d
A LITTLE SLICE OF
HYDE COUNTY: Investigating the science
of wetlands restoration
B Y R H E T T R E G I S T E R
Still waters reflect cypress trees in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.
C o n t i n u e d
8 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
fter a dusty ride down farm roads bordered by carpets
of soybeans and the stubble of late-season cornfields, Mike Burchell stops
the truck next to what looks like an impenetrable swamp.
He and his lab manager, Tiffany Messer, don work boots and snake
chaps. She pockets a hand-held GPS unit while he shoulders a bush axe.
Then the pair heads down an overgrown trail into the dense vegetation.
They are in a portion of Hyde County on the Albemarle Peninsula
— a flat, mitten-shaped piece of land, much of which is barely above sea
level. A short walk past a sinkhole filled with black water, over fallen
trees and through tangles of wild grapevines leads them to what they
seek.
“This is why we do these in replicate,” Burchell says, pointing to
tooth marks and threads of black hair on a PVC pipe jutting up from the
forest floor.
The pipe is a well that Burchell, an ecological engineer with
the North Carolina State University’s Department of Biological and
Agricultural Engineering, and Messer dug a year ago to monitor
groundwater levels on the peninsula. A curious black bear had shaken the
batteries out of the data logger that records information on water levels
from a sensor in the well.
The researchers will combine data from the wells — those that
haven’t been throttled by black bears — with lab work funded by North
Carolina Sea Grant and the N.C. Water Resources Research Institute of
the University of North Carolina System. It is among the first projects to
be jointly funded by both programs.
“The freshwater work done by WRRI dovetails nicely with the
coastal concerns that Sea Grant focuses on, “ says Susan White, executive
director of both organizations. “Results from this project will have broad
applicability in both freshwater and saltwater environments.”
In fact, results from the research will be used for what could
become the largest wetlands restoration project in North Carolina.
• IT BEGINS WITH OYSTERS
In 2003, the N.C. Coastal Federation, a nonprofit coastal advocacy
organization, sought to devise a plan for restoring oysters in the northern
portion of Pamlico Sound as part of a coastwide effort.
Oysters filter dirty water. Their beds help prevent erosion and are a
favored habitat of many fish species and blue crabs. Helping oysters can
help an entire ecosystem.
Through stakeholder meetings, the federation identified areas within
the region where water quality issues may have affected historical oyster
beds, and sought input from stakeholders as to possible ways to improve
oyster restoration success.
The federation focused on a region near the central coast of the
peninsula where aerial photographs showed intermittent tannic plumes
coming from drainage canals. Federation scientists say the canals — used
to drain the peninsula to make it suitable for farming — are discharging
water that contains sediment and bacteria that are harmful to oysters.
This runoff, they say, combines with disease, storms and harvest pressure
to reduce oyster populations in the area. C o n t i n u e d
Rhett Register
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 9
C o n t i n u e d
• FACING PAGE: A network of ditches and canals drains parts of the Albemarle Peninsula.
• THIS PAGE, TOP LEFT: Tiffany Messer samples water near Lux Farms to ensure her model accurately
represents conditions in the field. • TOP RIGHT: Pumps are needed to move water through the
Mattamuskeet Drainage Association’s canals. • BOTTOM: Mike Burchell checks the depth of the
groundwater near the proposed restoration site.
Rhett Register
Rhett Register
Rhett Register
Long
Shoal
River
Otter Creek
Pamlico Sound
Alligator
River
Eight Wetland Restoration
Projects Indentified:
Two sites for proposed water recycling project
Water used to irrigate adjacent fields
Two land acquisition projects to be used
in future restoration work
Closed waters
Canals within the association
Association’s pump stations
Swan Lake
Mattamuskeet Drainage Association
Intracoastal
Waterway
10 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
• FROM WATER TO LAND
“We realized for oyster restoration to be successful, we needed to
address some of the water quality concerns that were stemming from
land-use changes,” says Erin Fleckenstein, a coastal scientist who manages
the federation’s northeast regional office.
In the 1960s, the peninsula was ditched and drained to log cypress,
pine and cedar trees. After timber operations dwindled, agriculture moved
in, bringing more economic development to the area. Today, farms in the
region typically grow commodity crops such as corn, wheat, soybeans
and cotton. In some areas, the land must be kept dry using an extensive
system of pumps and ditches. In northern Hyde County, the Mattamuskeet
Drainage Association maintains and operates a pump and canal system
that makes farming, timber production and some recreational activities
possible on a 64-square-mile portion of the peninsula.
Fleckenstein and other federation staff approached Wilson Daughtry,
then president of the association, to discuss ways of reducing flow from
their drainage canals into the sensitive oyster waters of the Pamlico Sound.
They hoped that some of the association members would be willing to
restore a portion of their land to wetlands, which could improve water
quality and reduce the amount of water leaving the area.
Wetlands act as nature’s kidneys by filtering water as it moves
through them. They absorb water and slow its flow, allowing sediment to
fall out, reducing bacteria and processing excess nutrients — all actions
that improve water quality.
As it turned out, landowners in the association already were thinking
about ways to reduce drainage to the Pamlico Sound. Daughtry told the
scientists that in the 1990s, association landowners began capitalizing on
the Wetlands Reserve Program, or WRP. The program, run by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, or
NRCS, purchases perpetual easements on land and restores the hydrology
to wetland status.
Daughtry is part owner and manager of the 4,700-acre Lux Farms.
He also owns Alligator River Growers, a smaller adjacent farm famous for
its onions. Both farms are contained within the Mattamuskeet Association.
According to Daughtry, for several decades, owners of Lux Farms have
wanted to try and limit the amount of water leaving the land.
“I would say going all the way back to the mid ‘80s there was a
desire to try to hold water in certain — what we would classify as unpro-ductive
— parts of the farm and more or less keep that water from being
pumped out of the system to where we couldn’t get it back and reuse it.”
Daughtry also surprised the federation by producing an aerial
photograph of the property, taken in the late 1980s, that showed the outline
of a dry slough running northward through the Lux Farms property.
The image meant that originally, water flowed toward the Alligator
River, north of the property, rather than east to the sound. If the original
hydrology could be restored, drainage from the land that was flowing into
the Pamlico Sound would be reduced or stopped altogether.
In 2011, Daughtry and fellow owners of Lux Farms agreed to put
4,033 acres — an area bordering the Alligator River National Wildlife
Refuge — into the WRP.
• TOP LEFT: Water from drainage canals can
carry elements that are harmful to oysters,
such as bacteria and suspended sediment. • TOP
RIGHT: Maggie Rabiipour (left) and Tiffany Messer
(right) show a sensor they use for monitoring
the mesocosms. • BOTTOM: This map shows the
Mattamuskeet Drainage
Association, with colored
areas representing future
restoration projects. The
aqua-colored square closest
to Swan Lake represents the
1,400-acre Lux Farms project.
Courtesy N.C. Coastal Federation
Rhett Register
Courtesy N.C. Coastal Federation
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 11
• PLANS AND MORE PLANS
With the land now available for restoration, the federation turned to
Burchell and fellow Biological and Agricultural Engineering department
members Chip Cheschier and Kris Bass to work with WRP officials to
create a plan for restoring wetlands on the property.
The group decided a phased approach would work best, with
the first phase restoring 1,400 acres of the Lux Farms land. The plan
calls for the WRP to restore wetland habitat using dikes and drainage
modifications to make the area wetter. It also will add new trees to
replace lost habitat and threatened tree species.
“We try to get as close as possible, to the extent practical, of what
we consider to be what the site was historically,” says Bill Edwards,
NRCS area biologist and WRP team leader for the project.
The Coastal Federation will work with the WRP to ensure that the
restoration will improve water quality in the sound.
To connect the restored parcel to the existing drainage network,
Burchell and his team plan to add pumps, sloughs and water-control
structures to the WRP work. These additions will help reproduce flows
that historically occurred through the project area.
“By mimicking the hydrologic regime that once existed,” Burchell
says, “the farm will not need to pump as much to the sounds.” That’s
where the wells come in. Burchell will use information the wells provide
to monitor the hydroperiod, or the signature of how water changes at the
surface and in the soil, in the wetland areas before and after restoration.
• REFUGE CONCERNS
Much has changed since the 1960s when the water was initially was
routed east into the sound. In 1984, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
established the 154,000-acre Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.
Home to the largest concentration of black bears on the East Coast, the
refuge protects plants, such as carnivorous pitcher plants, and habitat
types, such as pocosins. These are an unusual phenomenon where a
swamp occurs on ground that is higher than the surrounding land.
When the Coastal Federation approached the agency about the
restoration, officials were supportive. Additional fresh water into the
refuge might help stay saltwater intrusion that kills trees, and could raise
the water table, making the refuge less susceptible to underground peat
fires that sometimes occur in the region. Refuge officials voiced concern,
however, about the quality of water that would be coming into the refuge
from the farm.
“We didn’t want to see over-nitrification of Swan Creek Lake,”
says Scott Lanier, deputy manager of the refuge. “We deal with invasive
plant species control — those lakes can be impacted by alligator weed.
We didn’t want to see any other stressors on there that would negatively
impact them.”
To address the managers’ concerns and to understand how effective
the restored wetlands will be at removing nitrogen from water headed
toward the Alligator River, Burchell and Messer sought research funding
from Sea Grant and WRRI, for work in Raleigh. C o n t i n u e d
Rhett Register
• THIS PAGE: Rabiipour records information
from mesocosms that mimic conditions at the
restoration site in Hyde County.
12 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
• HYDE COUNTY IN RALEIGH
Opaque plastic covers a greenhouse in west Raleigh where soft-stemmed
bulrush sway in the breeze coming in through open windows.
The bulrush, a tall spikey plant common to North Carolina wetlands,
grow in a series of large wooden planters filled with soils Messer and
Burchell have brought back from the proposed restoration site.
The system — called a mesocosm — acts as a representative
environment that researchers can study to answer questions about how
the larger environmental system works at the coast.
Funding from Sea Grant and WRRI allowed Messer to recreate
this little slice of Hyde County in a Raleigh lab. As part of her doctoral
project, she measures how the miniature wetlands process nitrogen.
“You can’t do this kind of data analysis on a site that is four hours
away,” she says. “We can’t go every day to get samples.” The lab also
allows the researchers to control all of the parameters that factor into a
wetland absorbing nitrogen, something that would be impossible in the
field.
Above the bulrush planters hangs a latticework of clear aquarium
tubing. The plants are given water that mimics the site’s agricultural
runoff. Periodically, a sensor system automatically sips water samples
through the tubes from each of the mesocosms. The system measures
the water’s contents and stores the information for Messer to download.
From the data, she can determine how much of the nitrogen is being
removed from the water.
Plants love nitrogen. That’s why it is used for fertilizer. But it is
not the bulrush that neutralizes all of the nitrogen fertilizer in the water.
The organisms that often do the heavy lifting are the bacteria that
reside around the root structures of the plants in the soil. Under the right
conditions, these bacteria use nitrogen instead of oxygen. The result is the
breakdown of active fertilizer in the water into solidly bonded, inactive
nitrogen. Results from this process, called denitrification, bubble up from
the soil to join the inert nitrogen gas that makes up 78 percent of our
atmosphere.
Wires dangle from probes inserted into the soil to test for the
redox potential — a measurement of how likely the bacteria will be to
convert the fertilizer. Messer and her assistant, undergraduate Maggie
Rabiipour, collect data from them and also check pH, dissolved oxygen
and temperature in each of the mesocosm systems.
By December, Messer had run 11 rounds of tests on the mesocosms
and planned five more. The preliminary results are encouraging in terms
of nitrogen absorption.
“It appears that that the wetlands will be able to reduce nitrogen
concentrations to a level that will not be a problem for the refuge,” she
says.
• NITROGEN’S FATE
The projects also answer broader questions about how nitrogen
flows through wetlands.
“Everyone knows that wetlands remove nitrate. I knew that when I
was getting my Ph.D. But where’s it going?” Burchell asks.
Jackie Orsulak
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 13
Nitrogen fertilizer moving into a wetland could be used by plants or
bacteria in the soil, escape into the air, or dissolve in water. Thus, Messer
and Burchell devised a tracer study that uses a rare form of nitrogen to
map the fate of the element as it moves through a wetland.
After injecting the nitrogen-15 isotope into the mesocosms, the pair
took samples of all of the places it could have gone — air, water, soil and
plants. They sent the samples to a U.S. Geological Survey lab and the
Duke Environmental Stable Isotope Lab and are waiting for the results as
of January 2014.
“I now understand why more people haven’t done this study,”
Burchell says. “It is a lot of work and it is expensive. But we’ve persevered
through this. Our preliminary analysis has shown that most of the
nitrogen loss is from complete denitrification from nitrate to nitrogen
gas.”
That is a good thing because the denitrification process has a few
intermediate forms of nitrogen, such as nitrous oxide, that are potent
greenhouse gases.
Despite the effort involved, results from piecing together the route
nitrogen takes once it enters a wetland will help engineers estimate how
much nitrogen a wetland can absorb in restoration projects in North
Carolina and beyond.
“This project is using science to make the most accurate prediction
about what will happen to nutrients when water is diverted from
agricultural land to restored wetlands,” says Sea Grant water quality
specialist Barbara Doll. “Their efforts will further advance the science of
nitrogen fate and transport in coastal wetland systems.”
• MOVING FORWARD
If the project is successful in improving water quality in the
Pamlico Sound, the federation has plans for additional phases.
“The work that is being initiated with Mike and the mesocosm
study will be initially applied to the Lux Farms project,” Fleckenstein
says, “but also will help to inform these other 10 projects that have been
identified within the association and how we best manage them for
nutrient removal and water quality benefits.”
Future phases could end up restoring as much as 10,400 acres
within the drainage association making it, according to Fleckenstein, one
of the largest wetland restorations in the nation.
If all goes according to plan, ground could be broken on the
Lux Farms project as early as spring of this year. Burchell is ready
for the project to begin and is optimistic that the results will show that
wetlands restoration can play a big role in addressing water quality issues
throughout the state.
“I’m enthusiastic about the ability of wetlands to treat nitrogen,” he
says. “With proper management, I believe diverting runoff into wetlands
systems will allow us to treat a sizeable portion of our nonpoint source
pollution problems.”
• FACING PAGE: Bobcats inhabit the Alligator
River National Wildlife Refuge. • THIS PAGE,
TOP RIGHT: A mother black bear and her cubs
cross the road in the refuge. • BOTTOM LEFT:
Wilson Daughtry owns Alligator River Growers
and is part-owner and manager of Lux Farms.
• BOTTOM RIGHT: Coastal North Carolina is
the northernmost extent of the range of the
American alligator.
Jackie Orsulak Jackie Orsulak
Rhett Register
14 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
1
4
3
7
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 15
C o n t i n u e d
Joey Daniels shucks an oyster he just pulled
from the Roanoke Sound and pops it into his
mouth.
“Twenty-four parts per thousand,” he
announces, stating a level of saltiness for the
oyster.
Then he tosses the shell back into the
water with a flick of his blue-gloved hand.
Daniels, the fourth generation of a Wanchese
fish house family, is showing a visitor around his
oyster lease — a guest who laughs at his bold
declaration.
“What? You think I’m kidding?” he
demands, with a chuckle.
1. Joey Daniels’ oysters grow in the Roanoke
Sound. 2. Oysters crowd the bottom cage from
Daniels’ lease. 3. From his “office,” Daniels can
see the Bodie Island Lighthouse. 4. Daniels
uses practically every spot on his lease to grow
oysters. 5. The Wanchese Fish Company sells
these oysters to seafood aggregators along the
East Coast. 6. All sorts of plant and animal life
grow on the bags too. 7. As it spins, this cylinder
sorts the oysters by size. 8. Daniels also uses
cattle-pen fencing to hold oysters as they grow.
9. Small oysters grow in bags, slipped into the
fencing racks.
2
5 6
8 9
B y E - C h i n g L e e
HOME
IN AN
OYSTER
SHELL
New oyster aquaculture
operations grow seed,
take root
Photos by E-Ching Lee
16 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
1 2
3 4
5 6
Photos by E-Ching Lee
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 17
C o n t i n u e d
Daniels, who runs the Bodie Island
Oysters aquaculture operation for Wanchese
Fish Company, should know. In two years, he’s
grown his venture into one of the largest oyster
producers in the state.
Farther south, Chris Matteo established
his own aquaculture venture, Chadwick Creek
Oysters. He put seed into the creek, off the Bay
River, last spring and started selling his oysters
before Halloween. This northern transplant
is armed with years of personal research, and
strong support from his wife and her family,
North Carolina natives with roots at the coast.
At the Raleigh Farmers Market, Matteo
pauses briefly to remember when he harvested
the oysters being sold a few steps away.
“Yesterday morning at 8:30 a.m. It was 28
degrees and there was a bear on my driveway,”
he recalls.
Based on the wind direction that morning,
“they might be a little saltier than normal,” he
explains. The salinity of his oysters is slightly
affected by wind tides.
These guys know their oysters — and
are open to using novel methods to grow their
businesses. So says Marc Turano, former North
Carolina Sea Grant mariculture and blue crab
specialist.
Turano sees many similarities between the
self-professed “dock brat” from the Outer Banks
and the former hedge-fund trader who grew up
in the Northeast. He’s worked with both men to
help them set up their operations and determine
what would work in their specific locations.
Even though Turano no longer is with Sea Grant,
Daniels and Matteo still call him for advice.
“They’re both very active and very willing
to try things that others aren’t to see what works.
They’re very innovative,” he explains.
“They’re going to set the standard for North
Carolina,” Turano predicts.
* Bringing It Home
On his 10-acre lease, Daniels’ bivalves have
a front seat to iconic Outer Banks landmarks.
They are bordered on one side by the Cape
Hatteras National Seashore, watched over by
their namesake Bodie Island Lighthouse, and
protected on the southeast by Oregon Inlet.
He works within view of the Wanchese
Fish Company, a business started by his great-grandfather
about 75 years ago and now run by
his father, aunts and uncles.
Daniels stands on a barge in the middle of
his lease, looking out on the calm water that is as
smooth as glass. The wind is still, the birds are
silent and the low afternoon sun glitters.
“I like my office,” Daniels admits. “It’s got
a good view.”
And he prefers it to his previous job that
required him to spend a lot of time in Virginia,
where the family seafood business has another
location.
“I didn’t want to be up there. I wanted
to be at home. Anyhow, it made me think of
something we could do at home,” he says. And
so the idea of the aquaculture operation was
born.
It’s not always quiet on the barge. When
Daniels has the sorter processing oysters, “it’s
like thousands of alarm clocks going off at one
time.” A metal cylinder with different-sized
holes turns and separates oysters by size. This
process also chips the thin edges off the shell
lips, encouraging the bivalve to grow deeper
cups, a quality prized by the half-shell market.
The barge also houses a large whiteboard
that maps out where cages and bags are located
on the lease, and the condition of the oysters.
Each date represents when a cage was last
checked, with ink color denoting the size of the
oysters. The strings of lines are for the float bags,
recording the number and size of bags set, and
when they were placed.
“We update it every day. And I’ll take a
picture of it and I’ll go home and look at it on
my iPad and try and figure out what I’m going to
do tomorrow,” Daniels says.
He needs to be organized because he has
customers who put in large orders. Daniels’
oysters are sold through the fish house to
seafood aggregators and distributors, such as
U.S. Foods and Sysco. Sometimes it’s more
work than Daniels, co-worker Pat Leonard and
two part-time workers can handle.
The men constantly are experimenting
with ways to grow the shellfish — float bags,
bottom cages and racks — and trying out new
methods. “Joey always called with the strangest
questions. He made me spend a lot of time
thinking things out,” Turano says. “I learned a lot
from him.”
Last November, Daniels and Leonard
started using cattle-pen fencing with curled-up
edges to hold grow bags. He folds down the ends
of his bags and tucks them into these galvanized
metal shelves. The racks are stacked two high
and held down with “rebar candy canes.” Each
inexpensive rack can hold 18 bags.
Asked what his oysters taste like, Daniels
doesn’t even have to think.
“Mine are the best in the world,” he
responds without hesitation. Then he laughs.
“That’s what they all say. That’s what they’re
supposed to say.”
But then he gets serious. “I think oysters
taste like the last thing they drank,” he says.
Harvest conditions, such as tides and rain, can
affect their flavor.
“I grew up in this town right here and the
fish houses are closing,” he says, noting that his
community is always on his mind. “The inlet’s
closed half the time so the big boats can’t come
and go. And those people need jobs, so we’ve got
to bring some product across those docks to keep
things going.”
Daniels has big plans for his oyster farm.
“We’re trying to do it on an industrial scale. I
don’t think anyone’s tried to do that in our state
yet,” he continues. “I don’t claim to be doing that
yet but that’s what our goal is. I feel like it’s our
future. We need to do it.”
North Carolina has the second largest
estuarine system in the country but produces less
than 1 percent of cultured oysters in the U.S.,
Daniels observes. He wants to see the state’s
growers become key players in that market. “It’s
time for us to get in the game.”
* Finding a Niche
Matteo, who owns Chadwick Creek Oysters
in Bayboro, wants to help change things where
he is too. And he is throwing himself right into
the job.
The coastal property he purchased came
with an 8-acre shellfish franchise — a deeded
1. The cattle-pen fencing racks are stacked two high and staked in place by candy cane rebar. 2. Joey Daniels is the fourth generation of a fish house
family. 3. Aquaculture allows Daniels to stay close to home in Wanchese. 4. The oyster sorter and a board that maps the location of oysters on the lease
are on this barge. 5. Daniels checks the oysters in a grow bag. 6. In the afternoon, Pat Leonard works with Daniels to build additional gear to hold their
ever-growing shellfish population.
18 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
2
1
4 5
6 7
3
Courtesy Chris Matteo Courtesy Chris Matteo
Courtesy Chris Matteo
Courtesy Locals Seafood
Courtesy Chris Matteo
Marc Turano
Courtesy Chris Matteo
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 19
claim to submerged land on which the owner
pays taxes. The state no longer issues franchises.
Instead it offers bottom or water-column leases
on five-year contracts.
His franchise, 25 miles east of New Bern,
is close to Swan Quarter and Pamlico Bay, areas
that once were rich in oysters. However, Matteo
and wife Kelly found that many of those opera-tions
had been shuttered. The couple also noticed
that most oysters consumed in North Carolina
were not local, which didn’t make sense to them,
given the state’s vast water resources.
“We figured that if we could help turn the
tide, we would love to get involved and do that,”
Matteo says.
Then last spring, Matteo, along with
father-in-law Duane Creech and Doug Cross
from Pamlico Packing, went to visit several
oyster aquaculture businesses in Maryland and
Virginia, and the oyster hatchery at the Virginia
Institute of Marine Science — a tour organized
by Turano.
The trip was a tipping point. It made
Matteo want to pursue oyster aquaculture in
a way that would be more than a “weekend-warrior”
effort. He wanted this venture to be
more than a side interest.
And so he jumped in, literally and
figuratively. Immediately after that trip, Matteo
and Creech were up to their chests in 4 feet of
water in Chadwick Creek, planting oyster seed.
That was early April. Seven months later, they
were harvesting their first legal-sized oysters. In
the world of oyster growing, this is fast.
Matteo is still ironing out the details. He
wants to get the process optimized, efficient and
simplified to the point where he can “basically
hand it off to someone who hasn’t spent the last
year doing this and they could easily pick it up
and run with it,” he notes. He wants to focus on
the business and marketing aspect of the venture.
Currently, he takes his oysters to Cross
at Pamlico Packing in Grantsboro, about 15
minutes away. Cross’ trucks deliver his product
to Locals Seafood in Raleigh, for distribution to
individuals and restaurants.
“They are some of the best oysters we have
eaten. Delicious on the half-shell, their deep
cup and subtle brine are perfect for my tastes,”
says Lin Peterson, co-owner of Locals Seafood.
“It’s great to offer a premium oyster, grown and
harvested year-round in North Carolina waters.”
Local restaurants give a “thumbs up” to these
oysters, Peterson adds.
“Our priority is to sell a local product in a
local way,” Matteo says. His goal is to produce
enough oysters to satisfy in-state demand. Then
he wants to venture into neighboring states, such
as Virginia and Maryland, and reverse North
Carolina’s oyster-importing trend.
Matteo says his oysters are unique. “We
have a very distinct oyster in North Carolina,” he
explains. “We’re the only grower right now on
the lower end of the salinity scale.”
In addition, the salinity of his oysters can
vary slightly from week to week. “We’re in a
wind-tide area, so if the wind blows a certain
way, the oysters are saltier and if it blows a
different way, it’s lower salinity,” he says.
In preparation for spring growing season,
Matteo has put more seed in the water and plans
to expand his venture once the water starts to
warm up. But he’s satisfied for now.
“So far, so good. We’ve put a lot of effort
into it. We’ve put a lot of money into it,” he says,
with a wry laugh. He understands that operations
such as his take time to hit their stride. However,
he is glad to be in a business that speaks to
something near and dear to his palate and plate.
“My wife and I are foodies at heart so
we wanted to get involved in something that
generated a local product,” he explains.
* Creating a Welcoming Place
These cultured oysters benefit people,
as well as the surrounding environment and
the creatures that live in their vicinity. If
these shellfish spawn, they replenish the wild
population in the area. And when they die, their
shells provide new surfaces upon which spat can
settle.
“Increasing the population of oysters has
dual benefit. In addition to being a tasty seafood
option, oysters provide many ecosystem services
including filtering the water and providing
habitat to a multitude of marine species,” says
John Fear, Sea Grant deputy director.
Mainly, oysters filter the water, removing
impurities, and often extracting particles that
prevent sunlight from reaching the bottom.
Increased sunlight encourages the growth of
submerged aquatic vegetation, which provides
habitat for many juvenile species — such as
crabs, flounder and shrimp — that form the
backbone of the state’s commercial fisheries.
So these bivalves, and the aquaculture
operations that are growing them, are giving
back to the state’s economy and environment in
incalculable ways.
“It’s one of the few businesses that you can
get into where it’s a win-win-win. It’s a win for
the end consumer — they get a fresh, healthy
product,” Matteo explains. “And at the same
time, it’s awesome for the environment,” and
lucrative for the grower.
He uses two kinds of oysters: triploids that
cannot spawn and diploids that can reproduce.
Growers prefer the triploid because it does
not expend energy on reproduction, meaning
that its flesh is consistently firm and juicy.
During spawning season, diploids often have
lower-quality meat because their energies are
redirected toward propagating.
But both kinds of shellfish benefit the
environment, Matteo explains. Diploids spawn
and replenish the wild oyster stock in the area.
Triploids, even though they don’t add to the local
population, filter the surrounding water.
“And there aren’t too many businesses
or crops that you can grow that leave the
environment in a better state than it was prior,”
he adds.
Daniels, who uses triploids exclusively,
emphasizes the benefits from his oysters beyond
filtering.
“Every one that dies out here, there’s
another shell in the water,” he says. “Wild spat
can come and attach themselves to those shells,
and now you’ve got wild oysters. So you are
helping. Even though my oysters aren’t going
to spawn, a good portion of them die, so I’m
putting shell on the bottom to build natural
oyster reefs.
“When I lose, nature wins. So it’s a good
thing either way you look at it.”
Learn about these and other aquaculture
operations at the N.C. Aquaculture
Development Conference in February. Go
to page 4 for details. Find Chadwick Creek
Oysters at chadwickcreek.com.
1. Chris Matteo owns 8 acres of deeded bottom in the Bay River. 2. This barge is used to handle the bottom cages. 3. Matteo’s bivalves are lower in salinity than
most oysters grown in North Carolina. 4. Pamlico Packing trucks Matteo’s oysters to Raleigh. 5. Matteo is completing his first full year as an oyster grower. 6. Matteo
and his father-in-law Duane Creech talk to Anthony Marchetti from Rappahannock River Oyster Co. 7. Creech works with Matteo in the family-run business.
20 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
Chuck Bangley is a doctoral student in
coastal resources management at East Carolina University.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in marine biology at the University
of Rhode Island, worked at the Rhode Island Division of Marine
Fisheries, and completed his master’s degree at ECU studying the
feeding habits of spiny dogfish sharks. A blogger at Ya Like Dags
(yalikedags.southernfriedscience.com) and Southern Fried Science
(www.southernfriedscience.com), he is broadly interested in
interactions between fisheries and apex predators, such as sharks.
His current research seeks to identify nursery habitat and migratory
corridors used by sharks in North Carolina waters. This work would
not be possible without collaboration between scientists and
commercial fishermen — the focus of this article.
Fins
off
Hatteras
R E S E A R C H C O L L A B O R A T I O N C O N S I D E R S S H A R K S
By Chuck Bangley
C o n t i n u e d
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 21
C o n t i n u e d
Chuck Bangley holds a blacknose shark
caught in Beaufort Inlet.
Cecilia Krahforst
smoothhound and juvenile dusky
shark came up. Several large, flat
angel sharks and bullet-shaped
false albacore also were caught. And that was just the first set
of a full day of sampling.
By the end of the day, nearly 200 sandbar sharks would
be measured and released, 15 of them carrying acoustic
transmitters to track their long-term movements. One of the
three juvenile dusky sharks caught over the course of the
day also would be tagged. Smoothounds, Atlantic sharpnose
sharks and even a 6-foot scalloped hammerhead also would
make appearances.
For a gillnetter trying to avoid sharks, this location
would have been a nightmare. However, as researchers —
with appropriate permits — looking to document and tag as
many sharks as we could in a single day, it was like striking
gold. Thanks to the acoustic tags we were able to deploy, the
Cape Hatteras shark gold mine just may pay off for fisheries
science.
Commercial fisherman Chris Hickman does not like the
word “anecdotal.”
Hickman has been fishing for 39 years, most of them
in the waters around Cape Hatteras. In that time, he’s seen
fishery management decisions made using data that do not
reflect what he and other fishermen experience on the water.
“If they’d just send researchers out with us, they’d see
what it’s really like,” he says. So he brings researchers out on
the water with him.
In February
2013, Hickman
brought me and
fellow doctoral
student Andrea
Dell’Apa to some
spots off Hatteras
and Ocracoke that
he and his fellow
gillnetters had
been avoiding. On
our way out, other
captains vented
their frustrations
over the radio about
not being able to
get away from the
“biters.” We headed
toward the places
they were talking
about, because
biters, or sharks
other than spiny or
smooth dogfish,
were exactly what
we were looking for.
We set a 400-yard gillnet in a seemingly nondescript
patch of water within sight of the beach and waited half an
hour. Although the net was the length of four football fields,
the high-flyer buoys marking either end seemed very close
together in the ocean. Compared to the overnight or multiday
soaks used during true commercial fishing, half an hour is no
time at all.
Yet, in a sampling period that Hickman described as a
“microdot,” I saw more sharks than I’ve ever seen in one set.
And these were not spiny dogfish, a commercial shark species
that typically is abundant in North Carolina waters. These were
the biters that the other Hatteras fishers were warning each
other about.
An even 100 sandbar sharks, all of them juveniles,
were picked out of the net, quickly filling the live well in a
mass of fins and teeth. Almost as an afterthought, an adult
22 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Chris Hickman’s mate, James Colbourn,
handles a juvenile common thresher shark. • This 6-foot scalloped
hammerhead is the largest shark caught during sampling so far.
• Many juvenile sandbar sharks can be found off Cape Hatteras. •
Andrea Dell’Apa surgically implants an acoustic transmitter tag
into a juvenile sandbar shark. • Research trips depart from
Hatteras Harbor.
Evan Knight
Chuck Bangley
Chuck Bangley
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 23
WORKING TOGETHER
Dell’Apa’s tagging project was funded by the N.C. Fishery
Resource Grant program, which is administered by North
Carolina Sea Grant. For about 20 years, this state-funded
program fostered cooperative research among commercial
fishers, recreational anglers, seafood businesses and university
researchers to tackle coastal issues. In fact, the majority of
support for our acoustic telemetry projects has come from the
FRG program.
But our research wasn’t always about coastal sharks. Roger
Rulifson’s fisheries biology lab at East Carolina University has
been studying sharks — mostly spiny dogfish — for 17 years. Sea
Grant has been a consistent partner in the lab’s shark research
since the first project in 1997, when Rulifson started to work
with Hickman. It was a large-scale tagging project focusing on
dogfish overwintering off North Carolina waters.
The concerns and observations of fishers have long
provided inspiration for the lab’s research, and fishers have
made great collaborators over the years. For his part, Rulifson
has been impressed with the results of the body of cooperative
work conducted.
“They were coming from different perspectives —
experience on the water — and had definite ideas of what
would or would not work in our projects,” Rulifson says of the
fishers we’ve worked with. He praises the captains for their
willingness to experiment with innovative approaches to help
the scientists conduct their on-water experiments.
“Above all,” he continues, “they were respected in their
communities and certainly earned our respect with their
patience, catered to our needs and were willing to go an extra
mile — or two! — making sure we completed our studies.”
Hickman has been a part of our lab’s work off Hatteras
ever since, collaborating on traditional and acoustic tagging
studies, assisting with array maintenance, participating in the
spiny dogfish management symposium hosted by the lab in
2007, and providing a window into the Cape Hatteras fishing
community.
TRACKING SHARKS
In 2008, Rulifson’s lab deployed an array of acoustic
receivers stretching 12 miles into the Atlantic Ocean just south
of Cape Hatteras, and has maintained it ever since. The array
was originally set up by Rulifson and doctoral student Jennifer
Cudney to document the presence of spiny dogfish south of the
Hatteras Bight as part of a Sea Grant-funded study.
The array was next used by Dell’Apa, also supported by
Sea Grant, to find, tag and track juvenile spiny dogfish and
possibly identify nursery habitat in the area. Though plenty of
adult dogfish were encountered, juveniles proved to be difficult
to find. However, other sharks were frequently caught in the
process of fishing for dogfish: sharpnoses, duskies, sandbars,
even the occasional thresher. Most of these sharks were well
within the juvenile size range for their species.
After riding along with Dell’Apa on some of his sampling
trips and seeing the diversity of sharks present around Cape
Hatteras, I became interested in the potential for coastal
shark nursery habitat in these waters. In late 2012, the
juvenile dogfish-tagging project officially became a juvenile
coastal shark project, with six species chosen for acoustic
tagging: targeted species, such as blacktip, sharpnose and
smoothhound sharks; and species of conservation concern,
including dusky, hammerhead and sandbar sharks. These
species were selected for their importance in coastal shark
fisheries.
Sharks are captured using short gillnet soaks, identified,
measured and released. Juveniles in good condition are
chosen to receive acoustic tags. Candidate sharks are placed
in a state called tonic immobility, where they are functionally
unconscious. Kept alive with a seawater hose to maintain
C o n t i n u e d
Chuck Bangley Chuck Bangley
water flow over the gills, each shark is surgically implanted
with a uniquely numbered acoustic transmitter before being
released.
Everyone participating in shark tagging receives training
in survival surgery — basic medical procedures to ensure the
animal’s long-term survival. Our methods have been approved
and permitted by both ECU’s Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Once deployed, these transmitters “ping in” when the
shark swims within detection range of one of the receivers on
our array. The receiver records the ID number, date, time and
other transmitted data. The tags I’m using broadcast depth
and temperature measurements from the shark’s location,
which give an idea of its habitat preferences. All of these data
are then downloaded from the receivers for analysis.
Our tags can be picked up by arrays deployed by
government agencies and research institutions up and down
the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Also, we frequently
detect tags deployed on other species by other researchers.
All data are shared through the Atlantic Cooperative
Telemetry network. This group of researchers conducting
acoustic telemetry studies on the Atlantic Coast make sure
detection data get to the original researcher, regardless of
where the tagged animal pings in. Being a part of the ACT
network allows us to see where our tagged sharks go once
they leave Cape Hatteras.
ANECDOTES
BECOMING
DATA
While many
Hatteras fishers
target spiny dogfish
in the winter, they
generally try to avoid
interacting with
other sharks. The
coastal shark species,
managed by NMFS
as large coastal or
small coastal sharks,
are a diverse group
with a variety of life histories, making some more vulnerable
to fishing pressure than others. However, some shark species
can be difficult to identify. Vulnerable species often are caught
alongside other species with more robust populations.
Among the shark species sampled in February 2013,
two would have been illegal for Hickman to possess without
research permits. Dusky sharks are prohibited altogether in
commercial fisheries. Sandbar sharks can only be landed as
part of a limited-access research fishery. On a normal day of
fishing, Hickman would have spent all that time picking through
a net full of catch he isn’t allowed to keep.
The goal of this study is to use the information gathered
from sampling trips and the tagged sharks to further refine
shark fishery regulations by providing managers with data.
Improved regulations will allow fishers to better avoid species
that need a break from fishing pressure while increasing access
to more abundant species. Survival of younger generations of
coastal sharks is critical to maintaining populations of these
24 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
Chuck Bangley Chuck Bangley
Chuck Bangley
Chuck Bangley
long-lived, late-maturing species, so identifying nursery habitat
is important. By collaborating with fishers such as Hickman, it
may be possible to turn their observations into hard data.
As fisheries management at the federal and state levels
seemingly becomes more dependent on modeling and
simulation, Hickman sees collaboration with scientists as a way
that fishers can be a part of the process. “Even if you find out
something that doesn’t help me, at least I saw where it came
from,” he says. “Assumptions in the science kill us. If you can
remove just one assumption, it will be worth it.”
Following up on his observations already has begun to
provide important information about the sharks off Cape
Hatteras. Other tagging trips were conducted in April and
November last year, in which two more species — spiny dogfish
and common thresher sharks — were added to the list of sharks
encountered. Visibly pregnant sharpnose and smoothhound
sharks were documented, another sign of the importance of
the Hatteras Bight as a nursery area. Another juvenile dusky
shark has been acoustically tagged. We hope our data will
provide crucial information on this poorly understood species
of concern.
So far, nine of the 15 tagged sandbar sharks have been
recorded either on the Hatteras array or an array maintained
by the U.S. Navy at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. They are
revealing some interesting migration and movement patterns.
The tagged sharks remained in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras
until April, then were detected in and around Chesapeake Bay
from May to August. The next data download should tell us
whether any of these sharks returned to Cape Hatteras last fall.
Our lab will continue to expand our tagging efforts.
The acoustic tags will transmit until their batteries run out
in approximately two years. That should be long enough to
identify areas that the sharks visit repeatedly during their
annual migrations. We also are conducting interviews with area
fishers to see how well our migration and habitat preference
data match up with what they’ve been seeing on the water.
The observations of the fishing community have been
very helpful in our efforts to understand the importance of this
dynamic environment to the ocean’s apex predators. Our work
started with the humble spiny dogfish, and has expanded to
include species that currently are being discussed for listing
under the federal Endangered Species Act. The consequences
of shark management decisions will profoundly affect fishers.
Thus, it’s crucial that their observations be part of the science
informing those decisions. After all, the scientific method is all
about testing observations.
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 25
OPPOSITE PAGE: Sharks captured during sampling off Cape
Hatteras included (clockwise from top) a pregnant female
smoothhound shark, a young-of-year dusky shark, a young-of-year
sandbar shark and an adult Atlantic sharpnose shark.
THIS PAGE, clockwise from above: Bangley caught a
finetooth shark while learning how to sample sharks in South
Carolina. • Adult sharpnose sharks are similar in size to juveniles
of other species and tend to occur in the same areas. • A visibly
pregnant sharpnose shark suggests that Cape Hatteras may
function as a nursery for this species.
Chuck Bangley Chuck Bangley
David Shiffman
The Rulifson lab at East Carolina University has been involved in shark research since 1996, most of which has been supported by North Carolina Sea Grant. After being approached by commercial fishermen interested in the then-developing fishery for spiny dogfish sharks in North Carolina, Roger Rulifson, graduate student Tina Moore, and commercial fisherman Chris Hickman conducted the first of many N.C. Fishery Resource Grant-funded projects on the demographics, stock structure and migration behavior of spiny dogfish overwintering off North Carolina. From 1997 to 2000, they tagged and collected basic biological information from dogfish, data that proved vital when the fishery collapsed in 1998.
Also in 1998, an FRG-funded collaboration with fisherman Edward Newman documented large groups of spiny dogfish in ocean waters south of Cape Hatteras. This was noteworthy because these sharks were outside of the area covered by National Marine Fisheries Service bottom-trawl surveys that were used to estimate the dogfish population. Further work with Newman and Hickman would prove even more helpful to dogfish management. A 2004 FRG-funded study on spiny dogfish capture mortality showed that these sharks were much more resilient than previously assumed, able to survive and recover from capture by both gillnets and bottom trawls.
Tagging studies continued in 2005 with graduate student Kelly Register, who produced three different population estimates for the overwintering population. The data suggested that as much as two-thirds of U.S. East Coast spiny dogfish stock migrated into North Carolina coastal waters for the winter. This was the first attempt to quantify the number of dogfish migrating south of Hatteras.
To ground truth these estimates and further inform management decisions, the Rulifson lab revisited spiny dogfish and gillnets. In 2009, the FRG funded a study that partnered graduate student Garry Wright with commercial fisherman Dewey Hemilright to conduct two different experiments.
The first used captive dogfish in an enclosed pen to estimate the number of dogfish in a given area that are caught in a gillnet set. This method provided an idea of how many dogfish a gillnet set might “miss.” The second experiment used vertical gillnets to sample the entire water column and determine spiny dogfish depth preferences. The results suggested spiny dogfish spend more time higher in the water column than previously thought.
After a decade of dogfish research in North Carolina, in 2007 the Rulifson lab, with Sea Grant support, hosted a symposium at ECU. Experts from across the state, the East Coast and both coasts of Canada gathered to compare notes on spiny dogfish fishery management. This meeting resulted in a white paper that synthesized then-current knowledge of spiny dogfish biology, and prompted a shift from traditional mark-and-recapture tagging studies to acoustic telemetry.
Headed by doctoral student Jennifer Cudney, the Hatteras acoustic array was developed and deployed in 2008 thanks to FRG funding and support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This vital piece of equipment has been a cornerstone of shark research in the Rulifson lab ever since. It has proven useful to other researchers conducting acoustic telemetry studies along the East Coast on species as diverse as Atlantic sturgeon, green sea turtles and great white sharks.
After deployment of the array, Cudney used a combination of active and passive telemetry to describe the movements of North Carolina’s spiny dogfish. Concurrently, doctoral student Andrea Dell’Apa received FRG funding in 2011 to follow up on observations made by Outer Banks fishermen that hinted at a potential spiny dogfish nursery area near Ocracoke. Again working with Hickman, Dell’Apa attempted to find and deploy acoustic tags on juvenile dogfish.
Chuck Bangley, another doctoral student, followed up on his master’s work on spiny dogfish feeding habits with a 2012 FRG study in collaboration with fisherman Tom Roller. In this study, Bangley, used feeding trials on captive dogfish to determine the average daily ration for these supposedly voracious sharks.
Starting in 2012, the Rulifson lab expanded telemetry and survey efforts to include other coastal shark species. In the summer of 2012, Bangley, supported by a minigrant from Sea Grant, conducted a gillnet and longline survey to find juvenile coastal sharks within Pamlico Sound. Though no sharks were found, the survey did find evidence of a potential cownose ray nursery.
Bangley has had better luck finding juvenile sharks in ocean waters after taking over Cape Hatteras acoustic tagging efforts from Dell’Apa. Sandbar and dusky sharks now are included among the species tracked by the Rulifson lab.
SHARK RESEARCH IN THE RULIFSON LAB
By Chuck Bangley
26 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.orgAQUARIUM
ADVENTURE
A M A Z I N G C O A S T
BEHIND THE SCENES:
AN AQUARIUM ADVENTURE
B Y C H E L S E A P I E R C E CAROLINE WAS E XCITED FOR T HIS DAY. H ER
PARENTS H AD S CHEDULED A S PECIAL T RIP T O T HE
NORTH C AROLINA AQUARIUM AT FORT F ISHER FOR
HER N INTH B IRTHDAY. SHE COULDN’T WAIT T O G ET
INSIDE.
“Come on, Mom!” she called out.
Caroline was anxious to see animals and to learn how she could one
day work at the aquarium. She yanked open the front doors with the help
of her father, Bill.
Beaming with happiness, she noticed a statue of an alligator. “Oh
wow!” she cried.
“Take a look at the teeth on that thing,” Bill said. C o n t i n u e d
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 27
Mandy, Caroline’s mother, looked on with awe. “They were almost
extinct back in the 1970s. They’ve made quite the comeback thanks to
many conservation efforts,” she said after reading the display.
“I remember reading that alligators make what are called gator
holes in the bottoms of ponds and marshes. This is very helpful for other
animals during times of drought because the holes hold water,” Bill added.
Caroline noticed an unusual alligator in its enclosure. “I’ve never seen
a white gator before! Her name is Luna,” Caroline exclaimed.
“It says here, ‘Only 30 to 50 true albino alligators exist.’ That means
she is very rare,” Mandy noted, pointing to the sign.
“It’s 11:15,” Bill said, after checking his watch. “We had better check
in for the behind-the-scenes tour.”
ABOVE: Luna, the albino alligator at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher,
enjoys a walk around the enclosure. LEF T: American alligator.
Photos courtesy N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher
Illustrations by Charlotte Ingram
AQUARIUM ADVENTURE A M A Z I N G C O A S T
28 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
• BEHIND T HE S CENES
Other visitors already had gathered in a
line. An education staff member, Dave, made
sure all participants were wearing closed-toed
shoes for safety.
“Alright everyone,
let’s get started,” Dave
said while leading
the group down a
hall. He showed the
visitors animals
not currently in
the main exhibits. Caroline
particularly liked two stingrays.
They looked delicate as they glided in
the water.
“They’re all cartilage and no bone,”
Dave mentioned.
“I read stingrays are actually
cousins of sharks,” Caroline added.
“That’s exactly right,” Dave
replied. “Stingrays are not aggressive, but their
tails have a venomous barb that is meant to
protect them from predators. The animals have
glands underneath their spines that inject venom
into wounds. It is important that you avoid the
barb.”
Caroline’s attention then turned to a tank
full of tiny seahorses. “Why are the seahorses
back here?” she asked.
Dave explained that even though the
seahorses are small, they reproduce at a high
rate, so there is not enough room for all to be
kept in the exhibit area.
“Seahorses also can change their colors to
blend with their surroundings for protection,”
Caroline said, recalling a lesson from school.
Dave smiled and added, “Those colors
allow them to surprise their prey.”
• LARGE TANK, B IG SWIMMERS
The group arrived at the top of the
235,000-gallon tank that represents the Cape
Fear Shoals. Pointing to the diving suits and
equipment that lined the walls, Dave said, “See
the suits over here? Some staff and volunteers
wear this equipment when we need to go down
and clean the tank, or help the animals. Each
of our divers has extensive training. Volunteers
must be certified to dive, then they are trained
to dive in this tank.”
Caroline began imagining being paid to
dive. She had read about such possibilities on a
marine careers website. She thought of being a
marine biologist or an aquarist, but starting out
first as an aquarium volunteer.
“We also go into the tank for shows
such as ‘Dialog with a Diver’ on Mondays and
Fridays,” Dave continued.
“Dialog? We can speak to you under the
water?” a boy inquired.
Dave nodded, “With the help of an
aquarium educator, the diver answers questions
you have about the animals or the tank.”
Caroline noticed the aquarium’s green
sea turtle swimming to the top of the tank for a
breath of air. She watched with excitement and
awe as the reptile broke through the water with
the grace of a dancer.
• MAKING CONTACT
After the tour, Caroline and her family
visited more exhibits, heading straight for a tank
of snakes. “Ah! It’s a diamondback rattlesnake!”
Caroline screamed.
“They won’t get you,” Mandy replied, as
she grabbed her daughter’s hand.
“They are the deadliest of the 32 species
of rattlesnakes in the world,” Bill added, with a
chuckle.
Mandy cringed. Caroline leaned in closer
for a better look. “It has an intricate pattern. It’s
beautiful,” the girl said.
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP: Guests can see horseshoe crabs and
other species in the petting pool. • A young visitor
learns about North Carolina dolphins in Dolphin
Discovery. • Stingray. • Seahorse.
ADVENTURE A M A Z I N G C O A S T
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 29
“That pattern is where the name comes
from,” Bill continued. “The diamond shapes
and brown and black colors help the snake
hide from its prey.”
Caroline’s mother then beckoned her
over to the next room’s entrance. Caroline, Bill
and Mandy stepped through the set of double
doors labeled Marine Building.
Caroline quickly noticed a strange
creature crawling around the bottom of
the pool. She made her way over and stood
tentatively at the edge.
“It’s okay, you can pet it,” said Ashley, a
part-time volunteer. She extended the animal
to Caroline.
“What is it?” Caroline asked.
“It’s a horseshoe crab,” Ashley
responded. “It is very calm, and it won’t hurt
you.”
Caroline reached out her hand to touch
the animal’s smooth, hard shell, then, its legs.
“Such an interesting-looking crab!”
she exclaimed.
“Well, the horseshoe crab is not
actually a crab, as the name suggests. These
animals actually are related to arachnids,
otherwise known as spiders and scorpions,”
Ashley explained.
“Why does it look so ancient?” Mandy
asked.
“That is a good question. The species has
been around for 250 million years. They look the
same now as they did years ago,” Ashley replied.
“How do you know all of this?” Caroline
inquired.
“I’m a student at University of North
Carolina Wilmington, working on my bachelor’s
degree in marine biology,” she responded.
“What will you do when you graduate?”
Caroline asked.
“There are many different things marine
biologists can do, but I am going to participate
in fish population research.”
Caroline and Mandy wished Ashley luck,
then continued on their way.
• RIGHT W HALE Q UEST
Caroline then led her family to another
room. She noticed a model of a whale hanging
from the ceiling.
“This must be life-sized,” Bill said.
Caroline rushed over to the Right Whale
Quest display.
“What do I do?” she asked.
An aquarium volunteer quickly answered,
“You pretend to be a NOAA researcher to help
the right whale named Calvin. You go through
the simulation levels that include challenges
such as helping Calvin escape after he becomes
tangled in fishing nets.”
Caroline looked at her parents in
amazement. “NOAA researchers actually
do these things to save right whales? That’s
amazing,” she said. After completing the quest,
Mandy announced it was time to go home. As
Caroline walked to the car, she thought about
all of the careers that could involve the coast.
“I can’t wait to come back here again,” she
said. Caroline couldn’t
help but daydream
about working at
the aquarium.
Creatures
highlighted in this story
are featured in North
Carolina’s Amazing
Coast: Natural Wonders
from Alligators to Zoeas. To learn more
about these and other flora and fauna in the state, visit
www.ncseagrant.org and search for Amazing Coast.
For more information on marine careers, go to
marinecareers.net.
Plan your visit to the Fort Fisher or other North
Carolina aquariums at www.ncaquariums.com.
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP:
Young visitors enjoy the Dialogue with a Diver program.
• Right whale. • Horseshoe crab. • Diamondback
rattlesnake. • In the Right Whale Quest, participants
try to save a right whale named Calvin.
30 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
VARNUMTOWN
OYSTER ROAST
P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S
BRING YOUR OWN KNIVES:
Shucking at the
Varnamtown Oyster Roast
B Y J A C K H O R A N EVERY F IRST S ATURDAY IN
NOVEMBER, HUNDREDS O F P EOPLE
GATHER I N T HE B RUNSWICK
COUNT Y TOWN O F VARNAMTOWN
FOR A N A F TERNOON O F SHUCKIN’
AND SOCIALIZIN’.
They shuck bushel after bushel of freshly
fired oysters at the annual Dixon Chapel United
Methodist Church Oyster Roast. For 60 years,
the church has been sating appetites of oyster
lovers from the coast, the Piedmont and well
beyond, through this $20, all-you-can-eat
fundraiser.
It’s the oldest of 12 publicly promoted
North Carolina oyster roasts. Church and
community members shovel freshly caught
bivalves onto heavy-duty grills. Then, pairs of
volunteers hoist each batch onto an oak-burning
cooker the size of a backyard trash can. Orange
flames lick upward, sending flakes of ash drifting
through the air.
How long does it take to roast an oyster?
Five to 10 minutes, says Jesse Butterbaugh of
nearby Supply, watching over a cooker. “Just until
they start opening up. See how that’s opening up
and the juice is running out? They get like that.”
Suddenly an oyster pops and hisses and spits hot
juice. “That’ll let you know when they’re done.”
The oysters soon begin to sizzle. Volunteers
grab the grills, stride 30 feet over to a picnic
shelter with long wooden tables behind the
church, and dump the sputtering, hot oysters
in front of delighted patrons. Clouds of steam
billow up from the mounds.
Veteran oyster-shuckers bring more than
just an oyster knife to pry open the shells. They
wear a single leather glove to handle the hot
shells. And they tuck a hand towel into their belts
to wipe grimy oyster-shell soot from their fingers.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, shuckers
open the mollusks with the thick-bladed knives,
sometimes sprinkling hot sauce or lime juice
on the light-gray meat, alternately swallow a
mouthful of sweet pickles and hush puppies, and
wash it all down with soft drinks or coffee.
Diane Phillips came to the event, her first,
last November at the urging of co-worker John
Dawson, a roast volunteer for about 40 years.
“I’m going to have to say these are some of the
best oysters that I think I’ve ever had. And I grew
up eating oysters,” says Phillips, a Wilmington
native. “I have not had an oyster yet — and I’ve
been here, what, about an hour eating as fast as I
can — that I couldn’t open, that wasn’t pristinely
clean and salty and juicy. I’m a happy girl and this
is a great fundraiser.”
Some 800 community members and visitors
devoured 158 bushels of oysters, as well as 200
pounds of spot and flounder for fish plates.
Among them was Ron Farmer of Charlotte. It
was his 28th straight roast. Farmer learned of the
event through a friend, Lee Edwards of Charlotte,
whose father grew up in the area.
“The people are so friendly,” Farmer says.
“They just make you feel so welcome. If it was
$50 apiece, I would get my money’s worth. It’s
unusual, simple fun. The common denominator is
oysters.” Farmer brought along his brother Adam
Farmer of Guilford County.
LEF T: Oyster fanciers downed 158 bushels of Lockwood Folly River oysters at the 60th annual Dixon Chapel United Methodist Church Oyster Roast. CENTER, TOP:
Ron Farmer of Charlotte (right), attending his 28th consecutive roast in Varnamtown, reaches for freshly cooked oysters amid a mess of shells. CENTER, BOT TOM:
At the roast, discarded shells are recycled to create new oyster reefs in North Carolina waters. FACING PAGE, L EF T: Agusta Varnam and Terrence Galloway guard against
scalding juice as they grab a grill of oysters during the roast. RIGHT: Fresh from the fire, Chelzey McDonald and Mikey Fulford dump a load of oysters ready for shucking.
Jack Horan
Jack Horan Jack Horan
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 31
VARNUMTOWN
ROAST
P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S
C o n t i n u e d
• RETURNED TO WATER
As oyster meat slides into stomachs, oyster
shells go another route. Diners drop them into
yellow buckets supplied by the N.C. Division of
Marine Fisheries, or DMF, for recycling.
Starting with a 2003 pilot program, DMF
has promoted the recycling of oyster shells.
The agency has been collecting and deploying
shells to create new oyster reefs in rivers and
sounds. Returning shells to the water provides a
foundation for oyster larvae to settle and grow,
helps rebuild oyster populations and enhances
habitat for fisheries. It also reduces solid waste
in landfills. Since 2007, state law has made it
illegal for anyone to knowingly dispose of oyster
shells in landfills.
The 2013 DMF stock status report
categorizes oysters as a species of “concern”
because of the “long-term decline caused by
excessive harvest and habitat disturbances,” as
well as pollution and disease.
Recycled shells are valuable for rebuilding
the state’s oyster population because young
oysters are drawn to oyster shells, explains Sara
Mirabilio, North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries
specialist.
“The main thing is that the research that
Sea Grant has funded shows that free-floating
larvae like to settle on oyster shells first and
foremost,” she notes. “They will settle on other
substrate. But given a preference, they will settle
on shells.”
Researchers think chemical cues are a
major factor, Mirabilio adds, and thus the
recycled shells give larvae the home they’re
looking for. “That’s the main reason they’ve
been putting shells out there,” she continues.
These shells provide protection for the spat,
and also become substrate where the spat can
attach themselves and grow into adult oysters.
The recycling program has expanded
significantly over 10 years. As of 2013, DMF had
established more than 100 drop-off collection
sites at landfills and restaurants in 24 mostly
eastern counties. The sites were found as far
west as Durham, Orange and Wake counties
and Cabarrus County, next to Charlotte. In
2006, the N.C. General Assembly began giving
a tax credit of $1 per bushel of oyster shells
donated as an incentive to recycle. That credit,
however, expired Dec. 31, 2013.
As of early 2013, the most recent figure
available, the program has yielded 185,885
bushels of shells, the most current figure avail-able.
That has created about 38 acres of new
oyster beds, DMF spokeswoman Patricia Smith
notes.
Recycling oyster shells helps the state
enhance oyster beds, which helps promote oyster
populations and, in turn, improves water quality
of rivers and sounds. A Sea Grant research
project, reported in the Autumn 2012 issue of
Coastwatch, concluded the nitrogen-recycling
value of an acre of oyster reef is estimated to be
$3,000 a year compared to $400 for an acre of
mudflat without oysters.
But oyster shell recycling, for all its success-es,
has been sharply curtailed. The program took
a big hit in 2013 when the legislature cut DMF’s
budget by $514,788 for fiscal year 2013–2014.
Smith explains the cutback forced the agency to
drop the Oyster Shell Recycling Program, with its
annual cost of $54,131. The program’s coordina-tor
was transferred to another position.
“While it was a difficult decision,” Smith
notes, “the division chose to eliminate the Oyster
Shell Recycling Program as part of the required
reduction because it is not a statutorily required
program.” She adds that, “The division does
want to continue to recycle oyster shells and
would like to partner with nongovernment
organizations and/or volunteers in this effort.”
With this change, Smith anticipates that
collections of shells could drop by 50 percent
or more. “The division intends to continue
bulk collections from high-volume producers
that have areas to store the shells, and from
landfills.”
Money from the Coastal Recreational
Fishing License Grant Program, or CRFL, is now
picking up the costs for bulk collections.
The division got $60,000 in two grants
for the 24 months ending June 30, 2014, that
it uses for bulk collections. Then, in December,
it received a $15,000 grant that will enable the
division to continue those collections through
June 2015.
“The Division of Marine Fisheries will
continue to collect oyster shell from waste
collection/landfill sites, including the landfills in
Orange and Wake counties, as well as other sites
where large amounts of shell are collected, such
as Morris Landing in Holly Ridge, the Bridge
Barrier Road site near Carolina Beach and the
trailers in front of the division headquarters in
Morehead City,” Smith says.
The public can take oyster shells to these
sites. But DMF no longer will collect low-volume
shells from restaurants, oyster roasts and
convenience sites, which used the yellow trash
cans instead of large bins.
She says DMF will look for potential
cost-effective sources of discarded shells from,
for example, oyster-shucking houses, and will
seek approval from regulatory agencies to
use alternative reef-building materials such as
crushed, recycled concrete.
Jack Horan
Jack Horan
CLOCKWISE F ROM TOP L EF T: The oyster shells are blown into the water, often at sites where reefs have thrived in the past. • Shells are left to air dry over time
before being used for restoration. • Marlene Varnam and Beatrice Varnam, both of Varnamtown, help organize the oyster roast. • To find recycling locations, go to ncdenr.
gov and search for oyster recycling. • Despite budget cuts, recycling bins will be available at some landfills and waste collection sites to collect shells.
32 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S
Meanwhile, in early 2013 the division
produced a 10-minute video on DVD extolling
the benefits of recycling shells, through a fourth
CRFL grant that was approved in 2010. The
$35,000 grant bought 3,250 DVDs, entitled
Oyster Shell Recycling for Healthy Waters, and 50,000
recycling information cards. The DVDs will be
distributed to civic and conservation groups,
and schools.
Sea Grant is one of five partners that
helped produce the video, which includes scenes
taken at a previous Varnamtown oyster roast.
• ‘A SHUCKIN’ GOOD T IME’
The Dixon Chapel roast started in 1953,
according to Marlene Varnam, one of the
event’s organizers. “The church decided to have
a Thanksgiving oyster roast,” she says. “Other
people found out about it and started coming.
People (here) still eat oysters for Thanksgiving.”
Her friend, Beatrice Varnam, 89, remem-bers
working that first roast. They charged $5 a
head. “The first one we had we made $98. We
thought we had done good. Everyone enjoyed
the eating and the cornbread especially.” In
2013, attendees paid four times that, and the
church expected to net about $10,000.
Marlene Varnam says the roast has never
been called off because of rain. And the event has
never lacked for oysters, traditionally harvesting
them from the Lockwood Folly River, next to
Varnamtown.
The 2007 roast, however, was a close
call. Eight days before that roast, state shellfish
sanitation inspectors temporarily closed
Lockwood Folly after a heavy rain washed
bacteria-laced runoff into the river. The
inspectors reopened the river two days before
the roast, after bacteria counts fell to safe levels,
giving oystermen enough time to gather the
shellfish, according to the Wilmington StarNews.
For the 2013 roast, all 175 bushels of oysters
came from Lockwood Folly. The church paid $30
a bushel, according to Marlene Varnam. The mol-lusks
were washed and stored at 43 degrees F at
Carson Varnam’s Shellfish Market across the road
from the church. The market bears the name of
Marlene Varnam’s late husband, an oysterman.
To ensure freshness, her grandson, Mikey Fulford,
loaded the oysters into a refrigerated truck and
drove them 500 feet to the church.
The church advertises the roast as “A
Shuckin’ Good Time.” Oyster fanciers, taking
a break from shucking and shelling in the
overflowing shelter, give a thumbs up.
Mary Pyland of Burgaw has been a regular
for seven or eight years. She comes while visiting
friends. “It’s a great thing to meet people from
different areas and have good food and good
fellowship, all in the same place,” she says.
A Monroe nursing-home resident, Ray
Carnes, 81, got his annual shellfish treat, thanks
to family members who accompanied him the
180 miles from Union County to Varnamtown.
“We try to come every year,” says his wife, Nora,
69, of Indian Trail in Union County. The Carneses
have attended the event since the mid-1980s.
For Johnny Ezzell of Supply, the 60th roast
was his first but, he predicts, not his last. He sums
up the experience this way: “Good fellowship,
good food. Reasonable price. Good price. All you
can eat. It’ll be an annual thing for me.”
To learn more about the Oyster Shell Recycling
Program and find shell-recycling sites, go to portal.
ncdenr.org/web/mf/home and search for “oyster
shell recycling.” Contact North Carolina Sea Grant or the
N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries for a copy of the Oyster
Shell Recycling for Healthy Waters DVD.
Courtesy N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
Courtesy N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
Jack Horan
Courtesy N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
Courtesy N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 33
C o n t i n u e d
N A T U R A L I S T ’ S N O T E B O O K
If you’ve not yet heard a wild red wolf’s haunting howl, then plan to this
spring or summer. It’s a sound you’ll not soon forget. The red wolf’s song is a blend
of otherworldly forlorn pining, punctuated by a series of broken yaps, and it used to
resonate throughout forests and coastal plains in the Southeast. Called “dogs of the
woods” by early European explorers, red wolves are the region’s native wild canid.
An entirely unique species called Canis rufus, they are more closely related to
coyotes than they are to gray wolves. Today, coastal North Carolina boasts the only wild
population of C. rufus in the world.
My book, The Secret World of Red Wolves: The Fight to Save North
America’s Other Wolf, traces the red wolf’s story from its evolutionary origins
to its decline in the wild, its reintroduction 27 years ago, and the challenges of its
management today. The book also looks at potential changes that could swamp or
modify much of the red wolf’s only wild habitat — 1.7 million acres of the Albemarle
Peninsula called the Red Wolf Recovery Area.
There’s not much in my world that beats getting up close and personal with an
imperiled wild animal, and I believe most nature lovers share this sentiment. Which is
why you might want to visit www.fws.gov/redwolf/howling.html to check out the
2014 schedule for red wolf howlings in their natural habitat.
To get you in the mood, here is an excerpt from my book, from Chapter Four:
Howling Summer Nights. In this scene, I was participating in a nighttime howling
safari on Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge within the Red Wolf Recovery Area.
Kim Wheeler, from the Red Wolf Coalition, a nonprofit organization that raises private
support for long-term red wolf restoration, led the tour. She had just departed from our
group to begin eliciting howls from nearby red wolves.
RED
WOLVES According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
northeastern North Carolina has the only wild
red wolf mainland population in the world.
Becky Bartel/USFWS
The Secret World of Red Wolves:
The Fight to Save North America’s Other Wolf
B Y T . D E L E N E B E E L A N D
34 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
N A T U R A L I S T ’ S N O T E B O O K
WE S TAND I N A P OOL O F
WEAK, WOBBLY L IGHT C AST
FROM P EOPLE’S F LASHLIGHTS
AND H EAD L AMPS. The forest
darkness encircles us. A few minutes later,
we hear Kim’s call pierce the night air.
The buzz and drone of insects create a
background of uneven noise that I strain
to filter out. I hear Kim howl again, and
everyone around me seems to be holding
their breath and trying not to move. We
listen and wait for an answer.
Nothing.
Kim tries again.
No response.
I wonder what the people in the crowd are thinking. Is this all just a
sham? Just another tourist attraction?
Kim makes a fourth howl, and then it starts. A lone howl rises,
forlorn and low. It meanders through a few octaves and claws higher
and higher. It trails into a thin high-pitched note, and then a second and
a third howl pick up at lower pitches. People in the crowd gasp, some
lean forward straining to hear. Within thirty seconds, a parade of howls
sings loudly from the dark woods. It is hard to believe the wolves are a
few hundred yards away. They sound much closer, perhaps less than a
hundred feet.
Kim walks back to the crowd, flashlight downturned on the ground.
Howls waft from somewhere behind her, persistent but not aggressive.
The wolves sing. They sing to each other as much as they sing to us. One
pitch stands out from the others, higher, thinner, and much lighter. It
must be the pup. I imagine him standing next to his parents, watching
them throw their heads back and open their jaws wide, letting loose with
a call that says, “Here we are! Where are you? Here we are!” And the pup
joins in, calling, “I’m here too! I’m here too!” I don’t know exactly what
these wolves
are saying, of
course, but it
is difficult to
imagine the howling being anything other than a communication to locate
other packs or individuals, a way to call out to the night and exclaim: I am
here, and I know how to take care of myself so well that I’m going to let you know that I’m
here! And my mate is here, and my kids are here. We are all here together in this place
that is ours.
After a minute of steady howling, the wolves’ entwined calls dwindle
out to one lone call that seems to pivot between notes before ending in a
series of high, broken yips. Kim asks all the kids to come to the front of our
bunched group. Children filter forward, wide-eyed in the forested night,
clutching flashlights close to their chests. Kim instructs them to howl on
the count of three, and they let loose with a careening, loud set of human
yowls. A short while later, the wolves answer back again, proclaiming their
space and presence in the night. The children grin, entranced by this tenuous
connection to a wild and unseen creature. After the kids, it is the adults’ turn.
1. The estimated lifespan for a red wolf is 15 years in captivity,
and six to seven years in the wild. 2. The red wolf restoration effort
began in 1987 when four pairs of captive-bred red wolves were
released in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The first
litter of wild-born pups came the following year. 3. This female
red wolf will be tracked and identified through the radio transmitter
on her collar. 4. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates
that there are between 90 and 110 red wolves in the wild.
5. A red wolf watches a deer in the Great Smoky Mountains,
a former reintroduction site. 6. Researchers discovered that wild
red wolves in northeastern North Carolina typically eat white-tailed
deer, raccoons and small mammals. 7. Red wolves live
in packs that consist of a breeding pair and their offspring.
8. T. DeLene Beeland is a science writer based in Asheville, N.C.
1
2
3
4
Becky Bartel/USFWS
Art Beyer/UWFWS
Ryan Nordsven/USFWS Ryan Nordsven/USFWS
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 35
N A T U R A L I S T ’ S N O T E B O O K
“Dig deep and howl!”
Kim instructs gleefully.
“Howling is the best stress
reliever in the world. If you are
on vacation here, you must
howl,” she jokes. We howl
on her count, and the wolves
answer a third time. Their
howls seem to weave in and out of each other as they change pitch and
perhaps meaning. Kim is excited that we got three responses from them
and also heard the puppy. “We really rocked it tonight!” she exclaims,
pumping her fist in the air. Everyone is smiling.
It is never certain for her that the wolves will answer each Wednesday.
I wonder for a moment why they do. Surely they know that these are just
a bunch of humans trying to speak wolf. Surely they smell us, a group of
sixty people cloaked in lotions, colognes, insecticides, and deodorant —
announcing our odiferous presence to an animal whose world is ordered
by scent — standing in the woods a mere few hundred yards away. Surely
they heard our engines as we arrived. Surely they could hear that our pitch
is off, that we are an imitation. Yet they accept this and play along. Why?
Wolves, it turns out, will howl to a variety of stimuli, including
the sirens of emergency responder vehicles. In the late 1960s, when
researchers discovered that the red wolf was nose-diving into extinction,
they played electronic sirens in southeastern Texas coastal marshes
and plains to elicit howls from wild canids. From the howls, they made
probable identifications of red wolves and possible hybrids. Coyote
vocalizations often have a series of broken yips and barks and emanate at
a comparatively higher frequency, whereas red wolves will howl at lower
frequencies that start “deep and mournful” but may
break off into yapping like a coyote, according to a
report authored in 1972 by two trappers, Glynn Riley
and Roy McBride, who were employed by the federal
government. Early surveyors noted, too, that the red
wolves were more likely to howl in good weather and
less likely to respond in rainy or overcast weather.
Confined to their facility, perhaps the red wolves
of Sandy Ridge howl to humans because it gives them
a way to communicate with living beings outside their
fence. Who knows: maybe they are simply telling us to
bugger off and go away. Or, as frightened as they are of
seeing a human, perhaps howling to a group of them
on a dark night is more palatable since they do not have to look at us or be
gawked at in turn. Perhaps howling is a way of reaching out on their own
terms, in their own language, through which they can proclaim their space
and their place on the land — their way of
saying, “Even though I’m in here, behind
this fence, I own this place.”
Or maybe they just want to remind
us that this land had been theirs for
millennia before we invaded and claimed
it. In the dark of night, I fantasize that
their howls are calling out: “All this was
ours. This was ours.”
Excerpt from The Secret World
of Red Wolves: The Fight to Save
North America’s Other Wolf by T.
DeLene Beeland. Copyright © 2013 by T.
DeLene Beeland. Used by permission of
the University of North Carolina Press.
www.uncpress.unc.edu.
5
7
8
6
Camilla Calnan
Barron Crawford/USFWS Barron Crawford/USFWS
Barron Crawford/USFWS
36 coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org
M A R I N E R ’ S M E N U
Our Coast’s Food:
The Seafood Bible
B Y L I Z B I R O
EDITOR’S NOTE: Food writer Liz Biro offers a tribute to Joyce Taylor, North Carolina Sea Grant’s
retired seafood education specialist, who died in November. We are pleased to share this piece —
reprinted with permission from Coastal Review Online from the N.C. Coastal Federation, www.nccoast.org
— to note Joyce’s widely felt focus on North Carolina seafood. “Joyce and Mariner’s Menu
have been huge inspirations to me — and continue to be,” Biro says. IF YOU A SKED H ER A BOUT H ER
EARLY DAYS A S A S EAFOOD
EDUCATION S PECIALIST FOR
NORTH C AROLINA S EA G RANT,
JOYCE TAYLOR P ROBABLY WOULD
HAVE TOLD T HE C RAB S TORY.
Shortly after accepting the position in
1973, Taylor was tasked with teaching a blue
crab cooking class in western North Carolina.
She transported a bunch of the pinchers in the
trunk of her car. They had to be alive, of course.
Taylor was a stickler for using fresh seafood long
before today’s “eat local” mantras.
As she made the long drive across the
state, Taylor heard the crabs scurrying in their
container, causing her to wonder how many
would dance across the demonstration room
floor at her destination.
No toes were bitten, and the lesson
ended up one of many that launched Taylor’s
reputation as North Carolina’s “Guru of
Seafood.”
Taylor died in November, but the seafood
bible she wrote with the help of coastal North
Carolina cooks endures.
Mariner’s Menu: 30 Years of Fresh Seafood
Ideas compiles not only dozens of recipes
developed and carefully tested by Taylor and the
team but details about North Carolina’s seafood
history, the health benefits of fish and shellfish,
aquaculture, seafood safety and how to handle,
clean and store seafood — as well as kitchen tips
and cooking tidbits like how to clarify butter.
Although Sea Grant did not publish
the book until 2003, its content began in
the early 1970s when the agency enlisted the
seafood cooking wisdom of Carteret Extension
Homemakers, an offshoot of Cooperative
Extension programs that partner with county,
state and federal governments to help people
gain access to research generated by public
universities. The idea was to share seafood
research with fishers and seafood processors
and help them market the catch.
In Morehead City kitchens, Taylor
directed the mostly women, who had a lifetime
of knowledge about the North Carolina’s
traditional seafood cookery. Sea Grant asked
Taylor and them to document those recipes
but also to develop and test new ideas and
techniques.
Besides creating gourmet dishes such
as soft crabs amandine or flounder fillets
with black butter sauce, the ladies conducted
various seafood experiments. No matter the
recipe, Taylor made sure the seafood’s flavor
was apparent. Hence, many recipes in Mariner’s
Menu are no-fuss dishes with few ingredients.
The women also found ways to use bits of
meat and bone leftover from filleting fish. They
created fresh flaked fish, an alternative to canned
products. They tested ways to freeze seafood
to retain texture and flavor. Sometimes, the
group worked on formulas for commercial food
operations.
Their efforts were documented in various
publications, including a quarterly newsletter
titled Mariner’s Menu, edited by Taylor and
distributed to 3,300 subscribers.
Surprisingly, Taylor was an Asheville native
who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Born
in 1932, she didn’t reach the coast until the mid-
1950s, when she came to Carteret County to
work as a public-school teacher.
Her first assignment with Sea Grant
was taste-testing croakers and gray trout.
Throughout her seafood career, she promoted
other lesser-known species taken off the state’s
coast. Many recipes are recorded in Mariner’s
Menu.
“People have not been comfortable
cooking seafood,” Taylor said in the book,
distributed by the University of North Carolina
Press. But after reviewing a simple recipe or
watching Taylor prepare seafood at one of the
many classes she conducted, landlubbers gained
confidence with fish and shellfish cookery,
no matter if it was familiar grilled grouper or
unusual catfish stir-fry.
Like Taylor herself, Mariner’s Menu makes
preparing seafood seem a breeze. Taylor said her
knack for showing cooks the way came from her
years as a teacher.
“I don’t think learning should be tedious,”
she said. “I have a good time.”
TOP: Martha Giles consults with Joyce Taylor in this 2012
photo. BOTTOM: Taylor educated people throughout the
state on safe ways to handle, prepare and store nutritious
seafood.
Scott Taylor Dee Shore/NC State University
MARINER’S
MENU
coastwatch | winter 2014 | www.ncseagrant.org 37
M A R I N E R ’ S M E N U
Liz Biro’s online story included several
recipes from Mariner’s Menu: 30 Years of Fresh
Seafood Ideas. We chose to offer a few recipes
that Joyce Taylor and the Nutrition Leaders had
developed in more recent years for publication
on the Mariner’s Menu blog — www.marinersmenu.
org — and ultimately for a new seafood book
being developed by North Carolina Sea Grant
for the University of North Carolina Press. If
you had a favorite recipe from Mariner’s Menu
over the years, or a story about working with
Joyce, send us a note on Facebook or email
kmosher@ncsu.edu.
MAHIMAHI F ILLETS W ITH
TROPICAL RUM S AUCE
• 1 1/2 pounds mahimahi fillets
• 4 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Prepare Tropical Rum Sauce just before
cooking fillets and keep warm.
In small bowl, combine margarine, salt
and pepper. Brush fillets with mixture.
Place on greased broiler pan. Broil about
4 inches from heat until fish flakes easily with a
fork, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Tropical R um S auce:
• 1/2 cup light rum
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons melted margarine or butter
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced banana
Combine rum and lime juice in small
saucepan. Simmer over medium heat 4 to 5
minutes or until reduced by about 1/3. Add
margarine, garlic, jalapeño, salt and pepper
and blend until smooth. Add bananas and
simmer just until heated through.
Keep warm but do not allow to simmer or
boil. Spoon sauce over cooked fillets.
SNAPPER W ITH T ROPICAL
FRUIT SALSA
• 1 1/2 pounds snapper fillets
• salt
• freshly ground white pepper
• flour
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter
Prepare Fruit Salsa and chill. Lightly salt
and pepper fish. Dredge in flour.
Heat oil in large skillet. Add margarine
and heat. Lightly sauté fillets, top side down,
until golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Turn and repeat on other side. Drain on paper
towels.
Fruit S alsa:
• 1/2 diced mango (about 1/4 inch dice)
• 1/2 cup cubed pineapple (about 1/4 inch dice)
• 1/2 cup halved orange segments
• 1/4 cup chopped chili peppers
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Combine mango, pineapple, orange,
chili peppers, onion and garlic and mix well.
Add vinegar, cilantro, basil, parsley, salt and
pepper. Chill until ready to use.
MINI C RAB C AKES
• 1/2 pound backfin crabmeat
• 1/2 pound crab claw meat
• 3 tablespoons margarine or butter
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons canola oil for frying
• 1 cup French bread crumbs
• 2 cups French bread crumbs for coating
• Lemon wedges
Remove any shell or cartilage from
crabmeat. Place meat in medium bowl.
Melt margarine or butter in medium
saucepan. Sauté onion until tender. Remove
from heat. Stir in parsley, Tabasco, lemon
juice, cayenne and salt.
Blend in mayonnaise, egg and 1 cup
bread crumbs. Gently blend into crabmeat,
being careful not to break meat apart.
Shape into silver dollar-size cakes.
Dredge lightly in remaining 2 cups bread
crumbs.
Fry in 3 tablespoons of hot oil until gold-en
brown on one side, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn and repeat on other side. Drain on paper
towels. Garnish with lemon wedges.
A New World of Flavors
ABOVE: North Carolina Sea Grant is developing a book with more recipes from Joyce Taylor including, from left to right, mahimahi fillet with tropical rum sauce,
snapper with tropical fruit salsa and mini crab cakes.
Photos by Scott Taylor
Periodicals
Postage Paid
North Carolina Sea Grant at Raleigh, NC
North Carolina State University
Box 8605
Raleigh, NC 27695-8605
The 2014 North Carolina Sea
Grant Research Symposium:
Investments and Opportunities
will be April 16 at North Carolina State
University’s McKimmon Center in Raleigh.
“We are excited to highlight examples
of a select set of research results and
associated impacts from investments
by North Carolina Sea Grant over the
past decade. With our partners, we also
will identify shifting and emerging needs in
coastal science,” notes Executive Director
Susan White.
“Our audience will be a mix of
researchers, resource managers, elected and
appointed officials, and other community
leaders with an interest in the current state of
coastal science, as well as individuals looking
to establish strategic partnerships to achieve a
variety of desirable goals related to our coastal
resources.”
The free event will highlight the program’s
wide range of research and extension efforts in:
• Healthy Coastal Ecosystems • Sustainable Coastal
Development • Safe & Sustainable Seafood Supply
• Hazard Resilient Coastal Communities.
White is working with a steering
committee of marine research leaders and
other partners. “We could fill several days,” she
notes, “but the panels will highlight topics and
put impacts into perspective.”
Symposium participants also will assist
Sea Grant to identify strategic new arenas for
applied-science investment and collaborative
partnerships to address coastal needs.
While the event is free, and includes lunch,
registration is needed by March 15. Please visit
www.ncseagrant.org/ncsgday2014 for additional
information, including a hotel group rate.
S Y MP O S I U M F E A T U R E S R E S E A R C H I MP A C T S , P O T E N T I A L
Courtesy Chris Matteo
Tim Burkit/FEMA Sharon Settlage
Roger Winstead/NC State University
C O N N E C T
Keep up with North Carolina
Sea Grant. Visit www.ncseagrant.org for news
and upcoming events. Go to www.nccoastwatch.org
for Coastwatch stories or to subscribe.
N O R T H C A R O L I N A
S E A G R A N T
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resources for a healthier coast.
www.ncseagrant.org
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@SeaGrantNC or @ncsg_katiem