|
|
|
|
|
|
Duke Marine
Lab Captain
|
Kelly and Jared are
sorting the catch
|
We are a
small science class in Downeast North Carolina. We are
studying the effect of trawling on the estuary.
This is important because a group of recreational
fishermen want to ban trawling in the sounds and make it
legal only in the ocean. They say trawling kills too
many fish and is detrimental to the environment.
They say it tears up the bottom and chokes the fish with
sediments.
On the other side of the battle
are the commercial fishermen who make a living from trawling.
They say that they don't kill too many fish by using
fish excluder devices to keep out unwanted fish.
The commercial fisherman also argue that trawling can
help the bottom by stirring up the sediments. By
stirring up the sediments they say that they flush out
toxins and oxygenate the water. They also use
excluder devices so they don't catch turtles.
We've trawled two local
creeks, Midden's Creek and Sleepy Creek. At each creek,
we went to two sites. One was open to trawling, and one was
closed to trawling. We had
special permission to trawl both sites. At each
site we trawled five times for two minutes each. After the trawls we
counted the number of each species, and measured their mass.
We collected bottom samples to be analyzed for metal
content and measured water quality. At the beginning and end of each
trawl we recorded latitude and longitude.
|
|
|
|
