Introduction to Project

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.