THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9406160516
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940616 LENGTH: ATLANTIC OCEAN, THREE MILES EAST OF PEA ISLAND
On Wednesday, officials of the University of North Carolina Sea Grant program, state Division of Marine Fisheries and the Roanoke Island Aquarium dropped about 200 cinder block lures into the Atlantic.
{REST} The $2,500 project - funded by the General Assembly in 1988 - represents the biggest group of fish-attracting devices currently functioning off North Carolina's coast.
Officials hope the area soon will become one of the largest congregating grounds for bait fish near the Outer Banks.
``More than 20 years ago, South Carolina began using fish-attracting devices off the coast. I read about it in a magazine and decided North Carolina should try it, too,'' said Richard Novak, Sea Grant's area specialist who works out of the Roanoke Island Aquarium.
Novak spent six months constructing the cinder block devices. He spent the next six years trying to get them to sea.
At dawn Wednesday, his plans were fulfilled.
A 115-foot state ship carried Novak and his crew from Wanchese harbor through Oregon Inlet. Then the captain turned south and stopped three miles east of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
There, on the wreck of the Zane Gray, eight people pushed the 110-pound cinder blocks overboard. All 200 fish-attracting devices were in place in less than 30 minutes.
The contraption - like the concept - is simple.
Cinder blocks are filled with concrete, and 400-pound test monofilament loops are anchored at one end. Fifty-foot-long pieces of the clear fishing line are clipped onto the loop. Then, black, plastic packing strips are tied at 10-foot intervals along the line - like the skinny streamers which flow from kites' tails. At the top of the line, a crab pot-type buoy is attached.
The cinder block sinks 75 feet to the bottom. The buoy floats about 20 feet below the ocean's surface. It pulls the monofilament line taught, causing the streamers to flutter.
``Fish detect vibrations, motion, obstacles under the water and usually swim circling them,'' Aquarium Curator Frank W. Hudgins said. ``Marine plants and other organisms also will be attracted to the device and will grow on it. That will bring the bait fish to feed.''
``Small bait fish will come into the streamers to hide,'' Novak explained. ``Then, bigger fish will come in to look for them. Fish like structures to hang around. What we're trying to do is localize the fish and make them easier to catch.''
The cinder blocks are spaced 50 to 100 feet apart in six relatively straight rows running perpendicular to the beach. The easternmost ones are beside a navigational buoy about three miles offshore. They extend about 500 yards west to a boiler on the wreck.
By keeping the devices close to the beach, Novak said, commercial trawlers will not be able to come close enough to become entangled in the floating monofilament. Party fishing boats and small sports-fishing crafts, however, will enjoy easy access to the concrete bait.
``You should start seeing results from these devices in a week or so,'' Novak said. ``I don't know how long it will take organisms to grow on the streamers. But the fish should start coming around soon.''
Although dumping almost anything in the ocean requires a permit, Novak did not have to obtain special permission to drop the fish-attracting devices. His project is part of the state's artificial reef creation program - as is the Zane Gray.
``In 1974, we sank the Zane Gray off Pea Island as part of our original artificial reef project. It was one of the first two ships to be sank offshore in the state,'' said Steve Murphey, artificial reef coordinator for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries in Morehead City. ``Now, there are 38 artificial reef sites along the Carolina coast. The fish-attracting devices are based on the concept that some fish will associate more readily with higher profile structures - devices that float higher in the water - than with the reefs which bottom-feeders like.''
Murphey said the state began using fish-attracting devices of designs similar to Novak's in the 1980s.
Virginia, too, dropped a few dozen offshore. But both Murphey and his counterpart in Virginia's artificial reef creation program said they disbanded the contraptions because the required upkeep was too great.
``The cinder block fish-attracting devices really don't last more than two years,'' Murphey said. ``They become so encrusted with marine growth after that they begin to sink.''
However, he said the devices are fine as long as they last.
``They're definitely fish attractors,'' said Murphey. ``It's a good project for the Outer Banks area.''
Next month, Sea Grant and aquarium personnel plan to fish around the cinder blocks to monitor their effectiveness.
In August, they hope to dive to the structures and evaluate them close-up. Within the next year, Novak said, he would like to drop about 200 more fish-attracting devices along Pea Island's coast.
``We've already radioed the local fishing fleet about the devices,'' Novak said Wednesday afternoon as the ship returned to Wanchese. ``Now, we just have to see what they catch out there.''
by CNB