THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996                  TAG: 9605140413
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                       LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

$654,798 IN WATER PROJECTS ARE APPROVED

Projects totaling $654,798 were approved Monday night by the citizens board which advises the Marine Resources Commission on spending the estimated $1.3 million annually from Virginia's saltwater fishing license.

The marine commission is expected to give blanket approval to the package when it meets May 25.

The biggest project approved Monday was $140,000 for a scientific study outlining shark nursery grounds in the Chesapeake Bay and an assessment of shark stocks.

Also approved was $5,800 for a children's fishing clinic in Newport News later this year and an emergency request from the marine commission for $97,000 for collecting information on tautog abundance.

Other approved projects included:

$35,000 for dredging the boat-launching area at the village of Croaker on the York River.

$20,000 for improvements to a service pier for fishing boats at Westmoreland State Park in the Northern Neck.

$48,711 for the first year of a two-year study of Spanish mackerel, to be done by VIMS.

$31,953 for species identification of fish fillets, using DNA analysis, to be done by VIMS.

$77,103 to VIMS for the second year of a three-year study of juvenile summer flounder in Virginia nurseries.

$38,41 to VIMS for the first year of a two-year study of cobia in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

$37,977 to VIMS for development of a young-of-the-year bluefish index and monitoring of juvenile recreational fish on the Eastern Shore.

$5,029 to VIMS for the study of the reproductive biology of tautog in Virginia waters.

$117,884 to VIMS and Old Dominion University for a study of gray trout (weakfish) along the Atlantic Coast.

Projects denied by the advisory board were almost as interesting as those approved.

For one, the board turned down a request to spend $535,000 to purchase Kruse's Wharf, a boat-launching facility and fishing center at Deltaville on the Middle Peninsula. The board also rejected several proposals for constructing or improving boating facilities at various state parks, including $170,000 to pave the parking lot for the boat ramp at First Landing/Seashore State Park in Virginia Beach. by CNB