Everyone probably has his own definition of a project that has “come a long way.” Here’s an example that definitely fits:On Nov. 9, 2006, the students of a high school aquaculture class that 20 years ago raised bass and catfish in a flooded ditch at school property became the first group to release hatchery-raised southern flounders into North Carolina waters and the second group to release flounders into U.S. waters.
The aquaculture class at South Brunswick High School, located near Boiling Springs Lakes, has been an exceptional group since its humble beginnings. Students have led the way in a number of local fish-stocking endeavors and research projects.
However, the November release of southern flounder was the high point of two decades of aquaculture research and work.
The goal had been to release 1,000 hatchery-reared southern flounder into the waters of Davis Canal at the Long Beach section of Oak Island. The actual number released was 841 but the project was deemed a success.
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries will monitor the area during the next several months, including occasional trawling and sampling, to scrutinize the movement of the juvenile fish and continue documentation of the project.
The flounder released into the canal were from 6- to 9-inches long.
“The process has been a long one and has pretty much consumed the last year of my life and demanded time of these students,” said Byron “Barry” Bey, class instructor. “We wanted to do this, but we wanted to do it right, and it took a little time to form an advisory committee and set up guidelines for the project.
“When my kids opened the door to the transport tank that afternoon and all those little flounder went pouring into Davis Canal, it was a proud time for all of us and a benchmark in N.C. fisheries management history. This is a snapshot in history.”
Bey said his first contacts about the project were the fishery labs at N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Then it went to the scientists at DMF and from them to fellow researchers at the University of North Carolina Sea Grant program.
The agencies were supportive and helped to clear the first hurdle.
Forming an advisory board was the next step. It would contact scientists with the most information about their project and set guidelines to be sure proper protocol was followed and each step was done correctly. Several notable fishery scientists served on the advisory board, including Dr. Wade Watanabe and Chris Woolridge of UNCW, Dr. Harry Daniels, Dr. John Miller and Ryan Murashige of NCSU and Fritz Rohde of the DMF.
Several of the requirements set by the advisory board included using local flounders, verifying the history of the stock, certifying the flounder to be released as disease-free, conditioning the flounder to feed on natural food sources, having a stock enhancement specialist involved, recording steps to provide guidelines for future efforts, that it be small scale and low cost with steps to be approved by DMF (including a stocking site selected with DMF input), only natural coloration fish be stocked, begin with a small number of flounders, work with local governments and continue monitoring the fish after release.
Davis Canal at Oak Island was chosen as the release site because it’s known to provide the food and shelter the flounder would need during the winter. The canal also doesn’t currently hold a large flounder population and isn’t heavily fished or traveled.
However, a lot of work loomed between receiving the first fertilized eggs and release of flounders.
Bey said many groups were helpful in providing equipment and funding to set up the SBHS lab. The Brunswick County School Board, without whose help and acceptance the aquaculture program wouldn’t exist, was first to offer support. The list of agencies, groups and individuals who helped the program grow and mature included Rep. Bonner Stiller (R-Brunswick), Speaker of the House Richard Morgan (R-Moore), Dr. Bill Rabon, Mayor Johnny Vereen of Oak Island, Town of Boiling Springs Lakes, Tim Barefoot, CCA-NC, Fish For Tomorrow, Oak Island Fishing Club, Charlotte Offshore Sportfishing Club, U.S. Open King Mackerel Tournament, Long Bay Lady Anglers King Mackerel Tournament, Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce, Long Bay Artificial Reef Association and Royce Potter.
Once equipment was in place and basic funding secured, the SBHS aquaculture class secured fertilized eggs from the UNCW fisheries laboratory.
The growing process was labor intensive as the fish initially required hourly feedings, gradually tapered to twice a day. The cleanliness, temperature and salinity of the water were closely monitored and constantly maintained.
Bey said while the project has been successful to the point of the release, it didn’t go without a few bumps in the road.
“There were numerous times after power failures and other emergencies that I had to make rush trips to the lab on weekends and holidays,” he said. “Then, just as our hatched fish were reaching 2-inches long, we had some equipment failures and lost most of them.”
Bey said they wanted to complete the project with some of the students who had been involved from the beginning, so rather than start again with fertilized flounder eggs, he made a deal with the lab at NCSU and replenished the SBHS stock with 2-inch NCSU fingerlings. With the faulty equipment replaced, the fingerlings were grown to 6- to 9-inch fish for the stocking.
SBHS received the first batch of fertilized eggs during April of 2006. The little flatfish grew to 2-inches long by May. That’s when the equipment failed, and the students turned to NCSU for fingerlings at the same size. Those were the fish that were released Nov. 22, 2006.
Bey said the project costs, including a fee for labor, brought the cost of each 2-inch fish to 18 cents. He said in the classroom setting, there was no labor cost and the fish could be raised for significantly less.
As a significant part of the project, the class learned how to grow rotifers, a microscopic marine organism, for food for the small flounder, plus learned it could acclimate the flounder to a freshwater environment, which saved costs in salt and other operating costs.
For a while the flounder were fed a special supplemented pelletized food before being retrained to eat naturally occurring foods before being released.
The SBHS aquaculture facility has a lab and four 1/4-acre ponds valued at approximately $250,000. This semester there were 85 aquaculture students, including 25 seniors, involved in the flounder-stocking project.
However, a problem associated with the ponds was predation.
“There are always a few birds and such that will eat a few fish, but we can usually control them pretty well with netting,” Bey said. “However, this year we attracted an otter that is ingenious in getting around blockades and through netting. We finally had to get a permit from the Wildlife Resources Commission to trap him and move him elsewhere. He’s pretty smart about this and so far hasn’t ventured into the trap.”
Bey said the otter’s voracious appetite and unusual cunning had disrupted several programs, including one primary experiment regarding pigmentation variations with the flounder.
“Now we know we can grow flounder from native fish eggs to stocking size and get them back into the wild without major problems,” Bey said. “We hit a few pot holes and speed bumps along the way, but we have learned so much
“I am so proud of my students for the way they asked for and accepted this responsibility. We are all anxiously awaiting the first trawls from Davis Canal to see how our flounder are faring in the wild and to see how far they might have moved.
“The follow-up research will be as enlightening as getting them to the point of being released.
“We proved we could raise the flounder to release size and now we want to get more deeply involved in this idea. For 2007, we’d like to begin with the fish, strip the eggs and milt, fertilize them and raise them to release size. That’s exciting to me and it means a whole lot to these kids.”
Bey said the SBHS aquaculture class currently has two larger female flounder that have passed their quarantine stage and are ready to be stimulated into producing eggs. He said what was needed right now was a couple of good healthy males to provide milt to fertilize the eggs.
Bey said this project couldn’t have been done without the networking and support of the universities, state agencies, school board, Brunswick County Schools, local governments, fishing clubs and individuals. He said follow-up studies would determine the final outcome of the program, but with help, his students met many common goals and took long strides toward using hatchery-raised fish to enhance local stocks.
Bey also said the SBHS students were appreciated when they graduated to aquaculture programs at the community college and university levels.
I was pleased with what I observed in the SBHS Aquaculture Lab and Classroom, plus the demeanor and enthusiasm of Bey’s students.
With these students as the backbone of future fisheries sciences and stock enhancement programs, we should find our fisheries in good and capable hands. They may even achieve bringing some of the endangered species back to healthy stock levels.
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