Volume 21, No. 1 — Special Issue 2002

Navigating Our Course to a "Livable Coast"

The ocean is a source of endless fascination - a vast resource whose power, mystery, and beauty commands our respect.

Today, the ocean beckons many of us. In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than half of all Americans now live in coastal counties.

Here in the Diamond State, this trend underscores the importance of Governor Minner's "Livable Delaware" initiative - targeting sprawl and other quality-of-life issues. We need to make wise decisions about growth today to ensure the future welfare of our coastal communities and the natural resources on which we depend.

Since the University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program was established in 1976, our goals have been to promote the wise use, conservation, and management of Delaware's marine and coastal resources. We do so through a coordinated program of high-quality research, education, and public service activities.

During the past year, a National Sea Grant Review Team conducted an intensive evaluation of our program and concluded that it is "excellent in all respects." They also recognized five best management practices relating to our industry partnership activities, interactive Web sites, Coast Day open house, and other educational programs.

We remain dedicated to addressing coastal challenges on behalf of Delawareans and the environment. This report highlights several projects we're working on. To learn more, please visit our Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu or contact us at (302) 831-8083. We look forward to hearing from you!

Dr. Carolyn A. Thoroughgood
Director, Sea Grant College Program
Dean, College of Marine and Earth Studies

What Is Sea Grant?

Sea Grant is a nationwide network of 30 university-based programs that promotes better understanding, conservation, and use of America's coastal resources - "from sea to shining sea." Delaware Sea Grant was established at the University of Delaware in 1976. It is a unique partnership between the University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the State of Delaware.

Science Serving Delaware's Coast

The University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program currently is conducting 19 research projects in the following priority areas: coastal ocean studies, coastal engineering, environmental technology, marine biotechnology, and fisheries. These projects range from developing new sensors that can detect harmful algae, to determining how natural forces - winds and currents - can affect the Delaware Bay's blue crab population.

This report highlights only a portion of our research program. To learn more, please visit our Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu.

Our Coastal Ocean Studies focus on the Delaware Estuary and the Inland Bays. The Delaware Estuary extends 133 miles from the Delaware River rapids at Trenton, New Jersey, south to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. Among the estuary's benefits, it supports the fourth largest port in the U.S. and the largest concentration of horseshoe crabs in the world.

Delaware's Inland Bays - Rehoboth, Indian River, and Little Assawoman - cover 32 square miles in coastal Sussex County. Besides providing habitat for ospreys to diamondback terrapins, the bays rank as the state's top boating destination.

In Environmental Technology research, our scientists are developing a specialized probe to detect coastal water-quality problems. They also are exploring new satellite-based techniques for assessing the health of large ecosystems such as the Delaware Bay.

Among our projects in Marine Biotechnology, researchers are working at the molecular level to assess the potential of certain marine bacteria in cleaning up toxic pollutants.

The blue crab (above) and the summer flounder (lower right) are among the species targeted in Delaware Sea Grant's Fisheries research. We also are working to help the region's once-thriving oyster population recover from disease and developing an artificial bait to help relieve fishing pressure on the horseshoe crab, which is used to catch eels and whelk. The Delaware Bay horseshoe crab population has been on the decline for the past decade.

Graduate Education is a top priority at Delaware Sea Grant. In each of our research projects, graduate students gain valuable, hands-on experience in marine science working under the guidance of their advisers. When these students graduate, they will move on to careers in academia, resource management, government, and industry.

"Biological Fence" May Keep Phragmites Out of Marshes

Among marsh plants, Phragmites is a big bully! Its fast-growing underground stems (rhizomes) enable it to quickly take over a marsh, crowding out plants better for wildlife.

Botanists Jack Gallagher and Denise Seliskar and graduate student Jiangbo Wang are working to find a way to stop Phragmites in its tracks. In their lab at the UD Lewes campus (below), they are evaluating plants they have cultured, as well as plants found in nature, to assess their ability to form a "biological fence" to block Phragmites.

"We're looking for plants that have roots and rhizomes so dense they impede Phragmites' growth and whose roots release chemical compounds that inhibit Phragmites," says Gallagher. "Evergreen plants that grow taller than Phragmites and 'keep it in the dark' are also good because it doesn't like to grow in shade."

So far, he says, black needle rush, wax myrtle, and several other plants show good potential as Phragmites blockers. This summer, field testing of the plants will be expanded at a marsh restoration site along Delaware Bay. The project is supported jointly by Sea Grant and Public Service Enterprise Group.

Capturing Breaking Waves

It's a busy day at "the beach" in DuPont Hall on the UD Newark campus. Coastal engineer Nobuhisa Kobayashi and graduate student Yuki Tega (above) are conducting experiments in a wave tank to better understand what happens to the seafloor when waves break near shore.

While the waves are only about a foot high - typical of a calm sea - they hit the simulated seafloor when they break, kicking up sediment particles that become suspended in the water.

"We can see what's happening, but quantifying what we see is very difficult," Kobayashi says. "We're working to determine how much sediment is being moved by breaking waves and carried on- or offshore."

The scientists will translate their observations into a mathematical model that can determine how long it will take a beach to recover from storm erosion. Their ultimate goal is to develop a computer program that beach managers can use to predict how long the sand they've put on a beach will last.

Scientists Map Delaware River Seafloor

From the deck of UD's research vessel Cape Henlopen, scientist Chris Sommerfield (left) is preparing to deploy a "towfish" in the Delaware River. As its name belies, this instrument is towed underwater a few feet above the bottom. It transmits narrow beams of acoustic energy to the seafloor and converts the reflected sound into images. Sommerfield is using the tool to map the seafloor of the Delaware River from Burlington, New Jersey, to New Castle, Delaware.

"We're covering the entire seafloor of that area," Sommerfield says. "We've towed our instruments back and forth, over 300 miles total, to document the bottom completely. It's the most comprehensive survey of this region ever done."

The hundreds of images that have been taken are now being digitally "stitched" together to produce a composite view of the seafloor. Additionally, Sommerfield and his research team have collected several hundred sediment samples to correlate their mapping data with specific sediment types.

Sommerfield's aim is to better understand where over a million tons of sediment that enter the Delaware Estuary annually go, and how the seafloor is being affected by natural and human processes. This baseline information can then aid resource managers and engineers with issues such as contaminant dispersal and shoaling of navigable channels.

The Sea Grant study is being conducted in partnership with the Delaware River Basin Commission, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, and Environmental Protection Agency.

Can Microbes Detoxify River Pollutant?

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are nasty pollutants. Originating in tar, wood preservatives, and oil and other fossil fuels, they don't break down in water. Found in industrialized estuaries like the Delaware River and Bay, they can cause tumors in fish and accumulate to lethal levels in seafloor dwellers such as clams and oysters.

UD microbiologist David Kirchman and graduate student Dawn Ward (left) are working to find out what effect PAHs have on the microbes of the Delaware River and Bay. While some of these tiny organisms, which form the base of the food chain, are harmed by PAHs, others can actually detoxify the complex chemical compounds.

During the past year, the scientists sampled several contaminated sites in the river near the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and found some known hydrocarbon degraders.

"These microbes may be very useful in bioremediation," says Kirchman. "We're working to learn more about them and the conditions that enhance their ability to detoxify PAHs."

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is collaborating on the project.

Tracking the Travels of the Blue Crab

The blue crab is Delaware's number-one commercial fishery, so when its population fluctuates, people want to know why. While fishing pressure is a factor, natural forces - wind and currents - also can impact the crab population, according to UD marine biologist Charles Epifanio.

He and oceanographer Richard Garvine have determined that once the tiny, larval crabs hatch in July and August, they get swept out of the bay and onto the continental shelf by the Delaware Coastal Current. Summer winds then push the crabs home, back into their bay nursery grounds.

"If river flow is at a minimum due to drought, wind has a greater effect in shuttling the crabs back into the bay," Epifanio says. "Thus, the supply of larval crabs may be highest in drought years."

The scientists have discovered that the larval crabs often occur in the bay in large, distinct patches. "We think these patches may be formed through the synchronized spawning of large aggregations of female crabs," Epifanio notes.

This summer, the scientists will test their hypothesis using satellites to track the crab patches, coupled with intensive sampling operations at various locations in the bay. This spatial data will help them refine a unique mathematical model of the physical and biological processes involved in blue crab transport.

New Probe Can Rapidly Detect Brown Tide

Delaware Sea Grant researchers have developed a molecular probe that can rapidly detect the microscopic plant that causes brown tide. The probe is so sensitive it can detect brown tide at just a few cells per milliliter, advancing the capability to predict waters at risk, well before blooms occur.

"We've already used the probe to assist DNREC in monitoring brown tide in the Inland Bays and expect it will become the method of choice for regulatory agencies throughout the United States," says UD oceanographer David Hutchins, who is leading the project with marine biologist Craig Cary.

Brown tide is not harmful to humans, but it can hurt bay life. When the tiny plant grows rapidly, or "blooms," at the water's surface, it forms a thick, brown soup impenetrable by sunlight. Major brown-tide blooms have damaged the shellfish industries in several states.

A few years ago, New Jersey was the southern extent of brown tide on the East Coast. Then in 1998, Hutchins found it in Delaware's Little Assa-woman Bay. Last summer, his students tested for the organism farther south and found it in estuaries "from here to Florida," according to Hutchins.

Currently, Linda Popels, one of Hutchins' students, is working to assess brown tide's ability to survive darkness. If the microscopic plant can live for an extended period with no light, it might be hitching a ride to new waters via the ballast tanks of ships and recreational boats.

Chemical Sensor Helps Scientists Solve Fish-Kill Mystery

What killed over 2 million bait fish in Torquay Canal in July 2000? Some suspected Pfiesteria. Others thought "low oxygen." UD chemist George Luther wanted to investigate. Last year, he found over a dozen "deep holes" in the shallow canal, which connects to Bald Eagle Creek, a tributary to northern Rehoboth Bay. Some holes are 18 feet deep and as large as a football field. They were dug when mud was removed from the canal to build up the soil for nearby housing developments in the 1960s.

Using a novel microelectrode sensor he developed in Sea Grant research, Luther and his team tested the sites' water chemistry. They found that when the weather is calm, oxygen is measurable in the canal's surface waters, but in the deep holes, only toxic hydrogen sulfide exists.

"In summer, if storms or strong winds occur over a few days, the water in the holes overturns and the hydrogen sulfide comes to the surface, harming fish and crabs," Luther says.

He's working with DNREC to try to solve the toxic problem. "The best approach may be to simply fill the holes with iron-rich sediment to an even water depth of 6 feet," he says.

He recently got a lander to which the sensor can be attached, deployed, and operated remotely from boats. It will be used in the Inland Bays this summer.

Regional Team Working to Define Fish Habitat Needs

UD fisheries scientist Tim Targett and his graduate students have built a state-of-the art aquarium system that is a key component in a regional Sea Grant effort to assess the effects of low-oxygen conditions, called hypoxia, on fish in coastal nursery grounds.

Targett's collaborators include Jim Rice from North Carolina State University and Ken Rose from Louisiana State University.

"Fisheries management organizations have placed a strong emphasis on the importance of identifying 'essential fish habitat' - those waters critical to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding, and growth to maturity," says Targett. "In our regional project, we're working to develop a simulation model that can predict the impact of changing oxygen conditions on the growth, survival, and distribution of several major species including young weakfish, summer flounder, Atlantic menhaden, and spot."

Using their computer-controlled aquarium system, Targett and his students are monitoring how juvenile fish (less than a year old) respond to the varying oxygen conditions found in healthy versus polluted estuaries over a range of temperatures and salinities. Over the next two years, the data will be used by Targett's collaborators to develop a novel fisheries model.

"When we're done," Targett says, "we should have the framework for quantifying the complex relationships between water quality and fish populations."

Sea Grant Outreach

Where can you learn about fish farming, horseshoe crabs, rip currents, seafood, and much more? Sea Grant is the answer! Our outreach team - the Marine Advisory Service and the Marine Public Education Office - delivers research-based information on coastal topics via seminars, publications, SeaTalk radio announcements, special events, and Web sites.

This page highlights just a few of the activities we're involved in. For more information, visit our Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu or call the Marine Advisory Service in Lewes at (302) 645-4346 or the Marine Public Education Office in Newark at (302) 831-8083.

Planning for a "Livable Coast"

Delaware's beaches attract over 5 million visitors a year. The traffic on major roads from Lewes to Rehoboth Beach is intense from May through September.

In March in Lewes, Delaware Sea Grant and the Greater Lewes Foundation, working with several sponsors, hosted programs on land-use planning to reduce traffic congestion problems while protecting the coastal area's heritage and natural resources. More than 120 planners and elected officials participated in a technical seminar, while 75 people turned out for a public forum.

The educational programs are helping to advance Governor Minner's "Livable Delaware" initiative, which is targeting sprawl and other quality-of-life issues throughout the state. For more information on Sea Grant's efforts to promote a "Livable Coast," contact the Marine Advisory Service at (302) 645-4346.

Demo House Shows How to Protect Your Home from Storms

If you want to know what you can do to better protect your home from storm damage, take a tour of Delaware's new coastal demo house.

The portable 6-by-16-foot unit, built on a trailer, demonstrates the construction techniques and materials that coastal residents and builders should use to safeguard their homes from storms. It was built through a partnership involving Delaware Sea Grant, the City of Lewes, Town of Bethany Beach, Federal Emergency Management Agency's Project Impact, and a host of local businesses.

The demo house may be coming soon to an event near you! For more information, call the Marine Advisory Service at (302) 645-4346.

Interested in Fish Farming?

The Delaware Aquaculture Resource Center at UD's Lewes campus can help. Visit the Web site at www.darc.cms.udel.edu or call (302) 645-4060.

Horseshoe Crab Model Available

Our paper horseshoe crab model is educational and fun! To order, send $1 per copy with your name and address to Univ. of Delaware, Marine Public Education Office, Newark, DE 19716-3530.

Catch of the Day

If you're hooked on seafood, you'll enjoy Sea Grant's popular cookbooks - eafood Delaware Style ($4) and the Coast Day Crab Cake Cook-off Cookbook ($3). To order, send your name/ address and check payable to "University of Delaware" to Univ. of Delaware Marine Public Education Office, Newark, DE 19716-3530.

Web Site Makes a Splash!

Be sure to visit our Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu and click on "Neat Stuff!" Here are a few of the treasures you'll find:

• "SeaTalk," our award-winning radio series
• Sea Flicks video clips of marine research
• Interactive Coastal Habitat where you can meet a diamondback terrapin, blue crab, osprey, sand tiger shark, loggerhead turtle, horseshoe crab, and more!

Students "Dive in" to Deep Sea with UD Scientists

Last October, UD marine biologist Craig Cary (below) led "Extreme 2001: A Deep-Sea Odyssey," a 17-day expedition to hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean. The mission: to learn more about the Pompeii worm (left), one of Earth's most heat-tolerant animals, able to withstand water as hot as 176°F.

While Cary and his team dived 2 miles to the seafloor in the submarine Alvin, more than 13,000 middle- and high-school students in 32 states followed along via a formal classroom program developed by the Marine Public Education Office with support from the National Science Foundation, WHYY-TV, and Sea Grant. The program included curricula, a documentary video, and an interactive Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu/extreme2001, where the scientists reported their findings each day. Forty classrooms also participated in a conference call with Cary and his team as they worked live in Alvin on the seafloor.

Extreme 2002 will set sail in October. Teachers, register your class now at www.ocean.udel.edu/expeditions!

Upcoming Events

Ocean Currents Lecture Series - Free lectures are presented once a month, April,through September, at 7 p.m., UD Hugh R. Sharp Campus, 700 Pilottown Road, Lewes. Reservations required. Contact: (302) 645-4279.

Marine Science Tours - Free tours of the UD College of Marine Studies in Lewes are offered every Friday at 10:30 a.m., June through August. Ages 12 and up. Reservations required. Contact: (302) 645-4346.

Coast Day - Sunday, October 6, Lewes Campus. This award-winning festival features research demonstrations, ship tours, exhibits, a crab cake cook-off, and more! Contact: (302) 831-8083.

Extreme 2002 - Middle- and high-school teachers, sign up now for an award-winning educational program that will connect your students with UD marine scientists working live at deep-sea hydrothermal vents this fall. Register on-line at www.ocean.udel.edu/expeditions. Contact: (302) 831-8083.

Wilmington Lunch & Lecture Series - Enjoy a delicious lunch and engaging food for thought at the Hotel du Pont as UD marine scientists share their latest research. Held periodically, November through April. Cost: $10 per person. Reservations required. Contact: (302) 831-8083.

2002 Sea Grant Advisory Council

University of Delaware
Sea Grant College Program

Financial Report
July 1, 2001 – June 30, 2002

In addition to this Sea Grant funding, Delaware investigators successfully competed for several National Strategic Initiatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce. Funds for these programs are managed by the University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program and serve as an important mechanism for the development of comprehensive and integrated research efforts:

Under the National Marine Aquaculture Initiative, Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain, director of the UD Center for the Study of Marine Policy, received funding for developing and testing an operational framework for offshore aquaculture in conjunction with stakeholders at the national and regional levels. This 24-month effort is funded for $487,700 for the time period of September 1, 2001 through August 31, 2003.

Dr. Patrick Gaffney, UD marine biologist, received funding through the Oyster Disease Research Program for a multi-state collaborative research project to develop disease-resistant oysters for the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic waters. This 24-month effort is funded for $24,361 for the time period of October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2003.

Dr. Gaffney also received funding through the Oyster Disease Research Program to develop a moderate-density genetic linkage map of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) to help identify disease resistance genes and accelerate breeding programs for disease-resistant oysters. Dr. Gaffney is completing the third year of a $114,275 award.