{"id":5120,"date":"2015-12-15T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=5120"},"modified":"2024-09-20T11:10:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T15:10:11","slug":"fishing-for-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/fishing-for-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"FISHING FOR FUNDING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Rebecca Nagy graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in English and a minor in environmental science.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kepley Biosystems, Inc<\/a>. is catching a lot of funding with their alternative crab bait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since receiving support from North Carolina Sea Grant<\/a> for a pilot study to test Organobait\u2122, KBI has leveraged $168,750 in grants from the National Science Foundation<\/a> and matching grants from the N.C. Department of Commerce\u2019s One North Carolina Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, Anthony Dellinger, KBI\u2019s president, received the University of North Carolina Greensboro\u2019s Jerry McGuire Student Entrepreneur Award for his work with Organobait while he was working on his doctoral degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Globally, \u201cOrganobait is addressing a $20 billion annual market opportunity,\u201d says Chris Kepley, the organization\u2019s founder who also is a nanoscientist at the UNCG Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering<\/a>, or JSNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company\u2019s patent-pending, nontoxic and biodegradable bait is designed to release chemicals that attract crustaceans without the need for any fish- or mammal-derived material. Its active ingredients are manufactured synthetically and do not come straight from natural sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat steered us toward this problem was the state of the ocean in general and the impending collapse of forage fish being more and more recognized in the media,\u201d notes Dellinger, who also is a faculty member at JSNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnce we started to dig into the literature more, we found that these little fish were suffering a great deal and there weren\u2019t that many people doing things to help alleviate it,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s not an easy process for crabbers either. Before catching a crab, they must catch fish for bait. It costs time and money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once caught, baitfish must be stored and kept cold to preserve until fishermen are ready to use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Menhaden is a popular baitfish in North Carolina\u2019s blue crab pot fishery. Blue crab fishermen used an estimated 11.2 million pounds of menhaden as bait, spending $3 million on the species for that purpose, according to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While menhaden may not be a fish that you picture on your dinner plate, it is an important prey item to many commercially caught fish as well as birds and other wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut with recent harvest restrictions on the species, along with on other baitfish species, the \u2018bait of choice\u2019 is becoming more varied,\u201d notes Sea Grant fisheries specialist Sara Mirabilio<\/a>. \u201cSince striped mullet are a viable fishery, I know some fishermen are using that species increasingly as bait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Striped mullet play a role in the food chain as well. The more menhaden and other fish are caught for bait, the less remain in the ocean for predator species to consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo date, a widely used artificial bait for blue crab commercial fisheries does not exist,\u201d Mirabilio says. Her idea of a successful bait would be one that would reuse available waste products, such as shrimp heads; be cost effective; be available year-round; and decrease fishing pressure on bait species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organobait\u2019s creators see their product alleviating the pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the Sea Grant-funded pilot study, KBI formulated different concentrations of the chemical attractants to compare with standard crab and lobster bait in lab and field trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pots with each type of bait were placed in fishing grounds for one to two days, depending on water temperature and fishermen\u2019s suggestions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The alternative bait did attract crabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAttracting Crabs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n