2000_Spring - Sites@Duke

The Marine Laboratory > Duke University Nicholas School ofthe Environment
li
he Pamlico Sound is the
major fishery for North
Carolina. The estuary serves as a
nursery area for many species of
recreational and commercial fish
with seventy-five percent of the
commercial landings in the state
occurring inside the estuary.
Water quality is critical to
support fisheries and tourism in
the state. The fate of the Pamlico
Sound not only impacts North
Carolina, but it is symptomatic
of problems occurring nationally
in the coastal zone.
As urbanization, agriculture
and other land uses increase in
Larry Crowder and Crew sample the Pamlico.
the coastal zone, more nutrients
and chemicals are added to the system.
"We don't even know how the Pamlico
According to the American Rivers FoundaSound operates under normal conditions
tion, the Neuse River is on the list of the
let alone event scale conditions," said
top 20 most polluted rivers in the United
Ramus. "No one has collected data on the
States. Low oxygen levels have continually
system. A lot is known about the tributary
plagued coastal rivers with associated fish
rivers, but little is known about the Sound
kills. Most people think this condition has
proper. The challenge is that the sound is
yet to occur in the Pamlico Sound. The
just so big that no one has had the
popular belief is that the sound is healthy,
resources to take on a project of that size."
but recent evidence suggests otherwise.
Forethought and rapid response have
"The estuary is a fish production system
positioned Duke as a leader in Pamlico
that is being compromised by nutrient
Sound research. Crowder and his students
loading and low oxygen problems," notes
began studies in the Neuse River in 1997
Dr. Larry Crowder of the Duke Marine
responding to the problems the state was
Lab.
experiencing with fish kills and nutrient
"We are entering a heightened period
enrichment.
of tropical low activity which brings a lot of
"We've emphasized effects on fish
energy in the form of high winds and
productivity instead of just fish kills," said
precipitation. Both of these stimulate
Crowder. "We were more interested in
productivity and change the basic composisub-lethal effects. Ten million dead
tion of the ecosystem," said Dr. Joe Ramus
menhaden makes a lot of headlines but
of the Duke Marine Lab.
when you talk to the people who estimated
The long term goal of research on the
the number of menhaden out there, ten
Pamlico Sound is to understand the
million isn't that big a number. It's more
ecosystem's response to event scale forcing
likely that the major fishery effects are on
such as noreasters and hurricanes.
growth and fish health."
Sp1i11g 2000
Since 1997 Crowder's
group continues to look at how
the fish respond to variations in
nutrient loading and rainfall.
Each year was significantly
different. In 1997 we had a very
dry spring followed by a wet
summer resulting in a fresh
water cap over the salt water,
leading to low oxygen problems.
A wet spring characterized
1998, with little rain in the
summer. The Neuse River was
fresher, but it didn't stratify, so
low oxygen problems didn't
occur until the end of the
summer. In 1999 it was fairly
dry with high salinity (seawater
is 35 parts salinity) in the Neuse and
Pamlico. Much of the lower Neuse and
Pamlico Sound, which are usually between
10 and 12 parts seawater, were in excess of
20 parts during 1999. The team had
collected good long-term data on what the
system looked like with some year-to-year
variability. Crowder used the Fall '98
Marine Ecology class to begin similar
surveys of the Pamlico Sound.
Crowder and Ramus began a program
on a shoestring, knowing that at some
future date the information would be
valuable. Eventually the Sound would be
hit by a major scale event. "If we were to
begin to understand what the impact of
that event was, we had to get some baseline
data," said Ramus. "We produced the first
baseline data on the Pamlico Sound, and
we did it without any funding using
existing resources. We had a year's worth of
data before the hurricanes of 1999."
Conventional wisdom held that the
Pamlico Sound would not have the same
water quality problems and low oxygen
(Continue on pg. 2)
levels that were seen in the coastal rivers
because it's so large, and it was thought
that the wind would easily correct any low
oxygen problems. Yet in the fall of 1998,
prior to the hurricanes, researchers found
parts of the Pamlico stratified with fresh
water over low oxygen saltwater.
"Everyone talks about what hurricane
Floyd did," said Crowder. "What actually
happened was a combined set of effects
that involved hurricane Dennis, Floyd and
a couple of fronts that came through
between these hurricanes added up to an
estimated 25 inches of rainfall above the
long term average for September." With
that much rain in already saturated
watersheds, large amounts of fresh water
entered the system. This resulted in huge
flooding on land that continued to flood
into the estuary, peaking about two
months after Hurricane Floyd.
""T""-n-----.
The Pamlico Sound
"We began picking up the increase in a
couple of weeks, but it kept coming in for
months," said Crowder.
It was estimated that the influx of fresh
water associated with these events was
approximately 85% of the volume of
Pamlico Sound. Over three quarters of the
volume of the sound was replaced with
fresh water!!
"Pamlico Sound only reaches 27 feet deep
and we saw 18 feet of fresh water on top.
It started as a thin layer, became a thick
layer, and now is back to a thin layer
again," said Crowder. This put a fresh
water cap, 6 - 18 feet thick, on the top of
the sound. Winds mixed the fresh water
layer, but did not mix oxygen into the
lower salt water layer resulting in large low
oxygen zones.
Fortunately, when Floyd came along
the Duke researchers had their sampling
program in place. "We already had plans
to be on the river," said Crowder. "We
had Marine Ecology cruises set for that
fall, and we actually did our first cruise the
week before Floyd came by. As soon as the
boat was back at the lab after Floyd, Lisa
Eby was on the Neuse River. I was in
California when I saw her results. I got on
the phone and booked the next available
ship time."
Crowder and Ramus worked with
students on the Pamlico Sound as often as
possible, nearly every two weeks throughout the fall of 1999. They're still doing
trips about every month.
Initial findings showed a lot of fresh
water sitting on top of the salt water, and
oxygen in the lower levels had dramatically
decreased. Fish catches are normally low in
these low oxygen zones. But in this case,
despite the fact that there were low oxygen
levels, there were high fish catches. The
hypothesis was that the fish were unable to
escape the area of low oxygen because it
was so large. To move out of that area they
would have to move into nearly fresh
water. The fish were sitting on the bottom
of Pamlico Sound when fresh water moved
in over 20 feet above them. They didn't
notice this until the system was capped by
fresh water and the oxygen began clicking
down in the lower layers. Then they
started moving into shallow waters. When
they got there they found the salinity
seriously down which had a stressful effect
on their physiology. They're likely in that
circumstance to move back into the area of
low oxygen.
"They're between a rock and a hard place,"
said Crowder.
A month later Crowder's crew began
seeing serious health problems in the fish.
When fish are exposeq to low oxyge11 stress
their immune systems which normally
fight off skin infections are suppressed.
The bacteria in the waters are enhanced
due to the increased nutrient loading
causing the fish to be stressed and more
vulnerable to disease.
"We found two things that were new the disease problems were widespread
across species and we found systemic
bacterial infections spread throughout the
fish. We saw more serious health problems
in the Pamlico Sound than we've ever seen
before," said Crowder. Fish began showing
up with skin disease problems. Their tail
fins would rot. Their skin got soft and
would slough off scales. They had lesions.
Six weeks after Floyd 70 - 80% of the fish
caught had these systemic bacterial
infections. Fish in such a condition have
very little chance of recovering.
Hurricane Irene mixed oxygen back into
the system in mid October; fish disease
joe Ramus filters water samples.
still increased, dropping off later as the
stratification decreased.
Epic levels of fresh water that entered
the system brought high levels of organic
material which sank out in the western end
of the Pamlico Sound. The organic
material and nutrients that came in weren't
fully utilized.
"We're going into the spring with excess
nutrients and organic material. We expect
the bacteria population to be up to process
the additional organic material and the
algae population to be up because of the
nutrients," said Crowder.
The effects on the fish will ultimately
depend on what happens with future
rainfall and wind levels. Anything that will
lead to stratification will be problematic for
the fish. Climatilogical predictions are for
more storms and rainfall. If this occurs
there will likely be problems in the Pamlico
Sound down the road. Will the impacts be
limited to the upper rivers? Will the entire
Pamlico Sound be affected? Researchers
are waiting to see what the spring and
summer bring. The quantity of organic and
nutrient materials entering the system was
so large it may take years for scientists to
come close to understanding the full effects
of this scale event.
Public response to the research has been
mixed. The human effects of the storm
were so severe that environmental issues
were not a priority for many people. Water
quality is crucial to tourism and fisheries in
North Carolina. A cadre of state regulatory
agencies has management responsibility in
the Pamlico Sound, yet they don't have any
data to help them respond to potential
management issues. No one truly knows
how to respond because the impacts of
these events on the fisheries are not yet
known. There are serious regulatory issues
associated with events of this magnitude.
Basic knowledge of how the system works
is critical to help agencies make effective
decisions dealing with the health of the
2
Pamlico Sound and livelihoods of those
who make their living from its waters.
In the normal funding cycle, proposals
are written six months to a year in advance.
Catastrophic events can't be anticipated.
Funding which becomes available a year
after the fact isn't helpful unless there is
data obtained immediately before and after
the hurricane, though it does help on the
long-term effects.
"It's fortunate that we're right here and
could run out and get some data before
funding was in place," said Crowder.
Joe Ramus and Hans Pearl of the
University of North Carolina Institute of
Marine Sciences found funding scarce for
proposed Pamlico Sound research prior to
Hurricane Floyd. The project recently
received funding from the Department of
Natural Resources. "It's because we had
that year's worth of data and a sense of
what the impacts of the hurricanes were on
the Sound that we're beginning to get
funding now," said Ramus. "We're the
only game in town. No one else has the
data. We an~fcipated what was coming and
got to work.
According to Ramus, "what is needed
to conduct future water quality research on
a system as large and as shallow as the
Pamlico Sound is a fleet of large boats that
don't draw much water. The North
Carolina ferry system is ideal for this
purpose. They're free and there are a lot of
them." The ferries operate five routes on
the Pamlico with 15-20 different ferries
maldng frequent crossings in varied
locations covering critical areas of the
sound. This type of sampling combined
with frequent biological sampling aboard
the R/V Susan Hudson should give a more
comprehensive understanding of the
dynamics of the Pamlico Sound.
Research of this type affords incredible
opportunities for the Coastal Environmental Management students at the Marine
Lab. They are involved in research and
policy development on current live issues
ranging from state to international issues.
"They're doing real research that has real
importance on a wide variety of projects. I
see us putting together talented students
with opportunities to do important analysis
that will have an impact on the science and
policy dealing with coastal issues. It's
exciting," said Crowder. "It's real stuff
that's having an immediate impact on
policy. And a lot of it is getting published."
The future of the Pamilco Sound is in
the hands of the people of North Carolina.
Researchers at the Duke Marine Laboratory
hope to provide the public with a sound set
of data to guarantee our state quality,
productive waters for generations to come.
•
I
F
ive scholars from the Coastal Environmental Management Program at
the Duke University Nicholas School of
the Environment are heading to Washington, D.C., after being selected as the
2000 Dean John A. Knauss Fellows.
Created in 1979, the fellowship offers a
unique educational experience to
students with an interest in marine, ocean
and Great Lakes resources, and in the
national policy decisions affecting those
resources.
The fellowship, sponsored by the
National Sea Grant College Program,
matches highly qualified graduate
students with hosts in the legislative or
executive branches of the federal
government.
North Carolina recipients are Tanya
]. Dobrzynski, Matthew C. Huggler,
Daniel Lyons and Elizabeth E.
Nicholson. Also receiving this award was
Emily Lindow, who applied through the
University of Michigan Sea Grant
Program. All are completing their
master's degree in environmental
management at the Duke University
Nicholas School of the Environment.
Dobrzynksi, who speaks Spanish,
served as a Marine Reserves Intern last
summer with the Environmental Defense
Fund, researching social, economic and
policy issues related to a national marine
reserves policy initiative.
Her master's thesis will assess the social and
economic impacts of new Florida Keys'
marine reserves on local groups.
Dobrzynsld is assigned to the National
Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Habitat
Conservation.
Huggler's research focuses on the
success of partnerships between the public
and private sectors in preserving wetlands
and estuaries.
As an undergraduate at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he
worked at the UNC Institute of Marine
Science, where he studied the role of
heterogeneity in defining ecological
processes. Huggler is assigned to the House
Resources Subcommittee on Wildlife,
Fisheries and Oceans.
Lindow is studying the use of purchase
of development rights for coastal open
space protection. The Orrin Pilkey advisee
did her internship last summer with South
Carolina's coastal conservation league on a
purchase of development rights case study.
Lindow has been assigned to the Senate
Majority Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation, Subcommittee
on Oceans and Fisheries.
Spting 2000
Lyons is pursuing two graduate
degrees - a master's in regional planning
at UN C-CH and a mastees of environmental management at the Nicholas
SchooL He is the first student to work on
both degrees simultaneously.
As an undergraduate at Princeton
University, Lyons earned a bachelor of
science degree in engineering and
completed a senior thesis on "Saving the
Sound: An Evaluation ofWater Quality
Monitoring." Lyons has been assigned to
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
Elizabeth Nicholson is focusing her
graduate studies on marine ecosystems
and U.S. fishery policy.
Nicholson has worked as a naturalist
for the Massachusetts Audubon Society
and a park ranger in Denali National
Park in Alaska. For the past two years,
she has helped identify, analyze and map
marine protected areas in the Gulf of
Mexico through the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution. She has been
assigned to the National, Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's National
Ocean Service, Coastal and Oceans
Program, where she will be working on a
national initiative on marine protected
areas.
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Eunice Godette retired December
1999 after 23 years of service.
Richard Barber, Mike Hiscock,
Anna Hilting, Zack Johnson, and
Veronica Lance presented posters at
Joe Bonaventura visited the Stanford
Linear Accelerator Synchrotron Facility in
November and the Molecular Biology Labs
of Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla,
California, to work on protein crystals. In
January he presented a paper on "The
Biology of Nitric Oxide" at the Society of
Comparative and Integrative Biologists
Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tim Boynton received the Meritorious
Service Award in the Administrative/
Professional category at Duke University.
He was honored by President Keohane for
his achievements at a special luncheon on
April12.
Bill Campbell and Sly Murray
attended a week long professional cooking
school at the University of California in
San Diego in March.
Tara Cox was head coach of a Special
Olympics basketball team, The Carteret
County Galaxy All-Stars 2000. Also
assiting the team were Caron Whitaker
(CEM '98), Tim Boynton, Damon and
Janet Gannon, and Danielle Waples. The
season ran from November to March,
culminating in State Games (March 3-5) in
Greensboro and a local "March Madness"
exhibition for friends and family.
Kevin and Tara Craig announced the
birth of a baby girl, Riley Grace, on
Saturday, November 20.
Caterina E. D' agrosa presented
"Assessing the physical habitat of cetaceans
in the southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean
during the summer of 1998 with GIS,
remote sensing and spatial statistics" during
the thirteenth biennial meeting of the
Society for Marine Mammalogy, Maui
Hawaii, in November and at the 8th
Atlantic Coast Dolphin Conference, March
2000, in Wilmington, NC.
Between research trips to the Florida
Keys Will Figueira passed his prelims on
February 4th.
Don Gagnon received the Facilities
management (FMD) employee of the third
quarter 1999 award.
the 2000 Ocean Sciences Meeting, in San
Antonio, Texas. The conference was
hosted jointly by the American Geophysical Union and the American Society of
Limnology and Oceanography.
Jennifer Keller attended the 20rh
Annual Sea Turtle Symposium this
February in Orlando, Florida.
Heather Koopman won the John
Shedd award for best overall student
presentation at the 13th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals,
held in the first week of December 1999
in Maui. The conference was attended by
over 1200 people, with 90 students giving
talks and 236 presenting posters.
She worked at Dalhousiie University in
Nova Scotia from mid-March through
mid-May analyzing blubber lipids from
harbor porpoises and other species of
odontocetes as part of her dissertation
work
Lillian Lorenzsonn-Willis became a
grandmother with the birth of Michael
McAlister Styron on March 16, 2000.
Karen Magnus joined the lab in July
oflast year from Case Western Reserve in
Cleveland, Ohio, where she studied
oxygen transport and actin cytoskeletal
proteins. She will be working with Joe
Bonaventura and Celia Bonaventura on
hemocyanins and phenol oxidases.
Mike Mascia participated in a workshop sponsored by the Marine Conservation Biology Institute and the Cousteau
Society in Washington, DC, on January
20-21. The meeting was entitled "Establishing a National System of Marine
Protected Areas in the United States". I
was one of 12 scientists who were invited
to participate. Participants were from the
USA, Canada, England, Australia, and the
Philippines. Mascia successfully defended
his dissertation on April 5, 2000.
On March 11, Mike Orbach moderated a panel entitled, "In the Eye of the
Storm: Coping with Natural and Unnatural Disasters in the 21st Century" at the
Stanford Law School Sea Change Conference in Palo Alto, CA., sponsored by the
Spting 2000
National Association of Environmental Law Societies. Sylvia Earle, a Duke
alum and member of the DUML
Advisory Board, was the featured
speaker at the conference. Orbach also
moderated the opening Plenary
Session ,"The Human Dimension in
Coastal Management" at the annual
NOM Ocean and Coastal Manager's
Meeting in Washington, D. C. on
March 28.
Andy Read, Andrew
Westgate, Dave Johnston,
Heather Koopman, and
Damon Ganon attended the
Annual Meeting of the European
Cetacean Society in Cork, Ireland in
the first week of April. They all
presented papers at the meeting and
Andrew Westgate chaired a workshop
on Telemetry.
Andy Read and Kim Urian lead a
Duke Alumni College trip 'Among the
Great Whales' to Baja California in
March.
Melissa Snover attended the 20th
Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle
Biology and Conservation in Orlando,
Florida. She gave a talk titled
'Skeletochronology in juvenile Kemp's
ridleys: Validation, settlement and
growth' and won first runner-up for
best student paper in Biology.
Heather Walton gave an invited
talk entitled "Transport ofViable
Phytoplankton in Ballast Water,
Ballast Water Exchange" at the
Strategic Planning Workshop for the
Canadian Atlantic Region in
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada,
January 2000. She also spoke at a
workshop for the Maritime and
Scientific Communities, Tampa,
Florida, November 1999 on "Reducing Biological Invasions due to Ballast
Water Discharge, Aquatic Invasive
Species and Shipping the Eastern Gulf
of Mexico". In addition, Walton
presented a poster on "Invasion of the
Indo-Pacific Swimming Crab
Charybdis hellerii in the Florida crab
community" at the Benthic Ecology
Meeting, in Wilmington, North
Carolina, March 2000.
4
What do you get when you add 300 km2
ofbradcish water, 900,000 fish, a sturdy
boat with crew, three years of hard work
and a group of young scientists led by an
energetic Ph.D. candidate? You get a
recipe for knowledge that will serve the
people of Eastern North Carolina for years
to come.
Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin,
with a Master's degree in Limnology, Lisa
Eby brought an enthusiasm for field
studies to the Duke Marine Lab. "Field
work is definitely my favorite part of the
work. I love going out on the river," said
Eby. She has conducted more than 90
research cruises in over three field seasons
covering over three-quarters of the Neuse
River from New Bern to the mouth of the
Pamlico Sound. In 1998 alone she pulled
over 700 trawls.
"Lisa is probably the best student that
I've had and I've had some outstanding
students," noted her advisor, Dr. Larry
Crowder. "She's really tal<.en the initiative.
She's written grant proposals, raised
hundreds of thousands of research dollars,
directed research teams, and has won the
J Francis Allen scholarship, a national
award given by the American Fisheries
Society for the outstanding Ph.D. student
in fisheries."
Eby' s work focuses on the environmental effects of human intervention on
the Neuse River from New Bern to the
Pamlico Sound.
"I'm looking at how environmental
variables drive fish distribution and how
that effects species interactions," said Eby.
The Neuse River estuary serves as a
nursery ground for many species of
recreational and commercial fish. Juvenile
fish spend their first year in the estuary
before they move off shore. The Neuse
River/Pamlico Sound region is one of the
most valuable pieces of fish habitat real
estate in the United States. It is essential to
determine the overall health of the system
and provide a body of sound scientific data
for future river management plans.
Severe landscape alterations on the
river cause fresh water to move more
quickly into the estuary, changing the
salinity, creating a freshwater lens on top.
Because fresh and salt-water layers don't
readily mix the result is a low oxygen
problem. Nutrient loading compounds the
effect by increasing the productivity of
Lisa Eby measures a blue crab.
algae which eventually sinks to the bottom,
uses up what's left of the oxygen, and
creates large low oxygen zones in the
estuary.
The focus of Eby' s work is on short
term variability. In 1997, on average half of
the bottom habitat of the Neuse River was
at oxygen levels so low it wasn't useful to
fish. In 1998, the River showed improvement averaging only 10-15% low oxygen.
Her research indicates that fish respond to
these problems by moving. But when they
move into the shallow sides of the river to
get into oxygenated areas, they stack up at
very high densities which intensifies
predation and competition, and increases
interactions that might not normally occur.
Fish that are crowded into the shallow
areas because of low oxygen eat less and
don't grow as well. More importantly, the
fish's food resources, benthic invertebrates,
are killed by low oxygen. So even if the low
oxygen is temporary, invertebrates can't
move as quickly as the fish, and they die
sooner. This environmental variability has
impacts on the fish populations that
ultimately effect fish productivity and
fishery yields.
On a typical research trip, which lasts
from 12 to 14 hours, the crew, many of
whom volunteer, leaves the Marine Lab
bright and early on the R/V Susan
Hudson. Once they're on the Neuse River
they perform a variety of water quality
measurements and pull trawls which last
Spring2000
for no more than two minutes, with a goal
of sampling 20 locations per day. A typical
summer trawl will net 500 fish, but they
have caught up to 2000 in the two-minute
period. They work with an average of
10,000 fish a day, counting, measuring,
and identifying each and every fish. Most
of the fish are returned to the estuary live,
while some are brought to the lab for
analysis. In these often arduous conditions
Eby truly shines. "Lisa works very well with
people," notes Crowder. "She keeps
everybody happy and working hard under a
whole variety of conditions that can be
unpleasant at times."
During the third year of sampling,
Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd came along
pushing huge volumes of fresh water into
the Neuse River. This turned her entire
study site into fresh water. The unprecedented occurrence offered Eby the
opportunity to compare a disturbance of
great magnitude with previous short term
disturbances, allowing for a direct comparison. W auld the study of small-scale
disturbances tell us anything that will help
us manage the occasional large-scale
disturbances?
"With Floyd I've seen a lot of what we
saw in previous smaller scale hurricanes,"
said Eby. "It's not often that you see an
event of this magnitude and just happen to
have three years of baseline data. That's
exciting."
This baseline data proved critical to
post hurricane research on the overall
effects of these events on the Neuse River
and the Pamlico Sound.
Eby is creating mathematical models
that will be able to predict the impact of
environmental variables on fish production. Her models could tell policy makers if
decreases in nitrogen levels brought on by
new state mandates might have a substantial effect on fish production. Her work
isn't just about fish lcills, it's about
supporting a fishery.
"Lisa's work is going to have a big
impact on how people feel about these
systems and the field of fisheries. It's great
fun to have students this good working on
issues this important," said Crowder.
When her work is complete, Ph.D. in
hand, Eby will leave behind a body of
science that will promote well-informed
management decisions for years to come.
EXPERIENCE
5
Leigh Ann Lather (formerly Carris)
(Summer '87) went to medical school at
UNC in Chapel HilL interned at UVA in
Charlottesville, and is now one of the two
pediatricians with Eastern Carolina
Internal Medicine group in New Bern.
Steve Lindley (Ph.D., 1974) and his
wife Catharina had a baby girl, Anika
Alison Lindley, born March 27, 2000, in
San Francisco, California.
John Oeltjen (Fall '88) is finishing
medical school at Baylor University in
Houston, Texas where he is working on an
MD and Ph.D. in molecular genetics. He
spent two months living at a Catholic
medical mission in a fairly remote
community of Guatemala working on his
Spanish, doing a little medicine, and
resting before beginning a six year
residency at Baylor.
John Reisenweber (Fall '91) is
working as a marine environmental
consultant with Booz-Allen and Hamilton
in DC. He received his Master's degree
from Oregon State in Environmental
Policy and Marine Resource Management
in 1997. He worked for the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission and
then National Marine Fisheries Service
before coming to Booz-Allen.
Spring 1990 Class photo taken on the beach at Fort Macon
Reisenweber is also very involved in the
local political scene in WV, trying to make
his hometown a better place and is
appointed to several Boards in the county.
His dogs are doing fine. His address is:
John Reisenweber, 2105 Tuscarora Pike,
Martinsburg, WV 25401
Megan Weidmann (Fall '97) is in
New Orleans working as a Geometry I
Algebra II teacher for the Teach for
America program. Her students come
from underprivileged backgrounds and
often have bigger problems to worry about
than geometry, such as taking care of their
babies or protecting themselves from the
rival neighborhood's gang. Megan writes,
"It's been an eye-opening experience and
one of the most challenging of my life.
They're great kids, and I really enjoy
working with them."
BEAUFORT Experience
Newsletter of the Duke Univeristy Nicholas School of
the Environment, Marine Laboratory, Beaufort NC
http://www.env.duke.edu/marinelab/marine.html
email: [email protected]
Dean
Norman L. Christensen
Director
Michael 1<. Orbach
The Marine Lab prides itself on being a good steward of the natural world and its own finances. We are currently evaluating our publication lists and
mailing schedules. Please let us know if you enjoy the "Beaufort Experience"
and would like to continue receiving it. (All donors to the Annual Fund
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Sp;ing 2000
6
More than half a century has passed
since Reade Yates Tompson (G'45) and his
wife, Sarah Bond Tompson (N'45, BSN'47)
graduated from Duke University. Though
they left Durham, they didn't leave Duke
altogether. Their travels have led them
across the United States and back to Duke,
its marine laboratory in particular. "When
we first sailed, literally, to the Marine Lab
with a friend of ours whose boat we were
helping to crew, we were immediately
interested in learning more about their
marine biology approach," Reade Tompson
said. "We've always loved the shore and the
sea, and the Marine Lab welcomed our
interest in their research and findings."
The Tompsons' interest in the marine
lab reaches beyond the shores of Beaufort,
North Carolina. They recently established a
charitable remainder unitrust that provides
lifetime income for them and endowment
support for the marine lab. "We've always
been concerned about preserving the flora
and fauna of our coastal areas," Reade
Tompson said. "This planned giving
vehicle allows us to support the efforts of
the Marine Lab and supplement our
retirement, so we can enjoy both even
more." The trust has also enabled the
Tompsons to diversify their investments;
defer, reduce, or eliminate capital gains
taxes; and claim a charitable income tax
deduction for the year in which they made
the gift. "The Marine Lab was just getting
on its feet when Sarah and I were at Duke,"
he said. "We knew that environmental
study would gain more focus as society
progressed, and we were glad to see Duke
leading the way. It is our hope that
this trust will benefit society as it
supports the Marine Lab's endeavors."
Reade Tompson is a Massachusetts native who came to Duke after
earning a bachelor of science degree in
chemistry from Brown University in
1940. He earned his Ph.D. in organic
chemistry in 1945, after which he
spent three years in the New York and
Delaware research and development
laboratories of the Allied Chemical
Company's General Chemical Division.
He spent the next two years as a research
chemist in the experimental station of E. I.
Dupont de Nemours Company's
Polychemical Department. From 1950
until his retirement in 1980, he served as
the personnel assistant to the technical
organization of Dupont's Textile Fibers
Department. Mter Sarah Bond Tompson
earned R.N. and B.S.N. degrees from
Duke, she taught anatomy and physiology
there before moving to a private practice in
her hometown of Augusta, Georgia. Mter
the Tompsons married, she concentrated
on what her husband termed "household
engineering," including raising their three
daughters, whose Girl Scout troop she
helped lead, volunteering at their local
church, and participating in AAUW and
Junior Women's Club activities. Reade
Tompson's love for and expertise in
boating has kept him involved in the U.S.
Power Squadrons's boating safety education
program for over 50 years.
The Tompsons, who make their home
in Hockessin, Delaware, have logged many
miles on land and sea since
retiring, exploring and discovering
the United States and its nature.
Mter spending the better part of
12 years sailing up and down the
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in
their boat, the Tompsons "traded
their keel for wheels," and now
pack up their RV every fall and
head south for the winter to visit
friends and relatives, perhaps
stopping along the way at
appealing historic sites, state parks,
or wildlife preserves.
He says their active lifestyles
keep them going strong, even after
20 years of retirement. "We're
excited about helping Duke and
the Marine Lab stay active and
become stronger, too," he said.
"We all have a lot more living, and
learning, to do."
Story courtesy of the Duke
University Office of Planned
Giving
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Spring2000
7
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The last of the 1900s brought us hew
and interesting challenges. I believe that
four evacuations in one semester is a record
for the Marine Lab! I still remember the
look on the faces of the newly arrived fall
undergraduates on Sunday morning when I
told them that they were going to have to
be on their way to Durham by Sunday
evening!
However, the fall semester gave those
students a bonding experience in excess of
the 'normal' Beaufort Experience. Luckily
the disruption to the course schedule was
actually minimal, and flexibility and
preparedness skills developed in response to
the storm events were added to the
students' repertoire. In fact, I have begun
to characterize the Marine Lab as more
akin to a sailing craft on the ocean than to
Duke University
Nicholas School of the Environment
Marine Laboratory
Beaufort, NC 28516-9721
a normal terrestrial dwelling. On a boat,
you assume that stormy weather may be a
part of your passage. When the weather
comes, you batten down the hatches and
reef the sails, ride out the storm, and then
unbatten and shake out the reefs. As the
next weather decade is shaping up, we may
do well to view our island in this way, and
prepare to periodically batten and reef.
With our excellent and committed faculty
and staff, we are well positioned to do this.
On a related front (no weather pun
intended!), we are also well positioned to
adapt our science to the challenges of
climatological events. As the lead article in
this issue points out, Larry Crowder and
Joe Ramus - and in fact almost all of our
faculty in one way or another -leapt at the
opportunity to take advantage of the fall
weather events to gauge the response of the
Albemarle-Pamlico system and its inhabitants. Our Marine Lab is well positioned
to take advantage of such opportunities.
Not only are we centrally located in terms
of direct access to both sound and ocean,
but with the RJV Susan Hudson we are
capable of immediate and almost all-
weather access to the areas of the estuary
most affected by the storm events. The
willingness of our faculty and staff to seize
the truly unique opportunities presented by
the fall storm events represents a fine
example of' going the extra mile', of the
fantastic energy and enthusiasm that
characterize the Duke Marine Lab. This
energy and enthusiasm is infectious, and
the results can be seen in the eyes (and
resumes) of our students, who of course are
also significant participants in our scientific
endeavors.
As the buds come forth on our
recently shorn crepe myrtles and recently
planted magnolias, we look forward with
some trepidation to the effects of the
warming estuarine waters on the postFloyd soup in the Pamlico Sound. We can
hope that our delight in discovery associated with the monitoring of these effects
will not be too dampened by the direction
of the effects themselves. In any event, we
will hoist full sail into the future, in pursuit
of the satisfaction that only challenge can
bring.
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