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MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2013

75 CENTS m RALEIGH, N.C. newsobserver.com FINAL EDITION

a This week
See newsobserver.com
for updates.
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Twitter @newsobserver.
Social media pushes
Booze It & Lose It
The Governors Highway Safety
Program and NCDOT are using
social media to encourage young
people to take part in the anti-
drunken-driving campaign Booze
It & Lose It. Officials ask that
people on Twitter use the hash-
tags #DumbIdea and #NotFunny
to remind followers that driving
drunk is an unsafe practice that
should be treated seriously. The
Booze It & Lose It program
runs through the Labor Day
holiday and ends Sept. 2.
Congress split on aiding Egypt
Leaders worry that ending was not a coup, Ellison said on ABCs This
Week. It is. We should say so.
support could hurt partnership Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., cautioned that reduc-
ing aid would curtail U.S. influence over Egypts
By Rod Nordland interim government. We certainly shouldnt
and Brian Knowlton cut off all aid, King said on Fox News Sunday.
New York Times The fact is there are no good guys there, he
CAIRO Lawmakers in Washington on Sun- said. But of the two, I think there is more oppor-
day condemned the crackdown by government tunity to protect American interests if we work
forces in Egypt but remained conflicted on with the military.
whether to punish the military by cutting aid, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the ranking Re-
even as supporters of the ousted president, Mo- publican on the Senate Foreign Relations Commit- B.K. BANGASH - AP
hammed Morsi, held more protests. tee, said on This Week that the U.S. needed to Hundreds gathered Sunday in Pakistan and
I would cut off aid but engage in intense di- recalibrate its aid to make U.S. displeasure abun- took to the street with banners supporting
plomacy in Egypt and in the region to try to say, dantly clear but not endanger security needs like Morsi and condemning the Egyptian Army.
Look, we will restore aid when you stop the priority passage through the Suez Canal.
bloodshed in the street and set up a path toward The varied opinions offered by lawmakers il- livery of four F-16 fighter jets. But he faces hard
democracy that you were on before, said Rep. lustrated the difficulty facing President Barack choices: risk a partnership that has been the bed-
Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Obama, who has condemned the violence, can- rock of Middle East peace for 35 years or stand
In my mind, theres no way to say that this celed joint military exercises and delayed the de- SEE EGYPT, PAGE 7A

Wake board to mull

changes in ethics code
Wake County board of education
members will consider a revised
Oyster revival in the works
ethics policy at their 5:30 p.m.
meeting Tuesday. Changes to the
policy were first proposed after
media outlets learned the identity
of incoming Superintendent Jim
Merrill before an official an-
nouncement.

Commissioners gearing
up to find new manager
Wake County residents can sit in
Monday on the Board of Commis-
sioners strategy session to hash
out the recruitment process for a
new county manager to replace
David Cooke, who plans to step
down at the end of November.
Cooke will help lead the special
work session at 11:30 a.m. Mon-
day in Room 2800 of the Wake
County Justice Center, 300 S.
Salisbury St.

PHOTOS BY DANIEL BLUSTEIN - dblustein@newsobserver.com

Brian Graham, left, and Nelson Bullock return from setting out intertidal oyster cages at UNC-Wilmingtons Center for Marine Science.

GROWERS LOOK FOR BOOST IN AQUACULTURE

2012 NEWS & OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
A Triangle Transit driver prac-
tices passing on the shoulder
of I-40 near Davis Drive.
Buses ride Wake shoulder
to bypass I-40 jams
Starting Monday, Wake County
motorists stuck in traffic on I-40
shouldnt be surprised if they see
Triangle Transit buses zooming by
on the shoulder. The N.C. Depart-
ment of Transportation is allow-
ing transit buses to use the shoul-
der to bypass crawling cars on
sections of I-40 and also the
Durham Freeway. The Bus on the
Shoulder System was launched in
Durham County last year.
Songster Steve Earle to
appear Sunday in Raleigh
Chances are good some poli-
ticking will break out Sunday
night, when fiery singer-songwrit-
er Steve Earle comes to Raleighs
Lincoln Theatre. See
lincolntheatre.com for details.
MADE IN
North Carolina
A weekly series
By Daniel Blustein
dblustein@newsobserver.com
WILMINGTON The bays
and sounds of North Carolina
once yielded hundreds of thou-
sands of bushels of oysters a
year, before pollution, overfish-
ing, disease and other factors
caused their populations to de-
cline.
Now a small group of scien-
tists and growers is laying the
groundwork to revive the in-
dustry by cultivating oysters in
cages and bags. So far, oyster
Father left only with questions after sons death
Commentary
Josh Shaffer
RALEIGH The call reached
Thomas Austin early on a Sunday,
bringing news a father dreads
most.
Police found his son dead that
morning, hanging from a tree by his
own belt.
aquaculture has produced
modest returns in North Caro-
lina, accounting for less than
21 percent of a $2.9 million oys-
ter industry.
But proponents look north to
Virginia to show whats possi-
ble. There, the state has invest-
ed heavily in developing strains
of oysters that do well in aqua-
culture, and production from
oyster growers has increased
by more than 35 times since
2005.
Theyre going crazy with
producing oysters right now,
said Marc Turano of N.C. State
University and N.C. Sea Grant,
an organization that supports
coastal activity.
He wore no shirt or shoes, and his
feet hovered only about a foot
above the ground.
Raleigh police ruled it a suicide.
Along with the immediate and
soul-crushing grief came questions
nobody could answer.
The biggest:
What was his 26-year-old son
Thomas Shantez Austin doing in
Fred Fletcher Park? He didnt know
a soul there. He didnt live any-
where nearby. He had no business
Nearly a dozen fish and shell-
fish are now raised through
aquaculture in North Carolina,
including trout, catfish, tilapia
and even sturgeon. But unlike
most other species, which are
raised in tanks inside build-
ings, oysters are cultivated in
the same public waters where
wild shellfish live.
That means the benefits of
oyster farming go beyond the
farmers, who can attain year-
round, large-scale production
without relying on natural About the series
stocks that continue to dwin-
dle. The oyster also helps the
environment by filtering water,
stabilizing shorelines and pro-
SEE OYSTERS, PAGE 8A
in the neighborhood
near where Glen-
wood and Wade ave-
nues meet. If hed
truly been intent on
killing himself, he
T.S. Austin could hardly have
chosen a stranger
place than this haven for tennis and
dog walking.
The question haunted Austin
even more, knowing that his son
had called in the middle of the night
Amanda Myers starts a culture of algae that
will feed oysters at UNC-Wilmingtons Shell-
fish Hatchery.
North Carolina has lost hundreds of thousands of
manufacturing jobs in the past two decades, but
people still make a vast array of goods here. Well
visit some of them this summer.
on Aug. 4 to say hed been beaten up
and robbed off Western Boulevard
only a few hours before he would
be discovered dead.
Austin left Cary that morning,
where he lives in the Red Roof Inn,
to look at the spot.
What hes doing there, I dont
know, said Austin, 58. He went
out there looking for trouble and he
found trouble. Evidently, he found a
lot of it.
SEE SHAFFER, PAGE 8A

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 8A Monday, August 19, 2013 FROM PAGE ONE A The News & Observer +
OYSTERS The benefits of oysters
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
In addition to boosting jobs and
viding habitat for other commercial food production, the oyster plays
fisheries. several very important roles in
But oyster farmers face challeng- coastal waters:
es, including storm damage, dis- m Water filtration: As filter
ease and theft. Meager state sup-
feeders, oysters clean water of
port to develop domesticated oys-
ter lines and the interests of coastal toxins and chemical pollution,
landowners also put pressure on filtering up to 60 gallons of water
the industry. per day.
From larvae to market m Shoreline stabilization: Oys-
ter reef structures stabilize
Raising oysters is intensive,
hands-on work. What eventually shorelines, reducing erosion and
becomes a 3-inch oyster on a dinner providing a buffer during storms.
plate starts out as a microscopic m Fish habitat: Oyster reefs
swimming larva. and farms support a wide range
Joey Daniels, who started oyster of other marine organisms in-
farming operations for the Wan-
cluding shrimp, crabs and com-
chese Fish Company near Manteo,
buys the tiny larvae for his nursery, DANIEL BLUSTEIN - dblustein@newsobserver.com mercially important fish species
7 million at a time, which he puts in Brian Graham, left, and Nelson Bullock work at an oyster research farm at UNC-Wilmingtons Center for such as drum and grouper.
tanks with downward current to Marine Science. Oysters are raised in partially submerged floating cages that must be flipped regularly.
coax them to settle onto pieces of
ground up oyster shell.
About 10 percent of the larvae The fishing business N.C. Oyster harvesting
will develop into oysters of about 6 Value of 2012 commercial landings in N.C., in millions of dollars. Harvests in bushels for traditional and aquaculture methods.
millimeters in length that he puts
out on his 9.5-acre farm. As they Blue crabs $22.8 million
Bushels
grow, Daniels, 40, often sorts them 200,000
by size and redistributes them into Shrimp $13.2 Traditional harvest
different bags and cages that have Southern Flounder $4.45
the mesh size and space necessary Aquaculture harvest
$3.0 150,000
for the oysters to thrive. About half Swordfish
of the baby oysters will grow to $2.96
Fluke (Summer Flounder)
market size on the farm.
A more expensive but less inten- Oysters $2.9 100,000 34,727
sive approach is to skip the nursery 83,188
Clams $2.26
process and purchase baby oysters.
Ranging in size from a few millime- Croaker $2.13 50,000
8,950
ters up to an inch long, the oysters
are big enough to be put directly Yellowfin Tuna $2.13 2,830
out on a farm. Farmers who pur- Spanish Mackerel $1.37 0
'94 '95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12
chase larger oysters hope reducedSOURCE: N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries The News & Observer The News & Observer
SOURCE: N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
mortality offsets the increase in
cost, said Craig Hardy, a section
chief at the state Division of Marine hatchery at UNC-Wilmington. ly by the salinity of its habitat, and create consistent shapes, deep and ter, farmers face a variety of chal-
Fisheries. In 2011 the state-built hatchery some say by the plankton it filters meaty cups, and clean shells. lenges in maintaining their crops.
Many oyster farmers in the state opened to support the industry and from seawater. Jay Styron, 46, grows his Cedar Our biggest issue is probably
use domesticated lines of oysters develop its own domesticated oys- Oysters can tolerate a wide range Island Selects in partially sub- storms, said Styron, of Cedar Island.
from Virginia to stock their farms. ters. Last year, Wilbur gave oysters of salinities: Theyre found from the merged bags that float at the sur- Since most of his farming gear is
Scientists at the Virginia Insti- to four North Carolina farmers, and brackish Neuse River estuary to sal- face attached to lines hanging be- floating at the surface, hell occa-
tute of Marine Science use selective next year the farmers will return ty inlets closer to the open ocean, tween two vertical poles about 300 sionally have to tow everything into
breeding to develop oysters that the biggest and best oysters to her such as on Daniels farm, near Ore- feet apart. a harbor before a big storm.
grow quickly and resist disease, for selective breeding. gon Inlet. Oysters taste like the The wave action near the waters Runoff from developed areas can
coveted traits for any farmer. These last thing they drink, he said. And surface causes the shells to rub to- lead to elevated levels of bacteria that
oysters usually have an extra set of Salt to taste with salinity levels changing with gether. As they bang against one can temporarily shut down an oyster
chromosomes that renders them The perfect oyster is a matter of the tide, a farmer has control over another, the lips of the shells get farm after periods of heavy rain. The
sterile so they grow without ex- personal preference. Bitingly sal- how the oysters taste coming out of knocked off, like the pruning of a states Department of Shellfish Sani-
pending energy on reproducing. ty or subtly buttery are some of the water. bush, said Turano of NCSU and Sea tation monitors water quality, testing
But the selected lines of oysters the flavor adjectives, as detailed as You can just wait and take em Grant. This causes the oyster to thousands of samples each year, and
from Virginia dont always do well a sommeliers description of a vin- out on the right tide and you should grow deeper rather than longer. closes areas with high levels of fecal
in North Carolina waters, said Ami tage pinot noir. have what you want, Daniels said. Daniels has had success growing coliform bacteria.
Wilbur, director of the shellfish An oysters flavor is shaped main- A process called wet storage oysters in triple -stacked sub- Fouling organisms such as barna-
even lets farmers pull oysters out of merged cages. To encourage deep cles and boring worms can reduce
the water and store them in salted, cups, he runs his oysters through a the marketability of oysters. Farm-
Typical salinity profile for shellfish refrigerated tanks to carefully ad- tumbler several times during their ers can fight unwanted shell growth
just their salt profile. 1- to 2-year growth cycle. by intermittently drying oysters or
Atlantic Ocean 35 Jim Swartzenberg, 72, a farmer Theyve been purposely beaten flipping floating bags to provide
from Jacksonville, thinks that areas up throughout their lives, he said. more even exposure to sunlight.
I really such as Stump Sound with lots of The containerized culture tech- Devastating diseases, such as the
havent algal growth make for a better tast- niques these farmers use result in Dermo parasite, can wipe out en-
found any ing oyster. But taste preferences va- much higher yields than traditional tire crops.
better than ry wildly, and some say detecting oyster gardening methods that
30 mine. subtle differences in oyster flavor rely on bottom harvesting only. Moving oysters forward
Theyre requires side-by-side sampling. But theres no reason the same
Clam very salty. Farmers also strive to produce Challenges remain sort of economic development go-
optimal oysters that are popular with con- No matter the approach to farm- ing on in Virginia cant happen
range -Jim Swartzenberg sumers by using techniques that ing, when oysters are out on the wa- here, said Wilbur of the UNC-Wil-
oyster farmer mington hatchery.
Oyster 25 Jacksonville, NC One hurdle to large-scale devel-
optimal Oystering in N.C. opment in North Carolina is a
range 50-acre individual or corporation
The map shows where Currituck Knotts Island limit on areas that can be leased
A little bit
of salt but oyster harvesting is allowed from the state for shellfish aquacul-
Clam not pucker in North Carolina and ture, according to Hardy of the Di-
20
tolerated up type. the location of where vision of Marine Fisheries.
range four oyster farmers are We have never had anybody real-
based. ly come in and try to do aquaculture
at industrial scale, he said.
Joey Daniels
A moratorium on shellfish leases
15
Marc Turano, NC
is based in
in Core Sound east of Beaufort,
Sea Grant/NCSU Open for Washington pushed by some coastal landown-
Bath Wanchese
harvesting ers, has limited opportunities for
Closed for fishermen in that area.
Hatteras
tteras But Hardy says that there are still
harvesting New Bern
plenty of suitable areas for aquacul-
I like an oyster that has a
10 Jay Styron ture available. He and other offi-
taste, thats not just all
farms off cials say the future of North Caroli-
salt.
Cedar Island nas oyster aquaculture industry
will be shaped by the success of a
Oyster Craig Hardy, Division of Morehead City small group of farmers using new
tolerated Marine Fisheries
Atlantic Ocean
A techniques.
range I really hope that there can be an
5 Jim Swartzenberg is
based in Jacksonville outgrowth of those few to demon-
Cape Fear strate to others that this is a viable
Ami Wilburr runs an oyster hatchery and research re farm
industry and that the industry can
out of UNC-Wilmingtons Center for Marine Science
grow, he said.
Salinity in parts N Folly River
ckwoods
Freshwater 0 per thousand. hallotte River Area
Bald
Southport Head I Fort Fisher Blustein: 919-829-4520
The News & Observer
SOURCE: N.C. Division
on of Marine Fisheries The News & Observer Next week: Beer

in his Cary home. Austin moved to snakebite after picking up a water tions Austin does. The branches
SHAFFER a friends garage, then a Motel 6,
Want to help?
moccasin. But Austin says his son are very close together in the tree
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A Thomas Shantez Austin was
then to the Red Roof Inn. was trying to impress a girl at the where his son was hanged, they say,
Trouble followed Austins son for Im a good father, Austin said. buried Tuesday, and his father time, acting dumb. making it appear impossible that
much of his short life. Im not perfect. But Im a good fa- faces heavy funeral expenses. To Most of all, he was working at a anybody could climb it and jump
Hed gotten mixed up with gangs ther. I feel like I failed him. help, search for his name on the steady job, earning a paycheck, call- out.
in high school. Still, to Austin, suicide doesnt website gracefulgoodbye.com ing his father twice a day to say he There are a lot of us who are ve-
He got charged with breaking add up. loved him. ry concerned that this not be swept
and entering one week past his 18th If he were suicidal that night, why under the rug because he had a rec-
birthday. I wish I knew phones owner, he said Austins son not step out in front of a bus? ord and there may be gangs in-
He graduated to armed robbery The police told him they found no hadnt been injured. Another offi- Why would he kill himself slowly volved, said Keith Miller, whose
and went to prison before he turned signs of a struggle, either on his cer responded to a fight at the Mc- and painfully in a park he would condominium faces the park.
19, serving five years. sons body or around the tree. The Donalds that night, which turned have had to walk for miles to reach, Police say the case is assigned to
Hed managed to earn his GED preliminary results of the autopsy out to be a disturbance. The victim passing a thousand other trees in a detective and that toxicology re-
and find a job in a sports bars kitch- backed that up. in that fight whether its Austins the process? sults are pending.
en. But just this year, hed been But when his son called that son is unclear declined medical at- I wish I knew, and I dont know, Meanwhile, Austin buried his
picked up for shoplifting and for be- night, he said his attackers threat- tention, saying he hadnt been hurt. Austin said. I do know that I miss son Tuesday.
ing intoxicated and disruptive. ened to kill him. He was on Hills- Since his death, other family my son. He stood and told the crowd that
Austin had his own problems borough Street at 2:30 a.m., run- members have brought up inci- Neighbors feel heartbreak and con- Thomas Shantez Austin was a good
while much of this was going on. ning away. Austin asked around the dents that might point to his sons fusion over the death in their park. man, faults aside. He had a good
Hed been a maintenance supervi- neighborhood off Western, and he wanting to die. Austin dismisses Theyve posted fliers around the park heart. He made people laugh. He
sor for 33 years, but he developed learned that the McDonalds caught them. asking for help to pay Austins funeral didnt deserve this end.
arthritis in his back from carrying the beating on a surveillance tape. His son took a handful of pills re- expenses which required a loan of Hes gone, Austin said. But he
heavy loads. His blood pressure Police know about all of this. cently and ended up in a psychiatric roughly $6,000 at 18 percent interest aint gone in my heart. Hes still
started rising, and he had fainting They tracked down the phone that hospital. But Austin insists his son raising $1,500 so far. But more than here.
spells. His doctor recommended Austins son used to make the call had been drinking at a party and that, they hope the investigation will
going on disability, which he now that night and learned it had been took the pills to get high. continue. jshaffer@newsobserver.com or
receives, but not enough cover rent borrowed. When they talked to the His son was hospitalized for They feel the same nagging ques- 919-829-4818
+