Marine Fisheries Review, Volume 50, Number 4: pages 72-76.
CHARLES S. MANOOCH, III, and ANN B. MANOOCH
The sandy strip of land which extends along the North Carolina coast,
separating the Atlantic Ocean on one side from the extensive system of
sounds on the other, is interrupted at intervals. One of these interruptions
is the Beaufort Inlet located at Beaufort, N.C., and whose waters are
home to a great variety of saltwater plants and animals. It is little
wonder that Beaufort has developed through the years as one of the most
important areas for marine science research in the United States.
Beaufort became a field station for persons interested in marine biology
following the visits of zoologists Theodore Gill and William Stimpson
in 1860. Elliott Coues and H. C. Yarrow, Army surgeons stationed at Fort
Macon, compiled lists of mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and mollusks
which were published in a series of articles in the 1870's. In the 1880's,
professors and students from Johns Hopkins University maintained a station
in a rented house and used the area as a summer teaching and research
facility.
The Federal Government became interested in local fisheries when a
joint resolution was passed by Congress in 1871 creating the Office of
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. Spencer R. Baird was the first Commissioner,
and he and others associated with the Bureau of Fisheries investigated
the fishes of the Beaufort region during the next 10 years, mostly during
the summer months.
It was not until 1899, however, that a fisheries laboratory was established
in a rented building in Beaufort. This was accomplished through the efforts
of Henry Van Peters Wilson , a professor at the University of North Carolina,
who received $300 from the U.S. Fish Commission to rent the Duncan house
on Front Street , and to obtain a couple of boats and employ local help
during the summer. A former professor at the University, Joseph Austin
Holmes, who became Director of Mines, suggested that the summer laboratory
be converted into a permanent facility with space for guest investigators.
The Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries, Hugh M. Smith, helped in the task
of securing a congressional appropriation.
By Act of Congress, signed 12 May 1900, provision was made for the
establishment of a U.S. Fish Commission marine laboratory at Beaufort.
Thus did the Beaufort Laboratory become the second Federal fisheries
laboratory in the United States. Only the Woods Hole, Mass., laboratory
established in 1885, is older. The funds appropriated proved to be inadequate,
but were doubled in the next congressional session. Unfortunately, no
provision appeared in the appropriation for land purchase. However, this
was remedied when, through the efforts of Wilson and Holmes, five universities
and a private donor made up $400, the amount needed to purchase 3 acres
of land, Pivers Island, located a short distance off the west end of
Beaufort, and presented it to the Fish Commission. The purchasers and
donor were Johns Hopkins University, the State Universities of Virginia,
Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and Alonzo Thomas of Beaufort.
Professor Wilson became the first laboratory director, and was responsible
for planning the main building which served scientists and investigators
for more than 50 years.
The facility was founded with a regional responsibility to learn the
life histories of marine animals and plants, their relations to each
other and the environment, their resource potential, the effects of man
on their abundance, and methods for their scientific culture.
The new laboratory and while still not entirely completed, was occupied
26 May 1902 with the second director, Caswell Grave from Johns Hopkins
University, in charge. The main building was a two-story wooden structure,
180 feet in length, containing a laboratory,
aquarium, office, twelve bedrooms, halls, bathroom, and storerooms.
In addition to the main building there was a mess hall, power house,
boathouse, fuel shed, minor outbuildings, and a pier 80 feet long. An
artesian well on the island supplied fresh water to the laboratory.
During the years 1902-08 the laboratory was open from May to September
to accommodate visiting scientists. Researchers lived in the two wings
of the laboratory building. The central portion of the main building
was used for instruction and administration, with the laboratories occupying
the entire second story, "removed from the distractions and noises
inseparable from those parts of the buildings and grounds open to the
general public." In 1909, "board cost each member of the mess
five dollars per week." About fifteen investigators came each summer,
and their studies varied from the collection and identification of fishes
and invertebrates to microscopic examination of tissues and organs. Visiting
scientists were allowed to follow whatever studies they wished, although
the Bureau of Fisheries personnel were concerned principally with the
fishes collected by the Research Vessel Fish Hawk and the artificial
rearing of oysters, clams, sponges, and algae.
In 1902, preliminary observations were made at Beaufort on the rearing
of diamond-back terrapins. This work was discontinued in 1903 when the
Bureau of Fisheries decided to conduct further studies on this species
at Lloyds, Md. In 1909 these studies were transferred back to Beaufort.
From then until the 1940's the propagation of terrapins was one of the
principal activities of the station. During that period nearly a quarter
of a million terrapins were raised. Most were released in the marshes
of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.
Scientific activities at the laboratory were drastically cut back during
World War I and the years immediately following. In 1918, the Navy took
over the entire plant and did not return it to the Bureau of Fisheries
until 1920. The Navy Department utilized the facilities for investigations
relating to the fouling of ships' bottoms. Some experiments in terrapin
culture were continued and some independent investigators were also accommodated.
After the war, the Commissioner of Fisheries in his annual reports complained
about the "impossibility of filling the vacant positions with competent
men at the salaries available."
The laboratory was severely damaged by a hurricane on 16 September
1933. With funds provided by the Public Works Administration, the buildings
and equipment were restored and the first bridge to the island, a one-lane
wooden structure, was built. Prior to that time, transportation to the
island was possible only by boat.
During the 1940's and early 1950's, the beach and the immaculately
kept, park-like grounds at the laboratory were a source of pride for
county residents and an attraction to tourists. Families would often
spend weekend days and holidays, spreading picnic lunches on the mowed
lawn beneath the large live oak and cedar trees and viewing the museum,
aquarium, and fish collection at the laboratory. Children would play
games on the lawns and swim the protected waters of the small sandy beach.
During the summer months when visitors were numerous, some live animals
generally were exhibited also.
Noted scientists visited and worked at the Beaufort Laboratory, as
they do to the present time. Rachel Carson, for whom the Marine Sanctuary
near Beaufort is named, and author of the book, "Silent Spring" (
Carson, 1962), spent time at the laboratory. Samuel F. Hildebrand served
as its director from 1914 to 1918 and again from 1926 to 1931.
Since 1950 there have been many changes in the laboratory's buildings
and grounds. Construction of the present laboratory was begun in 1954
and completed the following year as the beautiful, old two-story frame
building was razed after more than 50 years of service. In 1957 a twelve-office
wing was added, and in 1964 the two-story Radiobiological Laboratory
wing was built. A new residence for the laboratory director was constructed
in 1961 to replace the original residence built in 1928. The 1928 residence
is the only wood-face building left standing today. In 1963, the newer
residence was converted into a laboratory annex to meet the growing need
for space. Other buildings, including the shop and service buildings,
physiology laboratory, computer center, and high-level radiation building
were also erected during the most recent phase of laboratory construction.
A new two-lane concrete bridge, badly needed for years, was completed
in October 1968.
During the 1950's and 1960's, the laboratory maintained its international
prominence in fisheries, ecological, and physiological research. Major
emphasis during this time was placed on life histories, population dynamics,
and man's influence on American shad, striped bass, Atlantic menhaden,
and blue crab, as well as the uptake, accumulation, and loss of radionuclides
by marine organisms. Research on menhaden stocks, along the entire east
coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico, continues today.
The laboratory and town are located in a picturesque setting facing
the Beaufort Inlet, which is protected by the Outer Banks. Abundant and
productive salt marshes flourish along the lower extremes of the North
and Newport Rivers that border Beaufort and Pivers Island to the east
and west. Beaufort, founded in 1713, is the third oldest town in North
Carolina and serves as the county seat of Carteret County. It is a town
little changed by progress and retains the charm of its early days with
homes of sea captains, shippers, and merchants still standing on the
elm-shaded, waterfront streets. In addition to the Federal laboratory,
one may tour the Maritime Museum in Beaufort, the Duke University Marine
Laboratory, also located on Pivers Island, the North Carolina Aquarium
at nearby Atlantic Beach, and the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries,
N.C. State University Seafood Laboratory, and the University of North
Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences, all located in Morehead City,
Beaufort's more modern neighbor.
The NMFS Beaufort Laboratory has functioned under various Departments
of the Federal Government from its beginning as part of the U.S. Commission
of Fish and Fisheries. It has been a part of the Bureau of Fisheries,
the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the
Department of the Interior, and again the Department of Commerce, where
it is today. At one time, from 1961 to 1969, it operated as two laboratories,
the Biological Laboratory and the Radiobiological Laboratory, each with
its own director. It was reunited into a single laboratory in 1970 under
the leadership of T. R. Rice, who served as director until his retirement
in 1985. Presently, the laboratory is a unit of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, under
Ford A. Cross, laboratory director.
Today, 89 years since its beginning, the Beaufort Laboratory continues
to serve fisheries interests in the region and nation. As part of the
National Marine Fisheries Service's Southeast Fisheries Center, the laboratory
consists of two divisions: Ecology and Fisheries. More than 80 people
are employed at the laboratory and direct their research efforts in the
areas of ecology, population dynamics, fishery management, resource development,
environmental quality, and aquaculture.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge those documents and individuals
that contributed to this historical review. Comments pertaining to
the town of Beaufort were taken, in part, from the book, "The
Old Port Town of Beaufort, N.C.", published in 1980 by Jean Bruyere
Kell. Files maintained by the late John W. Reintjes, who was employed
at the Beaufort Laboratory, were instrumental in completing this review.
Photographs were prepared by Herb Gordy of the Beaufort Laboratory.
Special appreciation is offered to Donnie Dudley and Curtis W. Lewis
of the Beaufort Laboratory, who grew up in the area and kindly provided
recollections of their childhood days on Pivers Island.
Literature Cited
Carson, R. 1962. Silent spring. Houghton-Mifflin Boston.
Kell, J. B. 1980. The old port town of Beaufort, N.C.