ECU geologist’s research featured on TV program

A public television program Aug. 31 will feature an undersea study led by an East Carolina University geologist.

The program, SEARCH, will air at 7:30 p.m. on University of North Carolina Television. It will highlight research activities by Dr. Stanley Riggs, an ECU geologist. Riggs and a team of scientists began studying a rocky stretch of sea floor along the North Carolina continental shelf in 1991. The program will show highlights from the work last summer aboard the Research Vessel Edwin Link. While at sea, the scientists used the ship’s underwater sub, the Johnson-Sea-Link, to explore and record features of the sea floor’s rocks and ledges.

A decline in North Carolina reef fish populations prompted the study and the research team hopes to learn more about the rocky bottoms that attract fish along the continental shelf. The information will help in planning artificial reefs and other measures to draw more fish to the region. Several agencies are funding the $500,000 project. They include The National Undersea Research Center at UNC-Wilmington and the N.C. Sea Grant College Program, both agencies of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and the Cooperative Institute for Fisheries and Oceanography, an agency of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The principal investigators, led by Riggs, include Dr. Will Ambrose, an ECU biologist; Martin Posey, a biologist at UNC-Wilmington; Dr. Scott Snyder, an ECU geologist; Steve Snyder, a geochemist at N.C. State University; and Dr. Bill Burnett, a Florida State University geochemist.

SEARCH is produced by N.C. State University. The program regularly features scientific research and outreach activities that take place throughout the 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina.