Page 4/The Battalion/Friday, August 3, 1984
Warped
by Scott McCullar
Texas man
killed in
accident
United Press International
A&M Agricultural economist
studies Texas shrimp farms
University News Service
Smaller shrimp-farming opera
tions don’t have as great a chance for
survival as the larger ones, says a
Texas A&M University agricultural
economist who is evaluating the eco
nomics of shrimp farming along the
Texas Gulf Coast.
the
"The operations can be profitable,
but they must be large,” said Dr.
Wade L. Griffin of Texas A&M’s
College of Agriculture. “Smaller op
erations aren’t economically feasible
based on the assumptions in my re
search.”
stocking rates and sizes, and
stage in the growing season.
Much of the work for the study,
which is funded by the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration through Texas
A&M’s Sea Grant College Program,
is performed by mariculture re
searchers with the Sea Grant pro
gram in Corpus Christi, Griffin said.
goes up,” he said, "and one large
crop of big shrimp will generally
generate greater returns than two
crops of smaller shrimp.”
“Shrimp farming is a potential
new industry for Texas and is at
tracting a lot of new interest. It’s not
just landowners who are interested
in converting their ranges into
ponds,” he added., “but entrepre
neurs who don’t own any land.”
“We’re looking at the status of the
industry and will point to areas
where shrimp farmers can get the
most gain for the research dollar,”
Griffin said. “Very little is known
about the feasibility of shrimp farm
ing in Texas, and a small change in
the operations can make a big
change in profits. That’s the bottom
line — profits.”
Successful facilities should have at
least 250 surface acres of water, such
as 10 25-acre ponds, to realize econ
omies of size, said the agricultural
economist, explaining that operating
cost per unit of production are re
duced with greater output.
Gritfin and other Texas A&M re
searchers are developing a simula
tion model which can provide pro
spective shrimp farmers estimates of
output, per-unit costs of production
and profits given certain knowns,
such as the size of their facilities,
Griffin said while it is possible for
shrimp farmers to raise two shrimp
crops in a Texas growing season, it
might be better to raise just one
crop, especially when stocking
shrimp that weigh less than a tenth
of a gram.
The average per-acre investment
cost for a 50-surface-acre facility is
an estimated $9,000, Griffin said,
but with a 1,000-acre facility the per-
acre cost of investment may be re
duced to $4,000. For the smaller fa
cility, production cost is about $6 per
pound of shrimp, whereas with the
larger system the average produc
tion cost would be about $2.50 per
pound, he said.
FORT LUPTON, Colo. — Rescue
workers using a crane took 12 hours
Thursday to remove the body of a
Texas man from the mangled
wreckage of a twin-engine plane that
crashed in a corn field.
A coroner’s spokesman said the
body of Wayne E. Carlson, 63, of
Amarillo, Texas, was removed from
the wreckage of the Cessna 421
about 6 p.m. The fuselage was so
badly smashed that Carlson’s body
could not be removed with cutting
torches, and a crane was used to pull
the wreckage apart.
The bodies of two other victims,
Beryle Brister, 56, and his son,
Jerry, 30, both of Amarillo, were re
covered from the wreckage Wednes
day evening. Investigators deter
mined neither of those men was the
pilot, and returned to the crash site
two miles northwest of Fort Lupton
about 1 a.m. Thursday.
“After getting the first two bodies
to the coroner, the sheriff found out
they were not pilots,” Weld County
sheriffs Cpl. Mike Sykes said. “He
figured, well, we’ve got to have a pi
lot here somewhere.”
A fire department team cut into
the twisted hulk and located Carl
son’s badly mangled body. The
crane was brought in at daylight.
Around town
Science sfudents must take exam
Any junior or senior in the College of Science who has not prt
viously taken the English Proficiency Examination should plan
take the test Aug. 9 unless they have completed English 301 withs
minimum grade of C. Students in the College of Science are require:
to pass either English 301 or the test in order to qualify asat
candidate.
The I nglish Proficiency Exam will be adnunistei ed by theEn
glish Department. Students in the Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics
and Physics Departments should register for the exam in 313 Biolog
ical Sciences Building before August 8.
Chamber sponsors computer seminar
Eyewitnesses said the plane
plunged into the ground about 5
p.m. Wednesday after one engine
exploded in flight, tearing off a sec
tion of wing. Sykes said the plane hit
the ground upside down, crushing
the cockpit section.
‘As shrimp grow larger the price
Griffin said while the economic
analysis suggests the industry can be
profitable, it doesn’t take into ac
count risks such as hurricanes and
disease that can destroy a shrimp
crop.
A sheriffs spokesman said Carl
son apparently had radioed for help
shortly before the plane went down.
The National Transportation Safety
Board was investigating.
The Small Business Council of the Bryan-College Station Cham
her of Commerce will present a seminar on “Microcomputers ii
Small Businesses,” Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Chamber of Com
merce Building at 401 S. Washington. The cost is $ 10 in advanceanJ
$12.50 at the door. Please call the chamber office at 779-2278 forad
vance registration.
m
gi
Wher
SPCA to hold dog bath and dip Sunday
The Brazos Valley SPCA will be* having a dog dip on Sundai
from 12 to 5 p.m. in the Manor East Mali parking lot. A flea dip
be given for a donation of $3 and a hath and a dip for $5. Forfar
ther information, please contact the Brazos Valley SPCA at 71>
6491.
Driving safety class offered
The Texas A&M After Hours Program will sponsor a driver
safety course Aug. 3-4 and Aug. 10-11. This course maybe usedto
have certain traffic violations dismissed anti to receive a 10 percent
discount on automobile insurance. Registration is from 8 a.m. too
p.m. in 216 MSC. For more information, call 845-9352.
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Police
(continued from page 1)
high. In 1982, 26 percent of officers
who married before going into the
field were divorced. The divorce
rate among officers who married af
ter going into the field was 11.2 per
cent.
McCoy said the relationship of
stress to these problems can’t be ig
nored.
But law enforcement officials can
learn to identify and control stress,
McCoy said. For example, good nu
trition and plenty of sleep can de
crease the chances of stress-related
illness.
“There’s a heck of a lot to be said
for meditation, or for just getting
out and running around the block.
It gives the body a chance to literally
burn off stress.”
McCoy teaches his classes the
techniques of self-hypnosis as a
means of better coping with stress.
“We let them key in on their own
particular fantasies and shut out the
stress,” he said. “Many of them don’t
realize how much stress they’re un
der. The nature of their work is very
stressful.”
McCoy said that good commu
nication skills are of the utmost im
portance in reducing stress. One of
the most important ways to cope
with this problem is by talking about
it, he said.
“Cops get very frustrated because
there’s often no one they can talk
to,” McCoy said. Officers often feel
frustrated because they don’t want
to worry their families by discussing
their experiences.
“The emphasis is on getting some-
one to talk to,” he said. “A staff psy
chologist is a damn necessity for ev
ery law enforcement agency.”
Communication between officers
and administrators is extremely im
portant, McCoy said.
“Communication is often only
one-way, from management to the
officers, and many of them feel that
they can’t respond, which creates
frustration.”
Both McCoy and Stenning said
many state and national law enfo
merit agencies are aware of theprd
lems presented by stress andarc
couraging their employees to k
more about it. They emphasized 1
being under stress doesn’t nece
ily detract from an officer’s perfi
mance.
“Most cops are doing a
Stenning said. “Most of them
handling it.”
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Abandoned van yields cocaine valued at $200 million
United Press International
HOUSTON — Two Highway Pa
trol officers at a roadside checkpoint
found nearly half a ton of cocaine —
valued at $200 million — abandoned
in a van, officials said.
The officers were checking driv
ers licenses at about 8:30 p.m. on
Farm Road 2351 near suburban Pas-
dadena at about 8:30 p.m., when a
van pulled to the roadside and
stopped, said Department of Public
Safety Capt. Jack Curtis.
“People will do that when they see
a checkpoint sometimes, pull over
and change drivers or whatever,”
Curtis said. “The officers were busy,
and when they got a break, they
went over and checked.”
The troopers found the van aban-
“We weighed it, bags and all, and it came to 950
pounds. I can’t remember a seizure that size in Texas.”
donned, but inside they found
duffel bags full of cocaine.
“It was a complete surprise,”
said.
15
he
“We weighed it, bags and all, and
it came to 950 pounds. I can’t re
member a seizure that size in
Texas,” said Curtis, who has been a
narcotics officer 14 years.
Curtis said the street value of the
cocaine was estimated at $200 mil
lion.
“I don’t know exactly what they’d
be paying at the source, but that size
loss is going to hurt somebody,” he
said.
He said a preliminary investiga
tion revealed no clues as to the it
titles of the suspect or suspects,!
officers were examining evidei
into the night.
“We don’t have a violatoratll
time, we’ll be doing fingerprintii
and tests on the cocaine and wn
ping to see where it came from,"I
said.
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