MOREHEAD CITY - Thirteen projects, including two ocean fishing piers, will receive state funds earmarked to improve public access along the coast's rapidly developing waterfront.

Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, approved about $20 million for sites that can be used by commercial and recreational fishermen, recreational boaters and the marine industry. Six sites totaling $6.8 million are in the northeast; four, totaling $6.3 million, are on the central coast; and three, totaling $6.9 million, are in the southeast.

Most projects, including the ocean piers, will require more money. For example, $1.5 million was approved for a $16.8 million ocean-fishing pier at Nags Head and $2.2 million for an $18 million pier at Emerald Isle.

Daniel said $20 million approved by the legislature in 2007 will be used as leverage for additional money. Total cost of the projects exceeds $71 million.

The legislature approved one-time funding in response to recommendations from a Waterfront Access Study Committee. The panel said rapid development along the coast has brought higher property values and taxes that have resulted in the loss of traditional maritime industries and public access.

Daniel made the final selections after a review by an advisory committee. He said he considered dozens of projects costing millions of dollars.

There were some "glaring omissions" in the selections, Daniel said, such as none in the Albemarle Sound area, Hatteras Island or New Hanover County. Some proposals were not feasible because the sites had problems that would have interfered with conversion to public access, he said.

A proposal to buy Cahoon Seafood in the Hyde County community of Swan Quarter received $260,000, more than half of the $425,760 cost. And $3 million was earmarked to help purchase Millis Seafood in Sneads Ferry for $6.5 million.

Daniel said the docks and other facilities now run by private companies would be converted to areas for fishermen to land their catches. There are no plans for the state to lease the businesses, he said.

"We would not be running fish houses and businesses," he said. State Sen. Marc Basnight of Manteo, president pro tem of the Senate, said in a news release that the money will help fishermen prosper "and preserve our working waterfronts for generations to come."