West Craven Highlights
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NAIIONM rWSMPll
VOLUME 12 NO. 17
APRIL 27. 1989
VANCEBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
PHONE 244-0780 OR 946-2144
(UPSP 412-110)
25 CENTS
SIX PAGES
Registration
Set May 11
At Farm Life
First Grade, Kindergarten
Students Need Paperwork
The Proper Pursuit Of Fish
Most recreational fishermen are entirely too vigorous in their
pursuit of fish. They seem to miss the point, rushing hither and
yon in overpowered bath tubs, bracing their heads against the
hurricane wind. Not for me. These fellows have the idea. Find a
quiet spot and soak up a little sun. If the fish bite, great. If they
donH, that’s why you were careful when you picked your com
pany.
(Ric Carter photo)
By TRRRI JA.HIRSON
Staff Wriler
Ready. Set. Go!
Soon it will be time for pre
school registration at Vanceboro
Farm Life Elementary School.
The registration will be held
Thursday, May 11, from 9 a.m.
until noon.
The school is asking that the
procedures and requirements
listed below be read and fol
lowed carefully.
— Register pre-school children
at the time and date indicated.
— Bring a certified copy of the
child’s birth certificate. To be en
rolled in the first grade, a student
must be 6-years-old on or before
Oct. 16. To be enrolled in kinder-
gartin, the student must be 5-
years-old on or before Oct. 16and
must be enrolled during the first
month of the school year.
~ The child must have had the
proper immunizations. The im
munizations needed include five
doses of DTP vaccine (booster af
ter the fourth birthday), four
doses of polio vaccine (Imoster
after the fourth birthday), one
dose of rubella vaccine, one does
of rubeola vaccine (after first
birthday) and one dose of
mumps vaccine.
— A health assessment is re
quired for all students entering
school for the first time. Forms
can be obtained from the school
office.
Children needing immuniza
tions and/or health assessments
should be taken to their physi
cians or the Craven County
Health Department. Clinics at
the health department are held
(See SCHOOLS, Page 5}
Several Factors Threaten Area’s Fishing Tradition
It would not be an exaggera
tion to say that the oldest profes
sion in the Albemarle-Pamlico
sounds region is fishing. Long
before Europeans arrived and
the land became widely culti
vated, aboriginal peoples plied
the waters of the Albemarle-
Pamlico estuary for the great
variety and abundance of fish
that lived in these waters.
That effort has continued unin
terrupted for thousands of years,
and today only the Chesapeake
Bay estuary supports a larger
fishery on the East Coast than the
Albemarle-Pamlico. Through
the years the methods and gear of
fishing have changed markedly,
as has the land use of the region,
but the importance of commer-
Analysis
cial fishing here has remained
constant.
With recent increases in land-
based activities, though, there
has come an increase in the hu
man effects on the fisheries re
source. Exactly how much of an
efiect such human activities as
pollution and overfishing have
had is open to debate, but a look
at landings of principal seafood
species in the 1980s shows some
interesting trends.
(Principal seafood species in
clude 14 types of finfish and
shellfish. They include flounder,
herring, striped bass, shrimp.
blue crab and oysters.
Menhaden, which are not eaten
directly by humans and so arc
not counted in “seafood” land
ings, make up by far the largest
single fishery in North Carolina
waters.)
The decade of the ’80s began
with a harvest of 89 million
pounds of seafood in 1980 — the
highest annual landing ever for
the Albemarle-Pamlico-Core
sound region. That was followed
with takes of 71 million pounds
in 1981 and 79 million pounds in
1982. Those figures dwarf (he
annual landings of the early -
and mid-1970s, when hauls were
usually 34 million to 45 million
pounds.
Several factors apparently en
ter into this era of record har
vests. Most fisheries biologists
feel that steadily increasing land
ings in the late 1970s probably
spurred a sharp growth in com
mercial fishing operations, and
that this coincided with strong
populations in many species to
produce the heavy catches.
Since 1982, however, the take
of seafood species in the Albe-
marle-Pamlico estuary has ex
ceeded 70 million pounds only
once, when 75 million pounds
were taken in 1985. All other
years to 1988 have had catches of
59 million to 67 million pounds
except for 1986 when only 56 mil
lion pounds were caught, the
lowest total since 1977.
This trend for the Albemarle-
Pamlico is mirrored by a
statewide decline in seafood
fisheries from 138 million
pounds in 1980 to 93 million in
1986 and 97 million in 1987 (no
figures available for 1988).
If these numbers are broken
down into individual species we
can gain perhaps a better under
standing of the decline. For ex
ample, while the steady loss of
striped bass stocks since 1970 is
well documented, other finfish
have had dramatic drops as well;
the catches of croaker, grey trout
and spot for 1986-88 arc each less
than half the totals for their
catches of 1979-81. Biologists
consider it significant that each
of these species is an “anadra-
mous” fish, meaning they live in
Broken Leg A Break
For Big Top Owner
By MIKE VOSS
Edilor
John Pugh may have gotten
his biggest break in the circus
^siness in 1964 when he
Broke a leg while practicing
multiple-twisting somersaults
for his trampoline act.
That break, literally and
figuratively, eventually
brought Pugh from performer
to co-owner of the Clyde Beat-
ty-CoIe Bros. Circus. He work
ed enough to get back on the
trampoline but eventually
Pugh quit performing and be
came the circus’ manager. Af
ter years of ups and downs, he
and partner Doug Holwadel
bought the circus in 1982.
"It’s a thrill every day to see
the Big Top going up. I get up
... to watch the thing go up,”
said Pugh iVom his oflice in
4ke ticket wagon. "A circus
isn’t a circus unless it’s in that
damn tent.”
Although completely
caught up in the day-to-day
operations of the circus, Pugh
recalls his performing days
fondly. “It is one of my more
enjoyable times in life. It
didn’t seem like a job,” he
said. Pugh and his trampoline
partner had similar work
ethics and enjoyed other simi
lar interests, including "chas
ing the young ladies.”
Pugh grew up in England
during World War II and lived
on a farm outside London. His
father, “Digger,” produced
theatrical and variety shows
and managed entertainers in
Great Britain and Europe.
Pugh trained as a gymnast and
made his debut at age eight.
Would he perform again?
“No.” Pugh said he knew
when to quit. ARer the iqjury
he wanted to prove to himself
he could regain his condition
ing as a performer. Once he
proved it, he gave up perform
ing. "After Neal (the partner)
and I split, I never really could
get back into it.
“I’ve never looked back
since,” he said.
But perhaps not all of the
performer is gone. He will
offer some advice to perfor
mers when he thinks he can
make a positive change.
"In my day I was pretty
good,” he said. Being a former
performer is an advantage
now that he is an owner, but
that advantage was not always
there, he said.
Owners and managers were
once a different breed and
came ftom outside the perfor
mers. But that started to
change when Art Conscello, a
member of the Flying Con-
scellos, put Ringling Bros. &
Bamum & Bailey Circus back
on its feet when it went bank
rupt in the 1950s and switched
from performer to adminis
trator.
The circus is big business,
make no bones about that,
said Pugh. He said $650,000
was put back into the circus
this year for a new tent and
lighting system — not to men
tion the general upkeep. Pugh
says three times the purchase
price of the circus has been
put back into it over the last
seven years. The circus has
been almost completely re
tooled in those seven years, he
said.
Each season is “like starting
a new business all over again,”
he said. Getting the season off
to a good start costs money
and the circus needs a good
first three weeks on the road to
set the tone for the rest of the
season, he said. It needs to
take in about $21,000 a day to
break even, he said. But those
first weeks are important.
"It’s good for the perfor
mers. There’s nothing better
for a show than to see crowds.
It’s not a money thing. It’s the
thrill of performing before the
crowd that’s important,” he
said.
‘Tve been with the show for
(See PUGH, Page 5)
Circus Time
Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages
gaped and gawked recently as members of (he
Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus flung them
selves through the air in death-defying leaps or
fiolicked on the floor with exotic animals. The
traveling show put up its big top in the area at
several locations last week and over the weekend
and hit the road again today. (Ric Carter photos)
saltwater but migrate to freshwa-
ter rivers for spawning, so
apparently are being affected by
similar stresses.
But again, just as several fac
tors played a role in the record
highs of the early ’80s, factors be
sides human activities may have
influenced the declines of the
late ’80s. Cyclical changes in
populations and adverse weather
are just two ways nature itself
can help depress yearly landings.
Still, the shrinking numbers of
these finfish appear indicative of
a long-term, human-influenced
population decline.
Even more disturbing is a
downward trend of blue crab
(See WATERS, Page 5)
Taylor Gets
First Award
For Sponsors
The Marketing Education
program at West Craven High
School has started an award
program to recognize the train
ing sponsors that have contri
buted outstanding service to the
school’s marketing education de
partment’s on-the-job training
program.
Students who are getting on-
the-job training can nominate
their training sponsor and com
plete a point sheet for their
nominee. The training sponsor
that has the most points earned is
presented the Training Sponsor
Award to hang in their business
for a month.
The first award was given to
Gary Taylor, manager of Vance-
boro’s Cover Farm Supermarket.
Taylor is a former marketing stu
dent ind graduate of West
Craven High School and em
ploys to other former and two
current marketing program stu
dents from the high school.
Miss Flynn
Is Honored
At Meeting
Lorinda Flynn of West Craven
High School was honored at the
N.C. Marketing Education Hon
ors Brunch.
The brunch was held recently
in Winston-Salem and is spon
sored by the N.C. Department of
Public Instruction to honor out
standing achievements of stu
dents in local high school
marketing programs.
Students from throughout the
state were honored for their ex
cellence in class achievements,
participation in Distributive
Educations Clubs of America
and their progression toward
career goals through on-the-job
training.
Allin Foulkrod, national
DECA president, delivered the
(See MARKETING. Page 5)