10 - 



Warren Davis, Beaufort attorney. He was the attorney 

 who represented the above citizens group. 



Several other long-time residents of the Beaufort bare 

 are knowledgeable about the Bird Shoal-Carrot Island area, 

 particularly its human history, as the kinds of and degrees 

 of human influences on the area. One such person is: 



Claude Guthrie, 213 Pollock St., Beaufort, N.C. (former 

 custodian at the National Marine Fisheries Laboratory). 



Current Use and Protection Status: 



1. Current uses: 



a) Scientific Research. Because of the proximity of 

 Duke University Marine Laboratory and the National Marine 

 Fisheries Laboratory (and also the U.N.C. Institute of Marine 

 Sciences, Morhead City), the Bird Shoal-Carrot Island area, 

 as well as surrounding estuarine areas, is among the bio- 

 logically most studied estuarine sites in the world. Many 

 published scientific papers were based on research done on 

 the Bird Shoal area. 



b) Education. Scores (maybe hundreds) of organized 

 groups use Bird Shoal for field trips every year. These range 

 from elementary school age to adults. Most field trips are 

 associated with Duke University Marine Laboratory or the 

 Hampton Mariners Museum. 



c) Recreation. Bird Shoal and the associated spoil 

 areas are used for swimming, sunbathing, picnicking, and shell- 

 collecting. These activities are mainly restricted to the 

 period from May to September. Most fishing and much shell- 

 fishing is recreational rather than commercial. There is 



some hunting for rails (marsh hens) in autumn, but very 

 little duck hunting (mostly in the Carrot Island-Horse 

 Island area). Each year, several persons visit Bird Shoal- 

 Carrot Island to go bird-watching. 



d) Esthetic Value. This sort of value is hard to 

 evaluate. However, probably most Beaufort residents would 

 agree that the "open space" of the Bird Shoal area to the 

 south greatly enhances the "atmosphere" of the Beaufort 

 waterfront. Actually, esthetics was probably the motiva- 

 tion for most Beaufort citizens' involvement in the effort 

 to protect Bird Shoal-Carrot Island from development. 



e) A strip along the north and west sides of Bird Shoal 

 and Carrot Island - i.e. along Taylor Creek and Bulkhead 

 Channel - has been used regularly for the deposition of spoil 

 material when these water bodies are dredged. 



f) An ostensibly minor, but probably ecologically 

 important, use of the Bird-Shoal-Carrot Island area is as a 

 grazing area for several privately owned horses (at least 

 they are claimed to have owners). 



