Russell was a commercial fisherman 

 only a short time before he joined the 

 Navy during World War I. He later 

 worked until retirement at nearby 

 Camp Lejeune. But he can spot danger 

 signs in the weather along with the best 

 of the commercial fishermen. And he 

 keeps a little boat so he can "catch a 

 mess of fish" anytime. 



Like many Harkers Islanders 

 Russell has a hard time explaining just 

 how he learned what he knows about 

 the sea. To hear him tell it, you'd think 

 Harkers Island children are born 

 knowing how to dig clams and predict 

 when the mullet are going to run. 



As James Rose, a younger fisher- 

 man on the island, explains, "if you're 

 raised up in it, then you already know 

 it, just by being around it." 



That kind of knowledge has been in 



the making many generations. It won't 

 die easily. But as Russell's story in- 

 dicates, other aspects of life on Harkers 

 Island have changed radically since he 

 was a boy. Gone are the maritime 

 forests and swamps that once covered 

 the island. They've given way to well- 

 groomed yards, houses and trailers. 



"Used to be if you wanted to get 

 somewhere on the island, you had to 

 walk along the shore," recalls Russell. 

 Today paved and dirt roads crisscross 

 the island. 



You'll still find a boat in nearly 

 every yard but commercial fishermen 

 and boat builders make up a dwindling 

 portion of the population. The mail 

 boat which sailed to Beaufort has been 

 replaced by a standard brick post of- 

 fice. In 1926 a ferry service, connect- 

 ing the island with the rest of Carteret 



County, began. And since 1941 island- 

 ers have been able to drive across a 

 bridge to the mainland. 



In short, the days of isolation are 

 gone. And along with them went some 

 of the naive notions that lent the island 

 a special charm. Notions like the one 

 islander Charlie Hancock had as a 

 child. 



"I used to think, T don't know what 

 people eat that live in other places.' I 

 says, 'What do they live on? They 

 don't get oysters and clams.' The water 

 was our living and the water was all of 

 it. I thought you couldn't live unless 

 you had seafood." 



Each year Harkers Island draws 

 more sport fishermen who use the 

 island as a jumping off place to get to 

 prime fishing grounds on Shackleford 

 and Core Banks. That has meant the 

 inevitable increase in conflict between 

 commercial and sport fishermen over 

 fishing grounds. Now, with impending 

 development of Cape Lookout 

 National Seashore, more changes seem 

 to be in store. The seashore includes 

 nearby Core and Shackleford Banks; 

 plans call for putting the headquarters 

 on Harkers Island. 



For the past year anthropologist 

 Marcus Hepburn has been living on 

 Harkers Island, keeping a close watch 

 on how these changes are affecting the 

 islanders. Hepburn is working on a Sea 

 Grant study with anthropologist Jim 

 Sabella and sociologists Richard Dixon 

 and Roger Lowery of the University of 

 North Carolina at Wilmington (UNC- 

 W). The researchers are interested in 

 finding out how certain predictable 

 factors, such as tourism, increasing 

 population and government regula- 

 tions, influence the traditional life- 

 styles of coastal communities. They 

 chose Harkers Island because of its 

 long-standing tradition as a boat 

 building and commercial fishing 

 community. 



This spring the researchers surveyed 

 most of the island's adult population to 

 find out about their attitudes toward a 

 variety of issues, such as extended 

 jurisdiction and fisheries management 

 plans. The results should be useful to 

 government agencies and planners in 

 other coastal communities. 



Hepburn has also been studying the 

 history of the island and some of its 

 families. He has spent many hours with 

 old timers collecting tall tales and 

 folklore which he considers essential to 

 an understanding of the island's 

 traditional culture. 



Researcher Marcus Hepburn chats with islander Louis Hancock 



