way of life that they could not have 

 afforded had things been different," 

 says Gwen White, spokeswoman for 

 Dare County. 



Even so, she concedes, many 

 tourism jobs are low-paying hotel, 

 restaurant and clerk jobs. 



But tourism experts point out that 

 the dollars invested in the North 

 Carolina coast are largely from out-of- 

 state and inland counties. The Outer 

 Banks especially are a magnet for 

 travelers from the North, who consider 

 these beaches a mecca for fishing, 



Riding breakers off the Crystal Coast, 

 o 



Scott Taylor 



surfing, windsurfing and hang gliding. 



And the money these non-resident 

 visitors spend keeps the tax millage 

 low for locals while supporting 

 schools and other infrastructure, says 

 Gene O'Bleness, director of the Dare 

 County Tourist Bureau. 



On a sunny June afternoon, the 

 parking lot at the Kitty Hawk Connec- 

 tion shopping center in Nags Head is 

 packed with tags from Virginia, 

 Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, 

 Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, 

 Delaware and Wisconsin. 



North Carolina plates only dot the 

 area. 



The "First in Flight" tags are more 

 conspicuous back at Pine Knoll 

 Shores, just south of Atlantic Beach. 

 There, Edna Moore and her husband 



Leslie work the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift at 

 the Iron Steamer pier. 



Edna says she enjoys the chance to 

 meet out-of-towners, calling out to 

 visitors to "help yourself to a walk on 

 the pier. 



But this 46-year resident of Salter 

 Path — the island's original commu- 

 nity — says enough is enough. The 

 island doesn't need any more change. 



"I'd like it to stay the way it is," she 

 says. "No more condos." 



Outside, Morehead City native 

 Helen Wilkins casts a shrimp-baited 

 line into the water. She's on vacation 

 from Wilson with her husband, and 

 they're spending a week at the beach in 

 their camper. 



But tourism is a 

 double-edged sword . . . 



there are real, and 

 sometimes irreversible, 

 costs to the environment. 



Today, she's not having much luck 

 with the fish. A few small catches are 

 in her cooler. Mostly, she's pulling up 

 stingrays. 



With another on her hook — about 

 4 pounds, she estimates — Wilkins 

 warns bystanders to stand clear of the 

 ray's barbed tail. 



And she laments the days when she 

 could toss out a line and reel in one fish 

 after another. Enough to fill a cooler on 

 a good afternoon. 



"Bites aren't as frequent as they 

 were," she says. 



Part of the problem, she suspects, 

 are the changes that have taken place 

 on the coast. 



Experts agree that on-land demands 

 are damaging water quality in some of 

 our favorite vacation sites. As a 

 consequence, locals and tourists are 

 noticing some fish catches decrease, 

 fewer migratory birds and a scarcity of 

 certain seafood due to contamination. 



4 JULY/AUGUST 1992 



