Of all the sportsmen 

 who have made the annual 

 pilgrimage to harvest the bass in 

 Currituck Sound, none are so 

 memorable as the West Virginians. 



By the busloads they 

 came, most from deep in the heart 

 of coal country. 

 "I guess they just 

 wanted to get away from all that 

 mining," says hunting and fishing 

 guide Warren Austin of Barco. "It 

 must feel good to get out of those 

 holes in the ground and come here 

 for some fishing in the open air. " 



The West Virginians 

 enjoyed their Currituck outings to 

 the limit, but they weren't rowdy 

 and didn 't demand much from 

 their guides. 

 What they wanted 

 most of all was to catch fish. 



"A West Virginian, 

 he'd fish in a bathtub, if that's all 

 he had," Austin says. "And when 

 he'd catch them, he'd take them all 

 home with him. 

 "Ain't no telling how 

 many bass them boys took out of 

 this sound." 

 But, like others who 

 once swore by the fishing in Cur- 

 rituck, the West Virginians don 't 

 come anymore. 

 "It 's because the 

 fishing is down to zilch these 

 days," Warren says. "When the 

 word's out there's no bass, it takes 

 care of itself. We don 't have to 

 advertise. " 



tuck Banks, shifted it around a bit and 

 filled in what was then known as New 

 Currituck Inlet. Because the nearest salt 

 water inlet is south at Oregon Inlet, Cur- 

 rituck remains mostly fresh water. 



But increased salinity would be disas- 

 trous for the sound's bass population, says 

 Pete Kornegay, the N.C. Wildlife Resources 

 Commission's biologist for the 13-county 

 northeast region. 



"We had a four-year drought that started 

 in 1984-85," he says. "That reduced the 

 freshwater inflow into the sound and 

 caused salinity to increase." 



Extreme high salinity in 1987-88 ex- 

 ceeded the tolerance limits for largemouth 

 bass and other freshwater species in the 

 sound, Kornegay says. Many of the fish 

 died and none spawned. 



"And while the water quality in Curri- 

 tuck is good compared to other coastal 

 areas of the state, it's all still a matter of 

 how you look at it," he says. "If you talk 

 to a sportfisherman, he'll say salt water is 

 pollution. If you talk to a commercial 

 fisherman, he'll say fresh water is 

 pollution." 



Then there's what Warren Austin calls 

 "real pollution." Over the years, Austin 

 says he's seen lots of raw sewage drain 

 into the sound. 



Some of the signs are obvious. 



Farmers who cultivate hungry crops 

 such as corn, cabbage and broccoli must 

 pour large amounts of fertilizer into the 

 soil. The natural leaching process carries 

 nutrient-laden runoff into the creeks and 

 rivers that eventually end up in the sound. 



In extreme cases, swine farmers have 

 allowed water from their waste lagoons to 



empty directly into the Currituck drainage 

 basin. 



But whether or not the waters in Curri- 

 tuck Sound are polluted or whether they're 

 salt or fresh isn't all of the problem, says 

 UNC Sea Grant Director B.J. Copeland. 



Copeland is co-author of a recent report 

 on the status of the Albemarle-Pamlico 

 estuary. 



He agrees that the decline of the bass 

 fishery can be traced to slight changes in 

 the water's salt content. But other factors 

 include changes in the sound's water move- 

 ments and in the abundance of under- 

 water grasses. 



"And let's not forget overfishing," says 

 Copeland. "All these things have hap- 

 pened over a period of the last 20 years." 



Copeland says the sound's primary prob- 

 lem can be traced to a canal that con- 

 nects the North Landing River to Virginia 

 Beach. "This canal, built for flood con- 

 trol, transports wastes from Virginia 

 Beach," he says. "The net flow goes into 

 Currituck." 



Over the last two decades, these pol- 

 lutants, along with farm runoff and the 

 residues of overdeveloped shorelines, have 

 poisoned the sound and its plants and 

 animals. 



"The solution, then, is to reduce those 

 inputs," Copeland says. "If we can get rid 

 of the Virginia stuff, and be careful about 

 watershed development in Currituck 

 County, then the sound would clear itself 

 up. Nature is very resilient." 



Meanwhile, the state is continuing its 

 efforts to revive the sound's largemouth 

 bass population. In 1989, when salinity 

 levels had dropped drastically, more than 

 60,000 bass fingerlings were released. 



And, beginning this year, the size limit 

 on bass taken from Currituck rose from 12 

 to 14 inches. Also, the Wildlife Commis- 

 sion is proposing to change the statewide 

 creel limit from eight to five largemouth 

 bass per day. 



Whatever the solutions, they won't come 

 easy. The constant pressures of developers, 

 politicians, sportsmen and vacationers will 

 continue to play important roles in Curri- 

 tuck Sound's recovery. 



For the people whose livelihoods have 

 always depended on the fish and fowl 

 taken from Currituck, the future doesn't 

 seem as bright as the past. 



"Bass fishing just don't get it anymore 

 in Currituck," Warren Austin says. "I 

 turned down a party this month because I 

 didn't think he'd do any good out there, 

 and I'd hate to take his money knowing 

 that." • 



