North Carolina .State Library 

 Raleigh 



N. C 



Doc. 



University of North Carolina 

 Sea Grant Program 



NEWSLETTER 



I ARCH, 1975 



1235 Burlington Laboratories . 

 NGSU, Raleigh, N. C. 27607 Tel: (919) 737-21*51* 



Striving for balance 



There's talk about polluted drinking 

 water, condemned shellfishing 

 grounds, shabby development and car- 

 nival-type clutter spreading along 

 North Caroliyia's coast. And it's true. 

 There has been unwise development. 

 Some areas like that on the left are 

 looking cluttered. And waters are 

 dirtier than they used to be. 



But so far, it hasn't gotten out of 

 hand. North Carolina's coast is still 

 plump with the things that leave a 

 good taste in your mouth after you've 

 been there. It's not hard to find a 

 beach like the one on the lower left. 

 The fishing is still good. Crowds 

 aren't overwhelming. 



The coasts of other states have lost 

 a lot of those "good" things largely 

 because nobody thought to do much 

 planning for the future. North Caro- 

 lina is lucky because we can learn from 

 past oversights. With a good look at 

 what we've got in the coastal zone — 

 and at what's likely to come — North 

 Carolina can end the tug between the 

 push to develop and the pull to save 

 our natural resources. Through plan- 

 ning, dunes and marshes can co-exist 

 with beach development. 



The Coastal Area Management Act, 

 passed just a year ago by the N. C. 

 General Assembly, is legislation de- 

 signed to bring people together to 

 begin charting the course we will fol- 

 low. Only the future can reveal our 

 destination. 



