drainage from nearby farm fields. But 

 he adds that it's not the only culprit. 



Meekins scoffs at a view that por- 

 trays him and his fellow fishermen at 

 odds with the farmers. Both realize 

 there is a problem, he says. But he 

 adds that it's going to take time and 

 research before the finger, or fingers, of 

 blame can be pointed. 



"The fisheries are declining and 

 we're passing the buck onto somebody 

 else. Agriculture is part of it, but not 

 all of it," says Meekins. 



Meekins attributes some of his 

 empty hauls to increased fishing 

 pressure. "Twenty years ago we had 

 55-foot boats in Pamlico Sound. Now, 



Photo by Nancy Davis 



Uli Bennewitz 



that's a small trawler. We're capable of 

 catching so much more these days. We 

 can't put all the blame on the 

 farmers." 



Add to that an increase in the num- 

 ber of fishermen, both recrea- 

 tional and commercial, says Meekins. 

 While the statewide catches may be 

 up, the catch must be divided among 

 more fishermen. 



Stumpy Point fisherman Fran 

 Altman agrees with Meekins. "There 

 are so many more boats and more peo- 

 ple fishing now. The slice of the pie has 

 just gotten smaller," says Altman, also 

 a member of the Governor's Coastal 

 Water Management Task Force. 



While Altman says land drainage is 

 probably not the only cause for his 



smaller catches, he does think it's a 

 contributing factor. "It has to be af- 

 fecting our fishing, but it's certainly 

 not the only villain." 



Meekins says he'd like to see stricter 

 controls and regulations placed on the 

 fishing industry and more research to 

 see if the theory of freshwater drainage 

 is founded. He thinks that the 

 drainage affects the estuary during the 

 crucial spring months when juvenile 

 fish and shellfish arrive after spawning 

 offshore. 



Farmers are concerned about the 

 drainage problem, too. But their 

 livelihoods depend on their ability to 

 control the water. Without ditches and 

 canals, a heavy rainfall would flood 

 their fields, destroying their crops. 



Uli Bennewitz manages Lux 

 Farms — 9,000 acres of corn, soybeans 

 and forest near Engelhard. He explains 

 the dilemma: "In theory, we're at sea 

 level. If it doesn't rain at all, we don't 

 have to pump. But every time it rains, 

 we have to pump. We're in a constant 

 juggling situation, trying to com- 

 promise with the water table. In the 

 summer, we try to raise the water 

 table. In the winter and spring, we 

 pump more to lower the water table." 



Bennewitz is also manager of Mat- 

 tamuskeet Drainage Association. 

 The six-member, 40,000-acre drainage 

 district is composed of six pumping 

 stations. Three drain into the In- 

 tracoastal Waterway, one into a barge 

 canal and two into the environmen- 

 tally-sensitive Pamlico Sound. Ben- 

 newitz says 80 percent of the runoff is 

 funneled into the Intracoastal 

 Waterway, which is not considered to 

 be environmentally sensitive. 



"We're doing as much as possible to 

 minimize the pumping on the east side 

 (near Pamlico Sound)," says Ben- 

 newitz. "We have double the pump 

 hours on the west side as on the east 

 side." 



Bennewitz looks at both sides of the 

 drainage issue. He says there's no 

 evidence that farm drainage is af- 

 fecting the production of the estuaries. 

 But he adds that there's no evidence 

 that it's not affecting it either. 



Until scientists find some answers, 

 Bennewitz has some ideas he thinks 

 may help. He'd like to pump some of 

 the excess water into agriculturally 

 non-usable land, dike it and create a 

 lake. Then, when the hot summer 



months bring on a drought, he could 

 recycle the water by irrigating his 

 crops with it. Bennewitz says he'll 

 have to convince the U.S. Army Corps 

 of Engineers to go along with his plan 

 before he can implement it. 



UNC Sea Grant Director B.J. 

 Copeland says the estuaries are affec- 

 ted by a variety of factors. "The es- 

 tuaries are located at the end of rivers 

 and whatever goes on upstream in the 

 Piedmont affects them," says 

 Copeland. 



Belhaven farmer Marion Dilday 

 takes a tougher approach. "All the 

 water from Raleigh finds its way into 

 the creeks, rivers and sounds. It's not 



Photo by Nancy Davis 



Dell Meekins 



only farmland that drains. I think 

 there's probably more pollution from 

 up above than from down below," he 

 says. 



But for Dell Meekins and Fran 

 Altman, empty nets mean lean years. 

 They hope researchers will find some 

 answers — and soon. But even answers 

 won't cure the ills plaguing the 

 fisheries, says Meekins. "It took years 

 for this to happen and it's going to 

 take a lot of years to cure it." 



— Nancy Davis 



