. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. than 55 percent of those interviewed were negative about the milfoil. Another 37 percent were positive, while 12 percent had no opinion. The majority, 70 per- cent, felt that something should be done about the milfoil, ranging from total elimination to only limited control. Of the 44 businesses surveyed, 41 percent of the owners felt that the milfoil had no particular effect on their businesses. Twenty percent said the milfoil had a negative effect and 39 percent felt it had a positive effect. Abbas warns


. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. than 55 percent of those interviewed were negative about the milfoil. Another 37 percent were positive, while 12 percent had no opinion. The majority, 70 per- cent, felt that something should be done about the milfoil, ranging from total elimination to only limited control. Of the 44 businesses surveyed, 41 percent of the owners felt that the milfoil had no particular effect on their businesses. Twenty percent said the milfoil had a negative effect and 39 percent felt it had a positive effect. Abbas warns that responses are never black or white in an attitude survey. But the surveys do quan- tify the importance of Currituck Sound to the area's economy. And they say something about attitudes toward "milfoil. "It's data that suggests that 'the milfoil problem' isn't as serious as some people think it is," says Abbas. "There just isn't the ground swell of 'let's-get-rid-of-the-milfoil,'" he adds. A question of bugs Every summer for the past seven years, Norma Caroon has gone to battle with the milfoil that has piled up along the shore in front of her house. Pushed there by strong easterly winds, the milfoil has been held in place by the bulkheads lining her sound-front property. Within days the thick plants would begin to decompose and fill the air with a putrid stench. Like her neighbor, L. C. Barrow, Mrs. Caroon was getting tired of fighting milfoil. "We haven't enjoyed the water sports as much as we used to," she said. But there were more serious problems that bothered her. Could the thick, rotting mats of milfoil provide a breeding ground for disease-carrying insects? According to North Carolina State University en- tomologist Richard Axtell reports of increased biting fly activity around the milfoil made sense. Studies along the Gulf Coast had already proven that ac- cumulations of shoreline vegetation were good breeding spots for Stumta-i/H


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography