THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060390
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
``Because it's there.''
Sir Edmund Hillary's words are easily recognizable as the cliche answer for those men and women long on chutzpah and short on fear, who scale peaks and traverse oceans, trying to conquer what are only easy-chair dreams for the rest of us.
But for three members of Yale University's class of 1994, attempting to travel 320 miles by sea kayak from Knotts Island, Va., through the waters of Outer Banks to the mouth of the Little River in South Carolina, there is more than ``there'' out there.
``For me, this is an adventure with a purpose,'' said Ben Madley, a 22-year-old from Los Angeles. ``A lot of people climb mountains and do other things `because it's there.' ``But we're doing a job down here. We have a reason to be doing this that's more than `because it's there.' ''
The summer job that Madley, Durham native Peter Braasch and Atlantan Jeffrey Cohen are working at this summer is a bit off the beaten path - literally and figuratively - from many of their Yale classmates.
While their friends toil in air-conditioned offices on Wall Street Street, or for D.C. law firms, Braasch, Cohen, and Madley are paddling three kayaks through salt and fresh water, with hands wrapped in duct tape to guard against blistering.
They are battling heat, wind, storms, rain, mosquitoes and the occasional buzz by a personal watercraft, all in an effort to preserve and protect the environmental past, present and future of North Carolina's Coastal Plain.
``This grew out of several levels,'' said Braasch, 22, who is undertaking the voyage as his senior thesis. ``I started it because I had an interest in the history of the commercial shrimping industry and its impact on the geographical history and the environmental industry of the area. I wanted to use this history as sort of a document.
``When I started, I found there wasn't much there in the historical record. So I began developing an oral history.''
Months before Braasch and his companions cast off from Knotts Island, he traveled to many small fishing villages talking to townsfolk, learning about the rich histories of generations who have coexisted in an uneasy dance with nature.
``I had some contacts in Carteret County, and in some ways, it was difficult to get them to talk about the history of the fishing industry. In one case, I asked them about attempts to organize, and they said there wasn't. But when I showed them an announcement about a meeting seeking to organize the fisherman back in 1947, they said `Oh yeah, I remember that.' ''
Braasch said scientists have missed the boat when it comes to gaining information about the environmental problems faced by the region.
``A lot of the people who have lived in the area for generations can tell scientists a great deal about the impact of hurricanes and erosion on the fishing in the area,'' he said. ``These people have been fishing these waters for generations. They can provide some helpful information that scientists have ignored.''
According to Braasch, the goals of the trip are are aimed at preservation and education.
``We want to obtain the necessary background to provide an environmental education course for North Carolina middle schoolers. We hope that this course will help environmental groups like the North Carolina Coastal Federation,'' he said.
Environmental education has been a large part of the trio's background. Madley, Braasch and Cohen have all served as leaders in Yale's Freshman Outdoor Orientation Program. Madley recently returned from a trip to the Fiji Islands. Cohen's exposure to the outdoors began much earlier.
``I learned to backpack about the time I could walk,'' he said. ``We used to load up in my dad's orange VW bus, and we'd backpack and Kayak along the Ocoee and Chatooga Rivers.''
Many miles have passed for the three outdoorsmen. For Madley, there is something special about kayaking.
``The thing to remember is that when you're in a kayak, you're not on the water - you're in the water. You actually have a fish-eye view of the water. I think people who kayak and backpack have a more intimate relationship with the environment than someone whose on a motorized craft. We can be silent enough so as not to disturb a herd of stags going across the water, or we can take our time to see terns, osprey, jellyfish or whatever. You can't put a value on that.''
The trip, made possible through a grant from the Chase-Coggins Memorial Fellowship, as well as private support from manufacturers like the North Carolina-based Wilderness System Boats and Kitty Hawk Sports, has made the trio minor celebrities along their route.
``Sometimes we'll have a group of about 30 people come up and just start talking to us about what we're doing,'' said Cohen. ``We've had people cook dinner for us, take us to the store to get supplies or whatever we need. We've had people at campgrounds along the route tell us we couldn't stay there, but once we told them what we were doing, they said it would be OK.''
Braasch, Cohen, and Madley hope to repay that human goodness with a more permanent gift.
``Originally, I had a more global view of what I wanted to accomplish,'' said Braasch. ``But there are problems in my own backyard. How can I tell people over yonder how to live when I have these problems here at home?
``There is such a push for development through tourism. But I believe there are some unique solutions to meet the needs of the tourists, as well as the people who were here first and the environment surrounding them.''
He added, ``There are environmentalists who seem to hate people. They say `Save the spotted owl and forget about the people.' I think there is a way to preserve the environment and the people who live there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DREW C. WILSON/
Staff/2 line cutline
Peter Braash, seated, and Jeffrey Cohen unload their kayak while
docked at a Hatteras Island campground. The pair, plus fellow Yale
student Ben Madley, say their trip down the coast is a serious
undertaking.
by CNB