Dr. Barbara Garrity-Blake, an anthropologist, became interested in the fishing industry before graduate school through her brother 25 years ago! He is a commercial fisherman. She then went to the University of Virginia to earn her PhD in anthropology. She is now a member of the Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates fisherman, and protects the traditional fishing economy and fish populations in North Carolina. She became a member 6 years ago, when the governor appointed her. She then felt like she could make a difference in preserving fishing communities. Her interests evolve around the economy and environmental issues. She cares about fishing, cultures, and traditions. Carteret County is very unique, but it just might lose its cultural heritage if development doesn’t slow down. She is not personally affected by development, but everybody who loves to eat oyster, clams, etc. from Down East is. She also believes that the economy can improve without affecting the environment. For instance if Down East became a big nature spot where people like to hike, kayak, and fish with little motels, little restaurants it would all depend on clean water, right? Although she isn’t directly working with the development issues she has mixed feelings on how it’s affecting the Down East economy. She feels that if we don’t work together, we will lose our rich heritage.

            Revitalization of the economy deals with things that we can do to help the economy to grow. Sometimes to do that we have to hurt the environment, which is something the many people dislike. Some examples are when forests and marshes are wiped out to build condos, hotels, and restaurants. That is something that is happening right now in the Down East economy. Some things that people might do to help the economy is become more agriculturally based and also to start agri-tourism. Some people are also becoming entrepreneurs so they are not harming the environment as bad as they would be if they were, for example, building condos. Not many people believe that the economy can be helped unless you hurt the environment which is why many people are against new ideas. To help with the economy and not harm the environment, there are many organizations.

There are many challenges when you are dealing with an issue as sensitive as revitalization of the economy. As many ways that the economy is helped, there are twice as many ways the environment is injured. So, just going to a new place where you plan on building houses and condo’s is also a place where everyone will try as hard as possible to save the environment. People never know what animal habitats that the building might destroy, so nature fanatics and animal rights groups will put up a petition to try and stop the building.

          Some more challenges are that to become an agriculturally based economy, you will have to have most of the community help, but not everyone believes the same things, so many wouldn’t help. Some people actually make the money to support their families by working with condos, hotels, restaurants, etc. They are normal people like you and me, yet many people dislike them because of what they do to hurt the environment so they can earn money for their families.

There are very few solutions to dealing with this issue, but we managed to find three or four. One solution is to start agritourism, as earlier mentioned. Agritourism is when a farm, ranch, or agricultural plant is changed so that people can go and enjoy themselves. An example from around here would be Mike’s Farm. Another solution has to be entrepreneurship, which is the practice of starting new organizations to make money and help the economy. Lastly, for solution number three would be for the economy to become agriculturally based so that there would be farms and ranches that make the money for the economy. There are also many organizations all over the world that deal with issues such as this. One organization found Down East would be the economic development council, whose job is to deal with topics such as this.