The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 73

Thursday, Oct. 24, 1985 SECTION Record, F4 Classified, F4 Sea fairies wash ashore eeair Met The News-Journal papers Wilmington, Del. rfews 3 sonian Institution's Natural History section in Washington. Reynolds said such a stranding of sea turtles was unusual. "Throughout the year we get strandings but there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it," he said.

In areas where commercial net fishing is common, turtles often get caught in nets and drown, he said. The loggerheads live on a diet of crustaceans and jellyfish, Reynolds and Thomas said. Reynolds said the Smithsonian would be interested in examining the turtles' remains. All six sea turtles appear to be loggerheads, a type of Atlantic sea turtle with a hard shell and a large head, said Janis Thomas, non-game and endangered species coordinator for the wildlife section. Although state officials are not yet certain why the six dead turtles washed ashore, two had gashes that suggested they had been struck by a boat propeller, Thomas said.

The shell of one of the two turtles was torn open, she said, but the other four had no outward signs of damage. The turtles were buried Wednesday in shallow graves along the beach. They will be moved to a nearby marsh area once an earth mover can be located, By MOLLY MURRAY Sussex Bureau reporter State wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused the death of six large sea turtles that washed ashore this week between Cape Henlopen State Park and the Indian River Inlet. Five of the turtles were discovered Tuesday and a sixth Wednesday, said H. Lloyd Alexander supervisor of operations for the state wildlife section.

The turtles ranged from 75 to 350 pounds, officials said. "It's not unusual to have a turtle wash up," Alexander said. "It's very unusual to have six of them." Thomas said. The plan is to move the turtles to the marsh, allow them to decompose and then use their leg bones to determine their age, she said. Loggerhead turtles, though one of the more common sea turtles in the Atlantic area from Delaware south, are listed by the Department of Interior as a threatened species.

Harming the turtles or taking their shell or body parts is a violation of federal law. At one time, however, the turtles were treasured for their skin, which was used in shoes and handbags. Their shells also were used in jewelry and their flesh as food, said Robert Reynolds, a wildlife biologist at the Smith i 1 1 in Staff photos by Bob Herbert John Ascenzi of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia helps make Mole Day at St. Mark's High School an enlightening experience for chemistry students as (from left) he initiates and concludes in fiery fashion an experiment with hydrogen-filled balloon. Students dig Mole Day at St.

Mark's By AMY E. LIGNITZ Staff reporter Some high school chemistry students abandoned books and labs on Wednesday to explore the practical, if not fun, side of chemistry. Wednesday was Mole Day. If you think a mole is just an animal that tunnels through your front lawn, you've got a lot to learn. But you can ask the chemistry students at St.

Mark's High School in Pike Creek Valley; they know all about moles. They've even set aside a day to celebrate them. In chemistry, a "mole" is the term used to express Mark's celebrate Mole Day, and have for the last four years. The students see demonstrations, listen to speakers and participate in contests, all relating to chemistry. "You can't just teach them out of the book," said Margaret Christoph, chemistry teacher and creator of Mole Day.

"You have to show them that chemistry is all around them. It's part of their lives." The students seem to agree. One senior said it's hard to be interested in chemistry just from what See MOLE F4 the molecular weight in grams of a substance. Now, if you think that's complicated it gets worse: The number of particles contained in one mole is 6.02252 times 10 to the 23rd power. (More on this later.) Put another way, the number of particles in each mole is equal to a little more than 6 followed by 23 zeros.

(This discovery, if you really want to know, was made by a 19th Century Italian chemist named Amedeo Avogadro and is called Avogadro's number.) So, every Oct. 23 or thereabouts the 10th month, 23rd day, to use the numbers that Avogadro made somewhat famous chemistry students at St. demonstrates "the need for an alternative crossing," said league president Steven H. Amick. Delaware Secretary of Transportation Kermit H.

Justice says the Corps, which is historically responsible for canal bridges, is fully aware that when one of the aging bridges is closed or in partial use "we have a major problem." The Delaware Department of Transportation has been quietly campaigning to break what could amount to a 15-year Corps logjam about building a fourth bridge. Fifteen years is the usual time the Corps takes to plan and build a bridge. The Corps has no immediate plans for a new structure, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. State highway officials have tolri the Corps of the need since 1982. Last year, U.S.

Sen. William V. Roth submitted a request for a new bridge. Justice said he was concerned that the Corps will use the issue of the fourth bridge as an opportunity to tell Delaware to start handling bridge-building itself, thus breaking a 100-year-old agreement. "We're trying to have the Corps as a partner" in the new bridge effort, instead of an adversary, Justice said.

too much for residents of Delaware's Kent County, the only place where the two stations will compete for viewers. According to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Randy J. Holland, both stations' signals will reach Dover, Smyrna and surrounding areas in central and northern Kent. Attorney Roderick R. McKelvie, representing WBOT, declined Wednesday to comment on the case.

But WBOT General Manager Dan Slate said in an interview last month that the similarity of call letters is unlikely to be a major problem. Slate was out of state and unavailable for comment Wednesday. WBOT originally was to be called WDVI, but that plan was scrapped in August to avoid confusion with WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, whose broadcasts also reach into Delaware. Along with the lawsuit, WBOC submitted a letter from a University of Indiana professor of linguistics, who supported the station's contention that viewers would have trouble differentiating WBOC from WBOT. The lawsuit states that the matter has come to the Chancery Court because the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the television industry, has declined to become involved in call-letter disputes.

TV stations' call letters spell lawsuit By BRUCE PRINGLE Sussex Bureau reporter GEORGETOWN Does WBOC-TV sound so much like WBOT-TV that you might confuse one with the other, especially if each is a television station readily available for your viewing? WBOC, which broadcasts on Channel 16 from Salisbury, thinks so. It wants WBOT, scheduled to go on the air in November on Channel 61 from Wilmington, to change its call letters. In a lawsuit made public Wednesday, WBOC has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to order the change. At issue is whether the similar names will prove Civic league urges fourth span for canal By ROLF RYKKEN Staff reporter The Civic League for New Castle County has joined Delaware transportation officials in urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a fourth bridge over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.

The league has sent copies of a resolution approved last week to local, state and federal officials detailing the immediate need for a new span. The group, an umbrella organization of 86 civic associations, wants a new bridge within five years. The schedule for major repair work on Summit Bridge this spring and the possible closing of the St. Georges Bridge for major repairs a few years later Running for a life Prosecutor plans marathon bid to help boy who was left brain damaged in shooting iK ability that does come back, it's great. You can't concentrate on what might not come back." B.J.

is a first-grader at the Kent-Sussex Consortium, a state school in Lewes for children with severe learning disabilities or social and emotional problems. His mother said he has been less cooperative since the shooting, but that that, too, is changing. She said disciplinary measures used with her other four children, who range in age from 3 to 17, no longer succeed with B.J. But school personnel taught her to encourage good behavior by avoiding criticism of him. "We've always spanked and said, 'Don't do she said of herself and her husband, William.

"But with B.J., it has to be all positives. It works most of the time." In a 10-minute meeting at the News-Journal papers' Georgetown bureau, B.J. appeared shy. He clung to his mother, then lay face-down on the floor. He didn't speak, although his mother said he normally does.

Witsil became involved in the case as prosecutor of both H. Allan Murray, the then-13-year-old boy who fired the shot, and Hayward E. Murray, the 13-year-old's father and the owner of the handgun. Allan Murray was placed on probation by Family By BRUCE PRINGLE Sussex Bureau reporter GEORGETOWN Deputy Attorney General Robert V. Witsil a prosecutor in the Sussex County office of the state Department of Justice, is going more than an extra mile to aid a crime victim.

He's going 26 miles. On foot. Witsil will be running in Saturday's Lewes Marathon to raise money to pay for physical therapy for a 6-year-old shooting victim. By Wednesday afternoon, he had solicited pledges totaling $40 for each mile of the race he finishes. His goal is to earn $100 a mile or $2,600 in all -to help William "B.J." Hammond, who was shot in the head in June 1983.

A handgun discharged while a boy from the Hammond child's Clarksville-area neighborhood was playing with it. B.J., then 3, spent a week in a coma and was hospitalized for nearly two months. He had to learn again to walk and talk. Because of damage to his brain, he still has trouble using his left leg and left arm. "His balance is off," said his mother, Susan Hammond, who expresses optimism about her son's chances to overcome his impairment.

"I'm still seeing improvements. If you look at all his physical Court. His father, charged with reckless endangering, was acquitted in Superior Court, after a judge ruled that the state hadn't proved that he knew Allan was likely to mishandle the weapon. Susan Hammond said B.J. was helped greatly by therapy at the Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center in Georgetown and at Beebe Hospital in Lewes.

But she said he has progressed especially well under the care of a private therapist in Ocean City, Md. Witsil's fund-raising run is designed to help pay for the weekly therapy sessions in Maryland, which cost about $30 each. Meeting that expense has been difficult for William and Susan Hammond. He is a teacher at Worcester County Vocational Center, a high school in Snow Hill, Md. She is a housewife.

"Rob Witsil has been concerned all along," she said. "I told him just last week that I felt I was battling alone in all this. He told me, 'No, you're not, I'm going to help It was then that Witsil announced his plan. Witsil, 34, has run in two previous marathons. Both were more than four years ago, but he expressed confidence Wednesday that he will finish the one Saturday.

And B.J. Hammond is to be at the finish line to greet him. Stall photo by Susan Gregg Deputy Attorney General Robert V. Witsil Jr. with six-year-old William "B.J." Hammond..