The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 115

Middle Atlantic region The Sun in Carroll: Sunday, October 6, 1996 Page 11b .1. "i 1' i i Commercial catch in East brings er revenue high Gatliland to mark its 100th anniversary Birthday party planned for Civil War correspondents' arch CAPITAL HEWS SERVICE Maryland fishermen collect $59.7 million for C6.9 million pounds Fishery revenue Here's a list of commercial fisheries revenue and weight fof states from Maine to Virginia: -r State Revenue Weight- (millions) (millions Ibk) Maine $273.6 2536 Mass. 216.3 Virginia 111.2 776:3 New Jersey 95.3 1772 New York 81.5 SO R.I. 70.7 128.4 Maryland 59.7 Conn. 50.7 na N.H.

15.0 133 Delaware 9.0 10C3 TOTAL 983.0 1,693.2 ASSOCIATED PRESS At Braddock Carnegie Library: Bob Ardisson of Apollo, a collector of antique bottles, looks over a 1915 map while doing research at the Braddock Carnegie Library in Braddock, Pa. The Braddock library was the Brst of about 2,500 public libraries financed by 19th-century Pittsburgh steel baron Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie legacy lives on in libraries BURKITTSVILLE The Western Maryland monument honoring journalists who covered the Civil War will turn 100 years old this month with a birthday party guaranteed to attract some attention. CNN correspondent Peter Ar-nett will be coming to Gathland State Park Saturday for a celebration designed to raise the profile of the 50-foot-tall Civil War Corre-. spondents Memorial.

"We would love for people to become more familiar with the monument and what it represents," said John Howard, superintendent of the nearby Antletam and Monoca-cy national battlefields and overseer of the correspondents' monument. About 200 to 300 people are expected for the afternoon celebration, Howard said. He estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 people visit the monument each year. Arch bears 157 names The stone monument, which bears the names of 157 correspondents, photographers and artists of the war, was built by George Alfred Townsend, a Civil War correspondent for the New York Herald. He built it on land he owned near the site of the Civil War battle at South Mountain about the same time a number of memorials to soldiers were being erected at Civil War battle sites, such as Antietam.

Townsend thought it was appropriate that a testimonial to war correspondents be built, since they had also risked their lives, said Al Preston, the assistant manager of South Mountain Recreation Area. One of the more famous names on the memorial is Matthew Brady, the Civil War photojournalist. The memorial consists of four arches. The largest is made of Hummelstown purple stone. Three Roman arches built of limestone rest on top of it.

The stone for the smaller arches came from Cedar Creek battlefield, a Civil War site near Winchester, Va. At the arch's left side stands a tower with a statue of the mythical god Mercury, known as a messenger. It was designed to portray the swiftness of the traveling correspondents. Townsend used his own funds and donations from acquaintances, including Joseph Pulitzer, to pay for the monument. It cost about $5,000 to build, said Marge Magruder, president of The Friends of Gathland State Park.

In 1904, Townsend gave the arch and the half-acre of land it sits on to the federal government. ASSOCIATED PRESS PORTLAND, Maine Fishermen along the Eastern seaboard sold their catch for more money in 1995 than the previous year, despite the dramatic decline of New England groundfish and the Chesapeake Bay's eastern oyster, federal officials have reported. Revenue from commercial fisheries last year totaled $983 million, with Maine leading the 10-state region with $273.6 million, and Massachusetts following with $216.3 million, said Jon Gibson, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The total revenue for the area stretching from Maine to Virginia increased by 8 percent compared with 1994 and 11 percent over 1993. Maine fishermen outsold their counterparts for the second year in a row by relying on their trademark lobster and diversifying their catch with high-value species like sea urchin, shrimp and farmed Atlantic salmon.

Before 1994, Massachusetts had always taken first place. "Maine has better fish populations and has historically promoted diversification," Gibson said, adding that Maine fishermen harvested 57 species last year. "Maine is somewhat fortunate in thatjegard," Gibson said. "Many of the species are located mostly in the Gulf of Maine and not so much in the south." Of all the fisheries, lobster was the money maker. New England harvested 66.1 million pounds of lobster in 1995 worth $206.6 million a 29 percent increase since 1993.

"In terms of value, lobsters are what carry the Industry," Gibson said. Sea scallops followed with 17 million pounds for $89 million, and blue crab collected $75 million. Others on the list were the Atlantic salmon, menhaden, the surfclam, northern quahog and the sea urchin. "What we have seen over the long haul is the decline in the importance of the actual fish species and an increase in the nonfish, like the bivalve, mollusks and crustaceans," Gibson said. Every state in the region, with the exception of Rhode Island and New Jersey, showed Increased revenue over the 1993-1995 period.

Delaware fishermen brought in the least money at $9 million. Virginia's revenue increased the most 69 percent between 1993 and 1995, thanks to the harvest of more than 752 million pounds of menhaden, an industrial fish used In fish meal and fish oil, Gibson said. But Virginia ranking third with $111.2 million in revenue and surrounding states also suffered with the collapse of the pricey eastern oyster, found in the Chesa- paint, can't be used. Never mind. For the first time since it reopened 10 years ago, the Braddock Carnegie Library has a book budget of $13,000 per year, half of it for children's books.

Social workers offer after-school tutoring and drug education. And the room that once housed a boxing ring is being wired as a computer classroom. Some of the knowledge in this building can't be replaced. Few other places would have local maps from 1915 for use by Bob Ardisson, a fan of antique bottles. Ardisson wanted to figure out where an abandoned neighborhood once stood.

That's where he expected to find bottles. "These are maps of a town that has disappeared," Ardisson said. Historians worry Historians worry that more Carnegie library buildings could disappear. But their fate hasn't harmed the public library as an institution. Most of the Carnegie buildings that were demolished or converted to another use have been replaced with bigger, newer buildings.

RtJsblirgfcylHtfrett? Carnegie's legacy lives on in the nation 's public libraries. Tlie Wlh-centurg IHltsburgh steel baron financed 2,500 libraries worldwide, starting more than a century ago, and all but 2k2 remain standing. ASSOCIATED PRESS BRADDOCK, Pa. Shelf upon shelf of water-damaged books sit in an unused room at the Braddock Carnegie Library. Outside, weeds border a vacant parking lot.

Inside, fallen plaster exposes rafters. The rich heritage of Andrew Carnegie, the 19th-century Pittsburgh steel baron who financed about 2,500 public libraries worldwide, isn't easily seen in the remnants of his first U.S. library. But despite closing from 1974 to 1986 and reopening with a handful of books, the library is carrying on the Carnegie mandate In this poor, thrown-away steel-mill town. Legacy fares well More than a century after Carnegie began financing libraries, his legacy has fared well.

Of Carnegie's original 1,681 library buildings in the United States, all but 242 remain standing. Thanks in part to him, the Unit ed States remains the world leader in public libraries. "In this country, particularly, public libraries have been there to help people improve themselves," said George Bobinski, dean of the School of Information and Library Sciences at the University of Buffalo. Visit a Carnegie library the typical one was built In a small Midwestern town and its Importance is apparent. An old man may be reading the newspaper's stock report.

A little girl may be discovering The Babysitters' Club." A teen-ager writing a history report may be scanning a computerized Chances are, the library has big windows for light, a children's room and a librarians' desk front and center. That was the look that Carnegie established. Carnegie began his library program after making a fortune as a founder of U.S. Steel Co. In Pittsburgh.

He announced he would give money to any community that agreed to build, stock and maintain a library. For every member of the population, Carnegie gave $2. Early experiences Two early experiences may have influenced the industrialist's feelings about libraries. When he was a child, the owner of a private library opened it to Pittsburgh's working boys. And Carnegie's father is believed to have organized a library among his fellow workers.

While Carnegie didn't start the movement for free public libraries supported by local taxes, his Involvement inspired a nation to begin building libraries. Other, smaller philanthropists followed his lead. Carnegie began creating these havens for the salt of the earth just three years before his armed Pinkerton guards fired on striking steelworkers and killed 10 people. Bob Gangewere, editor of Carnegie Magazine in Pittsburgh, said some towns declined Carnegie's library offer because of his tough business tactics. "A lot of communities said it was blood money, and they wouldn't have anything to do with it," Gangewere said.

The first three libraries The first three Carnegie libraries, in Braddock, Pittsburgh and Allegheny, now part of Pittsburgh, were workingmen's clubs. The Braddock library housed a swimming pool, theater, boxing ring, billiards room and barbershop. The pool is a storage room now, and the theater, coated with lead SOURCE: National Marine Fish eries Service. peake Bay. Revenue from oystfcr decreased by 84 percent since 1993 because of two oyster diseases, MSX and Dermo.

Fishermen harvested 9.2 million pounds worth $35.9 million in 1993, and only million pounds in 1995 worth $5.8 million. "I "The eastern oyster is to that part of the country as the ground-fish are to this part of the country," said Gibson in Woods Hole, Mass. "The difference is we haven't seen such a sharp decline so quickly, it's been gradual here." Stocks of New England ground-fish have been dropping since 1980, and are now at an all-time low, primarily because of overfishing. The Northeast's three traditional groundfish species cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder collectively accounted for revenues of $35.8 million in 1995, a 38 percent decrease since 1993. Groundfish now account for less than 4 percent of the region's earnings.

In order to replenish stock, the federal government has offered to buy boats from fishermen who want to get out of the industry to decrease the groundflshing fleet. Strict regulations limiting the days groundfishermen can actually fish also were enacted this year. But while fishing revenues have increased overall, don't quit that day job to lead the seemingly romantic life of a lobsterman or fisherman. The fishing industry is generally not a growing business. "It's still a hard way to make a living," said sea urchin diver Jim Bolen of Friendship, Maine.

"It's getting scary enough that anyone else who has something to do should look at that to cover their butt," he said. Federal and state regulations try to slow entry Into fisheries to stretch or conserve resources by limiting new licenses, said Maine Marine Resources Deputy Commissioner Penn Estabrook. "This industry is characterized as survivors," Estabrook said. "They will do what they need to do to get by and bide their time and wait for things to come back." tion in Annapolis. The 1996 juvenile Index for rockfish in Virginia was 23.05.

That means that every time a state biologist cast a net into traditional spawning runs this spring and summer, an average of 23 youngsters were snared. The previous index high was 18.1, in 1993. Since 1967, when the Virginia Institute of Marine Science first began sampling in the James, Rappahannock, Pa-munkey, Mattaponl and Chicka-hominy rivers, the 29-year average has been 5.5, VIMS Professor Herbert M. Austin said. Austin attributed the record upswing this year to a large spawning stock of adults, created from years of government limits and protections, and to mild, wet spring weather.

The Virginia half of the bay was closed to rockfish fishing from June 1989 to November 1990 after stocks dwindled to the point where conservationists and scientists feared that they could not recover. A small, controlled harvest was allowed In the winter of 1990, and quotas have slowly Increased as stocks have gradually repopulated. Austin and other scientists cautioned against reading too much into this year's spawning results, noting thafe rockfish births can te great one year and awful the next. Meantime, the public library is changing to take advantage of computer technology. The card catalog has been replaced with a bank of computer terminals and more and more libraries are wired for the Internet.

As they did in the age of Carnegie, libraries are facing a new world and striving to connect their patrons with it. "Mr. Carnegie would have been proud," said Bobinski, author of "Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development." Betty Turock, president of the American Library Association, said Microsoft Inc. last year gave about $3.5 million to bring nine public libraries online and, through the American Library Association, the computer software company has donated more money. Microsoft's ohairman, Bill Gates, could be the next Carnegie, Turock said.

Rockfish make Virginia biologists report 'Something to learn from' Today the monument is owned by the National Park Service and sits close to the center of the state park. The Appalachian Trail crosses Gapland Road, which runs in front of the arch. Visitors appreciate what Townsend left behind. "It gives you something to learn from," said Virginia Wagner, AO, of Boonsboro, who visited the arch on a recent Sunday with her husband and two children. She said the memorial gives people a sense of the past.

It also helps families connect with their past. George Spielman, 56, a volunteer caretaker of Gathland State Park, said his great-great grandfather, Samuel Hayes, was a correspondent from the North during the Civil War. Hayes' name is inscribed on the monument. "It's great to recognize the correspondents for the work they've done," Spielman said. After the 100th anniversary celebration, which begins at 2 p.m.

Saturday, there will be a dedication of The George Alfred Townsend Museum at Its new home in the remaining part of Townsend's house. Dorothy Ras-mussen, Towns-end's great-granddaughter, will speak at the ceremony and cut the ribbon to the museum. Hw to get there The Gathland Civil War Cor- respondents' Arch is a short drive from Frederick. To get there, take Interstate 70 west to U.S. 340.

Take this highway west until you get to Route 17. Take Route 17 north to Burkittsville, and turn left onto East Main Street. This turns into Gapland Road. Go up this road until you see the monument on -the right. im i Ui i ft 'H m' i hp i 3 1 ivtm (M Tjp ir Fishing ban, mild weather credited for turnaround ASSOCIATED PRESS GLOUCESTER POINT, Va.

Virginia biologists reported the biggest baby boom for rockfish in nearly three decades a sign that the popular game fish In the Chesa peake Bay is rebounding from near-collapse in the 1980s. Also known as striped bass, rockfish have become a symbol of efforts at reviving bay species threatened by excessive fishing and pollution, which now include oysters and blue crabs. Maryland officials reported In early September that their annual count of juvenile rockfish Indicated the biggest crop of rockfish In the bay in 43 years. The bay is the nursery for as much as 90 percent of the rockfish sought by commercial and sport fishermen on the Atlantic Coast. Virginia's boom, combined with surveys showing a record number of births in Maryland, pleased environmentalists and wildlife officials who supported the fishing ban on striped bass in 1989 and 1990.

"It proves the approach we've taken is a good one, and should continue tcvbe followed," said Bill GoldsbOrough, a fisheries scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Founda ASSOCIATED PRESS Camegie scholar: "Mr. Carnegie woulM have been proud" of how his libraries are faring today, says George Bobinski, dean of the School of Information and Library Sciences at the University of Buffalo and author of "Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development..