The Star-Democrat from Easton, Maryland • Page 22

TI1E SIINIAY Outdoors wrowitiBiwnHHtnib Rock Hall Rock Fish tourney June 6-8 lit uou are olannine an outdoor event it may be included in the Deep Creek Lake Garrett County Promotion Council. For more information on this and other events, contact the Promotion Council at 301-334-1948. Horseshoe Crab Talk Carl N. Shuster, an authority on horseshoe crabs, will be giving a special presentation on horseshoe crabs at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the refuge auditorium.

Dr. Shuster's talk will center on "Two Perspectives on Horseshoe Crabs: 420 Million Years, Worldwide and The Fertilizer Industry of Delaware Bay from 1870 to 1970." Four horseshoe crab surveys have been scheduled on the Delaware Bay this year: May 10 and 24 and June 7 and 21. The following beaches on the Delaware side of the Bay will be surveyed: Pickering, Bowers, Big Stone, Fowlers and Slaughter. If you are interested in helping out as a volunteer with these surveys, contact Marian Johnson-Pohlman of Bombay look at 302-636872. May and June are the peak months for horseshoe crab spawning and shorebird feeding on the eggs of the horseshoe crab.

The ideal time is between mid-May this column by writing to: OUTDOOR DATEBOOK, The Sunday Star, P.O. Box 600, Easton, Md. 21601, by sending a fax to 820-6519, or e-mail to cknaussshore.intercom.net TODAY April 25-May 31: Spring striped bass season. 32-inch minimum, one fish per day. Fish can be taken only in Chesapeake Bay proper.

May 16-18: Mid-Atlantic Maritime Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels. For info call 410-822-5553. May 18: Memorial Hospital Classic Fishing Tournament at Harrison's Chesapeake House on Tilghman Island. For info call 410-822-1000 ext 5499.

May 17-18: Cambridge Water Sports Show at Sailwinds Park. Personal watercraft, small fishing and recreational boats, and related gear. May 18: Tuckahoe Bowmen hunter target shoot at Tuckahoe State Park. Shoot begins at 10 a.m. THIS WEEK May 19: DNR public meeting regarding tidal largemouth bass regulations.

Kent County Public Library, Chestertown, 7 p.m. For info call 410-275-9921. May 23: Horeshoe Crab talk by Dr. Carl N. Shuster, 7 p.m.

at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge auditorium, Smyrna, Del. For info call 302-653-9345. May 24: Safe Boating Day at Great Marsh Park, Cambridge. 10 a.m.-l p.m. For info call 410-228-7682.

LOOKING AHEAD June 1-June 15: Summer striped bass season. 28-inch minimum, one fish per day. Jane 2-8: National Fishing Week. June 6-8: Rock Hall Rockfish Tournament. Over $20,000 in cash and prizes.

For info call 410-639-2662. June 7: National Trails Day. For a list of events call 888-766-HIKE or visit http:www.outdoorlink.comahsindex.html June 7: Annapolis Safe Boating Festival. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at city dock.

Boat parade, outdoor activities and games. June 7: Youth fishing derby at Assateague State Park, 10 a.m-2 p.m. Surf fishing instruction, arts and crafts. For info call 41041-2120, ext. 20.

June 12: Coastal Conservation Association-Maryland Mid-Shore Chapter meeting at Calhoon M.E.B.A. Engineering School on St. Michaels Road. 7:30 p.m. Public welcome.

June 14: Coastal Conservation Association-Maryland Fishing Fun Raiser at Sailwinds Park, Cambridge. Bull roast, auction, flea market, casting clinics. 3 p.m.-8 p.m. For info call 410-758-1162. June 14: 2nd annual Bill Perry Memorial Youth Fishing Derby at the Choptank River Fishing Piers, Talbot County side.

Ages up to 15. Free bait. Bring your own tackle. For info call 410-822-4007. June 14: Tuckahoe Triathalon at Tuckahoe State Park.

2-mile run, 10-mile bike, 1-mile canoe. For info call 410-820-1668. June 16-July 6: Summer striped bass season. 26-inch minimum, one fish per day. CONTINUING CATCH-A-POACHER Program call 1-80035-6124.

Secrecy guaranteed, rewards. DNR FOREST AND PARKS TOLL FREE NUMBER: Call 1-800-830-3974 for information on Maryland's state forests and PaDELMARVA FISHING HUNTING SHOOTING SERVICES: Internet site listing outdoor services and events on the Delmarva Peninsula. http:cknauss.digiweb.comDeImarva DNR HOME PAGE AND WEEKLY FISHING REPORT: http:www.gacc.comdnr TALBOT COUNTY QUALITY DEER MANAGEMENT web The second annual Rock Hall Rock Fish Tournament is scheduled for June 6, 7, and 8 this year. The tournament is a Pro-Am open to all anglers. First prize is $10,000, second prize $5,000 and third $3,000.

Many other prize packages will be awarded during the three days and new this year will be children's prizes. The entry fee is $100 per day per boat or $125 per day per boat for a licensed Maryland fishing guide, paid charter or not. Anglers can fish one day, two days, or all three. Registration deadline has been extended to May 30. The Tournament is sponsored by the Town of Rock Hall, The Greater Rock Hall Business Association, and the Upper Bay Charter Boat Captains Association.

Information can be obtained by calling Dolores Cordano at 410-639-2662. Garrett Fishing Tourney The 37th Annual Garrett County Fishing Contest began May 1 and continues through September 30. Fishing is one of the most popular sports in Garrett County and Deep Creek Lake, Maryland's largest freshwater lake, is the center of fishing activity in the iW if Scenic beauty? site: http:cknauss.digiweD.comiaiDoiquauiyaeer and during the first week of June. The females, whicn are larger than the males, lay their eggs along the Bay beaches and "drag the males over the eggs to fertilize them. As the crabs return to the water, one can see thousands of shorebirds feasting on the eggs, trying to get enough energy to complete their flight from South America to their Arctic breeding grounds.

This is a sight to see, particularly at the above mentioned bay beaches. Horseshoe crabs were much more abundant over a century ago than they are today. The highest catches reported in fishery statistics occurred in the late 1920s and early 1930s when over 4 and 5 million crabs were harvested annually. Harvests declined with catches dropping from 2 million animals to 1 million during the 1940s. In the 1950s catches varied from one-half to one-quarter million per year.

The harvesting of horseshoe crabs for fertilizer depleted the horseshoe crabs drastically during the 1950s. By the 1990s horseshoe crab surveys indicated a total population of less than a million crabs on the Delaware Bay. The peak count in 1996 was 466,124. Of all marine species, horseshoe crabs are and have been the major animal in medical and physiological research. Most of what we know about human vision was drawn from a Nobel prize-winning scientist's work with cells in the horseshoe crab's eye.

Important progress has been made toward understanding diseases such as arthritis, cancer, schizophrenia, arteriosclerosis, AIDS, and Alzheimer's because of research on horseshoe crab cells. A clotting agent (called Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate or LAD in the blood of the horseshoe crab can differentiate between bacterial and viral meningitis. All drugs manufactured by pharmaceutical companies must undergo an LAL test for bacterial contamination. Horseshoe crabs are the oldest animals on earth they even predate the dinosaur. Talbot Quality Deer Meeting The next Talbot County Quality Deer Management public meeting is scheduled for May 22 at 7 p.m.

at the Star Democrat office in the Airport Industrial Park in Easton. rocks change the flow and disorient the fish. The local hydroelectric power plant shuts off its turbines when the young alewives head to sea to. keep them from getting chopped up. An annual Alewives Festival, a big potluck feed in town that usually coincides with the spring run, raises money for the restoration efforts.

One of the biggest contributors to the cause has been John Hay, a naturalist and writer from Cape Cod, who has a summer home in Bremen. The restoration effort seems to be having an effect, according to Pete Noyes of the river association, who says the number of alewives entering Damariscotta Lake was three times higher in 1996 than the year before. not DrOtect against sun damage. Protective clothing and hats are also effective against sunburn. I Ota 410-822-6613 1-800-207-1318 hi a 3S OUTER LIMITS Chris Knauss area.

The county also boasts a large number of rivers, streams and reservoirs which offer excellent fishing. Weekly winners of the fishing contest are awarded an emblem and citation, and plaques are awarded for the season's largest catches of bluegill, brown trout, chain pickerel, crappie, large-mouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, rainbow trout, walleye and yellow perch. All fish entered in the contest must be registered at Johnny's Bait House on Route 219 just south of the Deep Creek Lake Bridge. This fishing contest is sponsored by Johnny's Bait House and 1 In tho oarlv DUWr nrodieious volumes of alewives were swept up each spring by fishermen with hand nets. That practice continued until the 1940s when the mechanical dippers, powered by electrical hoists, were installed.

It was a grand industry for a time. Some years, as many as 28,000 bushels were pulled from the stream. But the haul slipped to about 18,000 bushels in 1950, and the 1990 total was just over 1,000 bushels. As a conservation measure, the two towns along the stream imposed an eight-year moratorium on commercial ale-wife fishing. Even though the harvests decreased dramatically, the old fishway is still so thick with alewives during the migration that you can stick in a hand and yank out a wiggling fish.

And an old smokehouse along the stream is still in operation each spring. While the commercial fishing is on hold, some of the alewives their Kiin nrntwtinn factor (SPF). The higher the SPF number, the better you are protected. Sunscreen is only effective if 402 Maryland Ave. Easton, MD I cr Redemption cellular through Mainers determined to preserve annual migration of alewives A I tL Anm A oriltAFAIIclu fMl lAVAlc tlH fallpfl dangerously low levels, and fallen "RvprvhnHv Bets their bellv A hard rieht takes them up a primitive ladder, a serpentine conduit of football-sized stones and mortar that leads to a dam above.

Once at the dam, the fish flip-flip one-by-one over wooden gates and into a stream leading to Damariscotta Lake. Fish taking the left side of the fork faced a rushing, frothy torrent at the base of a falls that is almost impossible for them to maneuver. Turning back, the hapless alewives were scooped up by huge, black, iron "dippers that transferred them to an elevated sluice. That, in turn, carried them back to a shed where they were beheaded, cleaned, pickled or smoked, and shipped worldwide or cut up for lobster bait. Today, the dippers are idle and the processing house is closed down.

The fish are all corralled away from the falls to the 1807-vintage fishway with hopes that tney wui spawn. DAMARISCOTTA MILLS. Maine (AP) Russ Williams points to an eagle's nest bulging from the branch of a towering tree, then mentions he's counted as many as two dozen ospreys at once circling in the sky above. It's no wonder the great birds of prey find the local pools along Maine jagged coast so inviting. About this time each spring, thousands of alewives migrate up the Damariscotta River to their freshwater spawning grounds.

The name Damariscotta is taken from the American Indian word for "place of abundance for alewives." The herring-like fish were long a staple of food and industry among coastal inhabitants. But the runs have dwindled here and elsewhere along the East Coast. Malcolm Smith of the state Marine Resources Department attributes that in part to the appetites of seals, eagles and ospreys, not to menuon numaus. Photo by CHRIS KNAUSS are still taken from the stream each spring to satisfy, an 1807 law requiring that eachrwidow in Newcastle and Nobleboro the two towns separated by the stream get two free bushels of alewives each year. "Last year, 10 widows got them," said Frank Waltz who is said to know more about the towns's alewife fishery than anyone.

The widows give most of the alewives to the smokehouse owner, who in turn sells them. Waltz said he thinks conservation efforts will bring back the alewives to a point where the dippers may hum and clank again. However, he said, "I doubt I'll ever see as many (alewives) as I did years back." The Damariscotta River Association is working to restore the alewife runs by repairing the fishway and its network of pools a little at a time, as donations allow. Leaks that have sprung over the years drop the water to reaonlied when sweat and water cause it to wash off. Always wear sunscreen, even if you tan.

A tan helps you avoid full from the alewives," said Smith, a marine scientist. Still, alewives remain the soul of this tiny village of neat cedar-shingle homes, restored clapboard farmhouses, a bed-and-breakfast and a shop called "Alewives Fabrics." The reduced migration has spawned an aggressive conservation effort lecTby Williams and others who live in town. The effort, which has seen some sue-. cess, is centered at the site of a unique combination of natural features and a fish-catching work of engineering that only a Yankee mind could dream up. After reaching maturity in the Atlantic, the alewives follow the Damariscotta River as it etches its way up the coast toward a stream that leads to the Damariscotta Lake spawning area.

Just past a natural pool along the way, the alewives for years had to make a cnoice. ho fatal and basal and squamous cell carcinomas, which are non-lethal cancers but may require the surgical removal of tissue. People with darker skin are also subject to skin damage but have a lower risk. One of the best precautions against sun-related skin damage If ifrl Take precautions to avoid harmful effects of too much sun i-mni. 1 iiriRlln Kilt Will a siinhurn hut will Spring Into Cellular Savings! Activate this Month and got: is to avoid the sun at its strongest between lu a.m.

ana i p.m. If you must be in the sun during those hours, wear sunscreen, which acts to partially block ultraviolet light and, if used properly, protects against sunburn and skin damage. Sunscreens are categorized by FRIEND FISHING Credit Toward Your Cellular Dill! AP Special Features In spring and summer, the magnificence of the sun beckons us to the outdoors. To beaches, parks, pools, ball fields, gardens, yards, rooftops, stoops and any other place where we can bask in its warmth and light. However, the sun can be too much of a good thing.

Overexposure can cause many problems, from painful sunburn to wrinkling and skin cancer. Nevertheless, the sun does not have to be added to your list of health worries. When simple precautions are taken, you can enjoy the sun wherever it shines. The first consideration is your skin type. Fair-skinned people, especially those with red or blond hair, are most at risk for sun-related skin damage.

Other risk factors include having many freckles, incidents of sun-related blistering as a youth, and a family history of skin cancer. Peoole fitting into these cate gories should be extremely careful about spending time in the sun. They are at higher rum jot melanoma, a sun cancer mm mu spread throughout the body and is automatic through six $10.00 credits to your bill. With a one year subscription on select plans, 63097. far rfo U75V oj Irfrffara "dtad ari(lnrii NATIONAL FISHING WEEK CHESAPEAKE SOUND WW IC7ff C7 ww.

JUNE 2-8, 1997 For more information on National Fishing Week write to: National Fishing Week Steering Committee 1033 North Fairfax Street. Suite 200. Alexandria. VA 22314-1540 or call (703) 684-3201.