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Soviet press stresses conservation
the rocks remain wet. This is a new and important observation for it indicates that the worst effects of pollution may be expected in sheltered bays, estuaries and harbours. It was very evident that some species tolerate oil more than others. At high water of neaps where oiling was very heavy the limpet Patella granularis and the barnacle Tetrachita serrata seemed unaffected even when the shells were black with oil, while the crab Cyclograpius living at the same level had almost been eliminated. At low tide the limpet Patella cochlear was badly affected but Patella longicosta was only slightly affected. There were many other similar observations. In general sea urchins, octopus, alikreukels (Turbo), perlemoen (Haliotis) and rock lobsters were badly affected but mussels, red baits (Pyura) and barnacles showed little damage. It is recommended that in order to assess accurately the severity of future oil spillages we must determine the relative susceptibility of common and important elements of the marine fauna and flora and determine their normal densities at selected sites around South Af~can shores. J. H. DAY
Magnetic Field Guides Fish Fish have an ability to swim exactly by their migration course orientating themselves by the Earth's lines of magnetic force, according to Leningrad physiologists. The lateral line organs are electromagnetic field and probably serve as a compass. It was believed until now that they responded only to electrical stimuli, a property exploited in electric fishing. In an artificial magnetic field in a pond the fish lost its habitual feeding grounds even during small variations in the directions of lines of magnetic force. Experiments in the Black Sea have shown that the electrical sensors reacting to the Earth's magnetic field help the fish find its way to the river from where it came as larva. Whether or not this discovery will allay the fears that hot water and other effluents interfere with direction finding by migrating fish remains to be seen.
Soviet Press Stresses Conservation The Soviet press, by its nature, is a useful means of conveying to its readers those shifts and variations in government and Party policy which, for various reasons, it may be considered unwise to embody in the full panoply of a Decree or Resolution. A well placed article in Pravda or Izvestiya, signed by some important personage, by its very appearance indicates to the discerning that from now on greater attention must be paid to such and such aspect of the general state plan, or, alter. natively, that while a particular policy is not being revoked, its implementation may safely proceed at a slower pace. Such a situation is reflected on the recent appearance of several articles on wasteful use of fish resources. This is not so much a change of policy on the part of the Ministries concerned, as an attempt to change the way
of thinking of those involved in the fishing industry. Since 1935, when Aleksei Stakhanov, a miner in the Donets basin, made headline news by hewing almost fourteen times the established quota of coal in a single shift, Soviet production policy has urged workers not only to 'fulfil' their norms, but to 'over-fulfil' them. This has frequently caused disruption to industry--if, for example, the pipe-rolling industry overfulfils its norm by 15 %, while the iron smelting industry overfulfils its norm by only 5%, some other iron-consuming branch of production will have to go short, and probably fall below target for sheer lack of raw material. Fortunately, the fishery industry, so far, has contained too large an element of chance to make overfulfilment of norms more than an isolated 'freak'; however, the new, sophisticated, techniques of fish-spotting now being introduced (including helicopter and satellite surveillance, and computerized forecasting of shoal movements) increase the likelihood of over-kill, not as a direct result of official policy, but from the enthusiasm of individual captains wishing to be headlined as the Stakhanov of the fishing fleet. Even until very recently, such headlining has gone on. On 4 August, 1971, the lead story in Pravda was a report from Klaipeda, of how the trawler Birzhai of the Lithuanian flotilla, in a single voyage in the CentralEast Atlantic, caught her entire assignment for the year. The general line of the article is political--the Birzhai's achievement is not a 'happy chance' nor the result of the targets being too low. According to Captain Baronas, master of the Birzhai, it is the party members on board who have the task of urging the less committed members of the crew to fulfil the set target for each voyage. The result, it is indicated, is a triumph for the party. Moreover, it seems, other ships of the flotilla also strive above the target--the trawler Sal'sk (Captain A. Farnosov) for example had already completed her annual assignment by mid-May. The whole tone of the story is that fishing beyond the target is a highly desirable occurrence. Indeed, with a planned increased output of 'not less than 47%' of fish and fish products, stipulated for the current 5-year plan (Pravda, 14 February, 1971), the enthusiasm of Captain Baronas and his colleagues is understandable. Now, however, the emphasis is changing. Earlier this year an article entitled The Atlantic Cuisine, which described the Tallinn fish processing plant, stated that, although the Soviet ocean-fishing fleet has greatly expanded in the past few years, there is little demand for many of the types of fish caught. 'Housewives do not know how to prepare this fish or that, nor in what form they are most tasty'. The Tallinn plant is cited as an example of how to tackle this problem; not only does it produce tinned and preserved fish. but also 'semi-ready' products for the restaurants and canteens of the city-amounting to a daily output of some 800-1,000 kg of 'all possible types of fish' (Pravda, 8 April, 1972). The same theme of better utilization is taken up again on June 29. Under the title 'When they are not pleased with a large catch', the Pravda correspondent in Gur'ev (Kazakh SSR) indicates that there is considerable wastage in dealing with the sturgeon catch of the Caspian and its tributaries. Sturgeon and the other 'game' fish are one of the chief products of the area, and the problem of 'increasing the reserves' of these 165
fish ~s a pressing one. Yet, apparently, much of the annual catch goes to waste, since there is not sufficient expenditure on renewing and extending processing plant; cold storage units, m particular, are greatly needed. The outlay on adequate cold storage in Gur'ev, ~t is stated, would be more than recovered in a single season's fishing. Once again, it is implied that increased productiwty can be attained not by larger catches but by better use of the fish available. This emphasis on better usage rather than large catches is reflected in the new COMECON Declaration of principles on the 'rational exploitation of the World Ocean', which resulted from a meeting ,n Moscow on 6-7 June, 1972, of delegates from Bulgaria. Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union. The declaration calls for international cooperation in fisheries research and the study of the reproduct~ve patterns of marine organisms. 'Rational scienttfically-based fishing' is advocated, and ~t ~s urged that international control of high-seas fishing should be made more effective. High seas fishing should be based on the equal participation of all states, and scientificallybased measures for maintaining the living resources of the sea should be strictly observed. The large press coverage given to this Declaration m lzvestiya (20 August, 1972) clearly had its political overtones--references were made to 'certain littoral states' proclaiming 'the estabhshment of extensive fishing zones of great breadth (more than 12 miles)'. Nevertheless, so explicit a statement of the need for conservation is somewhat unusual in the Soviet press, Progress m fishery research is a frequent source of news in Pravda and Izvestiya, ranging from an experimental catamaran trawler (Pravda, 7 August. 1972) to bathyscape 'investigation of the fish wealth of the seas and ocean' (Pravda, t3 September, 1972). The new trend m reporting fishery news, stressing conservation and the ehmination of waste, ~s doubtless, therefore a necessary measure to prevent any would-be Captain Baronas being tempted, in the name of productivity, into the hazards of overkill. VERA RICH
Following the 3rd biennial meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist's Group of the IUCN Survival Service Commission, held in Morges in February 1972, IUCN and WWF decided to draw the attention of the government of Norway to the need for full protection of the polar bear in the Svalbard area. In a letter dated 29 March, 1972 to Mr Trygve Bratteli, Prime Minister, the WWF Director General urged the implementation of all necessary steps to minimize and avoid negative environmental effects on Edgeoya during the period of exploratory oil drilling in the spring of 1972 including the prohibition of all transportation on unfrozen ground. Expressing the hope that the 1971 proposal for a wildlife reserve on Edgeoya and Barentsooya would be considered this year, he furthermore asked that the nature reserve on Kong Karl's Land be made permanent and inviolable and that the government of Norway declare other reserves and protected areas to conserve biologically important parts of the Svalbard archipelago.
Anglers against Pott
Seychelles Marine National Parks
on
The south of England and Hampshire especially, are blessed with beautiful stretches of river and waterways, providing sport and enjoyment for many people. Unfortunately, the pleasures of these people and of property owners whose land borders these waters, are often ruined by effluents which continually pollute them. Many of these people are, alas, ignorant of the fact that something can be done about this situation, for under the Common Law of England, every riparian owner is absolutely entitled to have the water flowing through his land in a natural state of purity. A Southampton company, Garcia Tackle Ltd, manufacturers of fishing equipment, feel that more people should be acquainted with their fights. Consequently, instead of using the slogan printing facility of their letter franking machine for commercial purposes, they are using it to get across an anti-pollution message-"For the future of mankind, STOP POLLUTION NOW, join the ACA." 166
Fhe Anglers' Co-operative Association was established in 1948 to fight pollution. Whilst the Association cannot take proceedings in its own name, it can rcmove the obstacle of expense which, in many cases, prevents riparian owners from enforcing their rights. The ACA exists to provide expert advice and financial and techmcal assistance or indemnity to all who need it- either to stop existing pollution or to prevent fresh pollution, Garcm's Managing Director, Barr~e Welham, feels that there are thousands of people, m the region, who are unaware of their rights or else unable to take action on their behalf. The introduction of the slogan ~s an effort on the part of the company to bring the perds of pollution (water, atmospheric and ecological) to the notice of as many people as possible. Local and central Government are there to help, but it ~s the ordinar~ citizen who most often sets things mowng.
Polar Bear Conservation
Some time ago the government of the Seychelles sought the advice of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources about establishing marine reserves and national parks in the islands, Mr Iain Robertson of the UK spent from February to May of this year in the Seychelles to provide scientific and technical advice on the location and management of marine parks. His report was submitted by WWF and IUCN to the Seychelles government in August. These bodies have endorsed his recommendations about the St Anne Memorial National Park, Port Launay. Baie Ternay, Therese Island, the Victoria Marine ControUed Area, Praslin Marine Park, Cousin and other controlled areas and special marine reserves. At the same time, WWF and IUCN applauded the decision of the Seychelles government to ban the use of spear guns throughout the archipelago and also to take the necessary steps to prevent the destruction of the reefs.
Magnetic Field Guides Fish Fish have an ability to swim exactly by their migration course orientating themselves by the Earth's lines of magnetic force, according to Leningrad physiologists. The lateral line organs are electromagnetic field and probably serve as a compass. It was believed until now that they responded only to electrical stimuli, a property exploited in electric fishing. In an artificial magnetic field in a pond the fish lost its habitual feeding grounds even during small variations in the directions of lines of magnetic force. Experiments in the Black Sea have shown that the electrical sensors reacting to the Earth's magnetic field help the fish find its way to the river from where it came as larva. Whether or not this discovery will allay the fears that hot water and other effluents interfere with direction finding by migrating fish remains to be seen.
Soviet Press Stresses Conservation The Soviet press, by its nature, is a useful means of conveying to its readers those shifts and variations in government and Party policy which, for various reasons, it may be considered unwise to embody in the full panoply of a Decree or Resolution. A well placed article in Pravda or Izvestiya, signed by some important personage, by its very appearance indicates to the discerning that from now on greater attention must be paid to such and such aspect of the general state plan, or, alter. natively, that while a particular policy is not being revoked, its implementation may safely proceed at a slower pace. Such a situation is reflected on the recent appearance of several articles on wasteful use of fish resources. This is not so much a change of policy on the part of the Ministries concerned, as an attempt to change the way
of thinking of those involved in the fishing industry. Since 1935, when Aleksei Stakhanov, a miner in the Donets basin, made headline news by hewing almost fourteen times the established quota of coal in a single shift, Soviet production policy has urged workers not only to 'fulfil' their norms, but to 'over-fulfil' them. This has frequently caused disruption to industry--if, for example, the pipe-rolling industry overfulfils its norm by 15 %, while the iron smelting industry overfulfils its norm by only 5%, some other iron-consuming branch of production will have to go short, and probably fall below target for sheer lack of raw material. Fortunately, the fishery industry, so far, has contained too large an element of chance to make overfulfilment of norms more than an isolated 'freak'; however, the new, sophisticated, techniques of fish-spotting now being introduced (including helicopter and satellite surveillance, and computerized forecasting of shoal movements) increase the likelihood of over-kill, not as a direct result of official policy, but from the enthusiasm of individual captains wishing to be headlined as the Stakhanov of the fishing fleet. Even until very recently, such headlining has gone on. On 4 August, 1971, the lead story in Pravda was a report from Klaipeda, of how the trawler Birzhai of the Lithuanian flotilla, in a single voyage in the CentralEast Atlantic, caught her entire assignment for the year. The general line of the article is political--the Birzhai's achievement is not a 'happy chance' nor the result of the targets being too low. According to Captain Baronas, master of the Birzhai, it is the party members on board who have the task of urging the less committed members of the crew to fulfil the set target for each voyage. The result, it is indicated, is a triumph for the party. Moreover, it seems, other ships of the flotilla also strive above the target--the trawler Sal'sk (Captain A. Farnosov) for example had already completed her annual assignment by mid-May. The whole tone of the story is that fishing beyond the target is a highly desirable occurrence. Indeed, with a planned increased output of 'not less than 47%' of fish and fish products, stipulated for the current 5-year plan (Pravda, 14 February, 1971), the enthusiasm of Captain Baronas and his colleagues is understandable. Now, however, the emphasis is changing. Earlier this year an article entitled The Atlantic Cuisine, which described the Tallinn fish processing plant, stated that, although the Soviet ocean-fishing fleet has greatly expanded in the past few years, there is little demand for many of the types of fish caught. 'Housewives do not know how to prepare this fish or that, nor in what form they are most tasty'. The Tallinn plant is cited as an example of how to tackle this problem; not only does it produce tinned and preserved fish. but also 'semi-ready' products for the restaurants and canteens of the city-amounting to a daily output of some 800-1,000 kg of 'all possible types of fish' (Pravda, 8 April, 1972). The same theme of better utilization is taken up again on June 29. Under the title 'When they are not pleased with a large catch', the Pravda correspondent in Gur'ev (Kazakh SSR) indicates that there is considerable wastage in dealing with the sturgeon catch of the Caspian and its tributaries. Sturgeon and the other 'game' fish are one of the chief products of the area, and the problem of 'increasing the reserves' of these 165
fish ~s a pressing one. Yet, apparently, much of the annual catch goes to waste, since there is not sufficient expenditure on renewing and extending processing plant; cold storage units, m particular, are greatly needed. The outlay on adequate cold storage in Gur'ev, ~t is stated, would be more than recovered in a single season's fishing. Once again, it is implied that increased productiwty can be attained not by larger catches but by better use of the fish available. This emphasis on better usage rather than large catches is reflected in the new COMECON Declaration of principles on the 'rational exploitation of the World Ocean', which resulted from a meeting ,n Moscow on 6-7 June, 1972, of delegates from Bulgaria. Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union. The declaration calls for international cooperation in fisheries research and the study of the reproduct~ve patterns of marine organisms. 'Rational scienttfically-based fishing' is advocated, and ~t ~s urged that international control of high-seas fishing should be made more effective. High seas fishing should be based on the equal participation of all states, and scientificallybased measures for maintaining the living resources of the sea should be strictly observed. The large press coverage given to this Declaration m lzvestiya (20 August, 1972) clearly had its political overtones--references were made to 'certain littoral states' proclaiming 'the estabhshment of extensive fishing zones of great breadth (more than 12 miles)'. Nevertheless, so explicit a statement of the need for conservation is somewhat unusual in the Soviet press, Progress m fishery research is a frequent source of news in Pravda and Izvestiya, ranging from an experimental catamaran trawler (Pravda, 7 August. 1972) to bathyscape 'investigation of the fish wealth of the seas and ocean' (Pravda, t3 September, 1972). The new trend m reporting fishery news, stressing conservation and the ehmination of waste, ~s doubtless, therefore a necessary measure to prevent any would-be Captain Baronas being tempted, in the name of productivity, into the hazards of overkill. VERA RICH
Following the 3rd biennial meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist's Group of the IUCN Survival Service Commission, held in Morges in February 1972, IUCN and WWF decided to draw the attention of the government of Norway to the need for full protection of the polar bear in the Svalbard area. In a letter dated 29 March, 1972 to Mr Trygve Bratteli, Prime Minister, the WWF Director General urged the implementation of all necessary steps to minimize and avoid negative environmental effects on Edgeoya during the period of exploratory oil drilling in the spring of 1972 including the prohibition of all transportation on unfrozen ground. Expressing the hope that the 1971 proposal for a wildlife reserve on Edgeoya and Barentsooya would be considered this year, he furthermore asked that the nature reserve on Kong Karl's Land be made permanent and inviolable and that the government of Norway declare other reserves and protected areas to conserve biologically important parts of the Svalbard archipelago.
Anglers against Pott
Seychelles Marine National Parks
on
The south of England and Hampshire especially, are blessed with beautiful stretches of river and waterways, providing sport and enjoyment for many people. Unfortunately, the pleasures of these people and of property owners whose land borders these waters, are often ruined by effluents which continually pollute them. Many of these people are, alas, ignorant of the fact that something can be done about this situation, for under the Common Law of England, every riparian owner is absolutely entitled to have the water flowing through his land in a natural state of purity. A Southampton company, Garcia Tackle Ltd, manufacturers of fishing equipment, feel that more people should be acquainted with their fights. Consequently, instead of using the slogan printing facility of their letter franking machine for commercial purposes, they are using it to get across an anti-pollution message-"For the future of mankind, STOP POLLUTION NOW, join the ACA." 166
Fhe Anglers' Co-operative Association was established in 1948 to fight pollution. Whilst the Association cannot take proceedings in its own name, it can rcmove the obstacle of expense which, in many cases, prevents riparian owners from enforcing their rights. The ACA exists to provide expert advice and financial and techmcal assistance or indemnity to all who need it- either to stop existing pollution or to prevent fresh pollution, Garcm's Managing Director, Barr~e Welham, feels that there are thousands of people, m the region, who are unaware of their rights or else unable to take action on their behalf. The introduction of the slogan ~s an effort on the part of the company to bring the perds of pollution (water, atmospheric and ecological) to the notice of as many people as possible. Local and central Government are there to help, but it ~s the ordinar~ citizen who most often sets things mowng.
Polar Bear Conservation
Some time ago the government of the Seychelles sought the advice of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources about establishing marine reserves and national parks in the islands, Mr Iain Robertson of the UK spent from February to May of this year in the Seychelles to provide scientific and technical advice on the location and management of marine parks. His report was submitted by WWF and IUCN to the Seychelles government in August. These bodies have endorsed his recommendations about the St Anne Memorial National Park, Port Launay. Baie Ternay, Therese Island, the Victoria Marine ControUed Area, Praslin Marine Park, Cousin and other controlled areas and special marine reserves. At the same time, WWF and IUCN applauded the decision of the Seychelles government to ban the use of spear guns throughout the archipelago and also to take the necessary steps to prevent the destruction of the reefs.