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In South Africa oiled birds can be rehabilitated
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Marine Nature Reserves Sir I write to support Dr Cole in his criticism of Nature Conservation in the Marine Environment. He has it right in his letter when he says "there would seem to be equally cogent or stronger reasons for giving special consideration to productive enterprises such as fish and shellfish cultivation". I have seldom read a more amazing example of academic inanity than 4.39 of the N C C / N E R C report: " F o r example," it says, "were the traditional oyster bed to become a rarity, it would be a relatively simple matter to recreate an example of the interesting association of plants and animals found with this method of culture". Substitute "potato field" for "oyster b e d " and the true absurdity of such a rationale stands revealed. Oysters, like potatoes, are cultivated to provide food, and not to adduce associations of plants and animals which may tickle the interest of the occasional expert observer.
In South Africa Oiled Birds can be Rehabilitated A symposium on birds of the sea and shore attended by over a hundred people from four continents was organized by the Southern African Seabird Group, Cape Wader Study Group and Cape Bird Club at the University of Cape Town on 19-23 November 1979. Papers of particular interest included an introductory address by Dr R. W. Furness of Glasgow University who argued on the basis of some most peculiar calculations, omitting many relevant factors, that birds and seals are eating a large part of the fish in the sea. Messrs R. J. M. Crawford and P. A. Shelton of the local Sea Fisheries Branch reported that on the other hand the rapid development of pelagic fisheries since the war has been accompanied by a decline in seabirds which is most marked west of the Cape of Good Hope and among the endemic Jackass Penguins Spheniscus demersus. The role of oil pollution in this decline was discussed by Messrs P. D. Morant, J. Cooper and R. Randall, who reported that 9000 penguins out of a population of about
In the Depths of the Oceans Developments in Deep-Sea Biology, N. B. Marshall, ISBN 0-7137-0796-6. Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset (1979) 566 pp., 170 figs, 2 col. plates. £15. Professor Marshall's book, Aspects o f Deep-Sea Biology, published in 1954, has been very widely read. He has now followed this with a further and longer book which began 26
The nation is desperately short of resources, and I agree with Cole that what we have should be devoted to the encouragement of "productive enterprises". The cultivation of oysters can be increased enormously within our coastal waters if the right legislation is provided, and our minds and public pennies should be turned to that useful endeavour, rather than to the idle creation of artificial marine communities. The time to start thinking about marine nature reserves will come when the cultivator operates as extensively in the sea as he now operates on land. Until then I believe they will be a total waste of time and money.
C. C. L UCA S Chairman, Shellfish Association of Great Britain, l~shmongers" Hall, London Bridge, London EC4R 9EL
180000 had been found oiled in 10 years, but that 2000 of these had been successfully cleaned and released and some of them were known to have rejoined the breeding population. The technique, developed by the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), includes force-feeding until the birds reach more than their natural weight, and then washing them until they can face a 4-h forced swim without getting wet. In the latest incident at St Croix a few months before they had achieved a 67% success rate with 400 birds, about a quarter of those affected, which may not make much impact on the population as a whole but could be sufficient to ensure the survival of a small colony. Clearly it is now no longer possible to dismiss the rehabilitation of oiled birds as ineffectual. The proceedings of the conference will be published as a special number of Cormorant, the journal of the South African Seabird Group, obtainable from John Cooper, the Secretary and main organizer of the meeting, at the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700.
W.R.P. BOURNE
(he tells us) as an attempt at producing a revised version of the earlier volume but was expanded so as to encompass new aspects of the s u b j e c t - t h e deep sea and its inhabitants- which has received much increased attention in recent years and hence requires fuller treatment. We must be grateful for the immense effort involved and to his publishers and perhaps especially to his wife Olga Marshall, as illustrator, for this new book which must be regarded as
Marine Nature Reserves Sir I write to support Dr Cole in his criticism of Nature Conservation in the Marine Environment. He has it right in his letter when he says "there would seem to be equally cogent or stronger reasons for giving special consideration to productive enterprises such as fish and shellfish cultivation". I have seldom read a more amazing example of academic inanity than 4.39 of the N C C / N E R C report: " F o r example," it says, "were the traditional oyster bed to become a rarity, it would be a relatively simple matter to recreate an example of the interesting association of plants and animals found with this method of culture". Substitute "potato field" for "oyster b e d " and the true absurdity of such a rationale stands revealed. Oysters, like potatoes, are cultivated to provide food, and not to adduce associations of plants and animals which may tickle the interest of the occasional expert observer.
In South Africa Oiled Birds can be Rehabilitated A symposium on birds of the sea and shore attended by over a hundred people from four continents was organized by the Southern African Seabird Group, Cape Wader Study Group and Cape Bird Club at the University of Cape Town on 19-23 November 1979. Papers of particular interest included an introductory address by Dr R. W. Furness of Glasgow University who argued on the basis of some most peculiar calculations, omitting many relevant factors, that birds and seals are eating a large part of the fish in the sea. Messrs R. J. M. Crawford and P. A. Shelton of the local Sea Fisheries Branch reported that on the other hand the rapid development of pelagic fisheries since the war has been accompanied by a decline in seabirds which is most marked west of the Cape of Good Hope and among the endemic Jackass Penguins Spheniscus demersus. The role of oil pollution in this decline was discussed by Messrs P. D. Morant, J. Cooper and R. Randall, who reported that 9000 penguins out of a population of about
In the Depths of the Oceans Developments in Deep-Sea Biology, N. B. Marshall, ISBN 0-7137-0796-6. Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset (1979) 566 pp., 170 figs, 2 col. plates. £15. Professor Marshall's book, Aspects o f Deep-Sea Biology, published in 1954, has been very widely read. He has now followed this with a further and longer book which began 26
The nation is desperately short of resources, and I agree with Cole that what we have should be devoted to the encouragement of "productive enterprises". The cultivation of oysters can be increased enormously within our coastal waters if the right legislation is provided, and our minds and public pennies should be turned to that useful endeavour, rather than to the idle creation of artificial marine communities. The time to start thinking about marine nature reserves will come when the cultivator operates as extensively in the sea as he now operates on land. Until then I believe they will be a total waste of time and money.
C. C. L UCA S Chairman, Shellfish Association of Great Britain, l~shmongers" Hall, London Bridge, London EC4R 9EL
180000 had been found oiled in 10 years, but that 2000 of these had been successfully cleaned and released and some of them were known to have rejoined the breeding population. The technique, developed by the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), includes force-feeding until the birds reach more than their natural weight, and then washing them until they can face a 4-h forced swim without getting wet. In the latest incident at St Croix a few months before they had achieved a 67% success rate with 400 birds, about a quarter of those affected, which may not make much impact on the population as a whole but could be sufficient to ensure the survival of a small colony. Clearly it is now no longer possible to dismiss the rehabilitation of oiled birds as ineffectual. The proceedings of the conference will be published as a special number of Cormorant, the journal of the South African Seabird Group, obtainable from John Cooper, the Secretary and main organizer of the meeting, at the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700.
W.R.P. BOURNE
(he tells us) as an attempt at producing a revised version of the earlier volume but was expanded so as to encompass new aspects of the s u b j e c t - t h e deep sea and its inhabitants- which has received much increased attention in recent years and hence requires fuller treatment. We must be grateful for the immense effort involved and to his publishers and perhaps especially to his wife Olga Marshall, as illustrator, for this new book which must be regarded as