Toxic contamination in large lakes

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Unfortunately the author does not describe his ideas in detail. It is left open who will be awarded access to the marine resources and what conditions will be made concerning the utilization of this tenure. Certainly, the author reckons with a cooperation between the parties concerned, but does not state his views on how successful this cooperation is likely to be compared with the present arrangement. In this connection it should be mentioned that the author does not suggest that mineral resources be brought under private ownership. The book is certainly an interesting contribution to the field of fishery management. Professor Keen's main suggestion of regulations by private ownership will probably not be realized in the near future. If it were, however, it could very well result in some improvements in the efficiency of the prevailing arrangement. GUDNI THORSTEINSSON

HafrannsShnasto/nunin Marine Research Institute SkSlagata 4 Reykjavik Iceland

TOXIC CONTAMINATION

Toxic Contamination in Large Lakes. Norbert W. Schmidtke (Editor), Lewis Publishers Inc., 4 vol. set, £158.60, Vol. 1,364 pp., ISBN 0-87371-089-4; Vol. 2, 330 pp., ISBN 0-87371-090-8; Vol. 3, 440 pp., ISBN 0-87371-091-6; Vol. 4, 321 pp., ISBN 0-87371-092-4. This text comprises four volumes of papers presented at the World Conference on Large Lakes that took place at Mackinac Island, MI, in May 1986. The stated objectives of the Conference were: (1) define the state of scientific knowledge with respect to toxic substances; (2) identify successful, preventive, regulatory, and management alternatives; (3) explore and encourage public education and involvement in lake management. The volumes are titled according to the technical session they address as follows. Volume I. Chronic Effects of Toxic Contaminants in Large Lakes. Volume II. Impact of Toxic Contaminants on Fisheries Management. Volume III. Sources, Fate and Controls of Toxic Contaminants. Volume IV. Prevention of Toxic Contamination of Large Lakes. In the words of the conference organizer: "This conference brought together scientists, policy makers, business and citizen leaders to discuss issues associated with toxic contamination of large lakes". This was the second confer-

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ence in the series, the first having been held in Shiga, Japan, on the theme "eutrophication". The four volumes combined contain more than 70 technical papers. The coconveners of each technical session prepared a summary containing findings, conclusions and specific recommendations that appear as the first chapters of the respective volumes. The work suffers from the absence of a holistic approach to ecotoxicology and anthropogenic effects structured within an appropriate risk-benefit analytical framework. This results in a rather disjointed collection of papers. There appears to have been little, if any, modification of the papers as a consequence of discussions during the conference or peer review of the proceedings. Indeed, this is the one feature of the book that is most obviously missing - - an appreciation of the comments/criticisms of the various presentations made during the conference. It is clear that the papers were edited and retyped for uniformity of presentation, but there is, nevertheless, a surprisingly high proportion of errors. Peer review would probably have substantially reduced the incidence of such errors. Perhaps one of the most serious drawbacks of the editorial style of the work is the lack of any common definition of terms. Individual authors have used their own interpretation of terms such as 'pollution', 'contamination', 'toxic contamination', 'discharges', 'inputs', 'risk', and 'ecotoxicology'. This is particularly reprehensible when the first two of these terms are defined internationally by the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The resulting lack of consistency detracts further from the cohesiveness and interpretability of the book and its value both to the scientific and lay reader. The individual papers vary considerably in quality from good to poor. Again, this is a reflection of the absence of thorough peer review. Several papers could have been weeded out to improve the quality of the book. The discerning eye of a good environmental scientist is needed to sort the chaff from the wheat and this makes the book less useful to the lay reader. There is no doubt, however, that the good papers contain a wealth of valuable information on large lakes and relevant h u m a n and industrial practices that is useful for reference purposes and to provide some perspective on environmental protection problems and approaches. A number of the papers reflect unbalanced and subjective positions, resulting in their advocating unrealistic, and often extreme, solutions to existing problems irrespective of their severity and impact on society. Nevertheless, a few of the papers, including two presented by representatives of large industrial concerns, do a most creditable job in presenting pragmatic and balanced perspectives on the subject. The summary chapters, prepared by the co-conveners of each session, should have set the framework for the level of protection required for large lakes within a global context, along with what is needed to identify and mitigate ecotoxi-

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cological problems in large lakes. Furthermore, the co-conveners of each session should have decided mutually on a consistent and interlinked set of criteria that would have resulted in more internally consistent volumes as well as presenting a coherent set of interrelated recommendations. As they stand, the recommendations are too general to be of much practical use. While there are pleas for the application of holistic approaches to the protection of large lakes, the summary chapter authors have not approached all the recommendations from such a perspective. Indeed, many of the recommendations are a little naive in the sense that they seek zero discharge or zero input of contaminants without regard for the benefits to society of chemical products, or a recognition of the existing environmental burdens of these contaminants or the severity of their impacts. The real need for risk-benefit analyses, that is well reflected in some of the technical papers, has been largely ignored in the summaries. It is a pity that the respective summary chapters are not as good as the better technical papers. The summaries appear to draw conclusions from a discussion that the reader remains uninformed about. Furthermore, these chapters use a grammatical style and terminology that causes ambiguity in the meaning of several of the recommendations. Comparison of these proceedings with the stated objectives of the conference leaves the impression that the conference was not successful at reaching its goals. Management options and methods of selecting between management options are not presented, and the single most important constituent of a suitable management system, risk-benefit analysis, has not been adequately discussed. Finally, with respect to the third objective, it is unfortunate that this book is not the appropriate vehicle for public education that it might have been had it been framed within a proper holistic context and subjected to the usual rigours of peer review and subsequent editing. J.F. UTHE and J.M. BEWERS

Marine Chemistry Division Fisheries and Oceans, Canada Halifax Fisheries Research Laboratory P.O. Box 550 Halifax Nova Scotia Canada, B3J 2S7