Volume 6/Number 4/April 1975

companies have taken a good many steps to limit the nuisance they cause. They are too much a part of the national scene in countries where they operate to take a cavalier attitude towards pollution and they have a direct financial inducement to play safe (up to a point) because of the high cost of insurance and the cost of cleaning up oil spills when, as they often are, they are saddled with the responsibility for this.

Unfortunately, few other forms of shipping are so exposed to the public gaze and until Financial incentives exist to maintain high standards of ship and crew, to redace the accident level, and avoid poUution, flags of convenience will remain with us for the express purpose of avoiding responsibility and at the expense of the international community.

Instructing Engineers The University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada)

presented an intensive short course in Environmental Marine Biology from 18 to 31 August, 1974, following requests for guidance and instruction from pollution control engineers respoma'ble for supervision of discharge systems to marine receiving areas. Thirteen of the participants in the course encompassed a range of enlgaeering disciplines and represented indu.m-ies, regula- tory agencies and comulting companies. A solicitor and a physician, both with interests in environmental matters, also attended. The geolFaphical origin of participants was primarily from the province of British Colombia, but other Canadian provinces were represented and there was a mining engineer from the Philippines.

The course was presented at a field laboratory providing residential facilities. This was the Bandield Marine Station, located near the open Pacific Ocean on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The Station provides easy access by boat to a range of marine ecosystems, and is within working distance of an industrial marine receiving area for discharges from a pulp and paper mill. The latter was used as an exercise area for the course.

The programme was divided into two weeks with differing objectives. Week 1 was given to fundamental studies in marine ecology, with the objective of familiarizing participants with the language of the subject, the working concepts of marine ecologists, and the marine organisms both within their natural habitats and as laboratory specimens revealing their form and functional morphology. During this week participants surveyed and sampled from rocky shores, sand beaches and mud flats. They were able to survey the environmental and biological differences between wave-exposed and sheltered shorelines. Partici- pants also used a variety of remote samplers from an oceanographic launch to survey phyto- and zoo-plankton within the water column, sedentary and burrowing benthos from fjord depths and trawling grounds, and fish in a variety of habitats. Biological sampling experience included trawls, seines and quantitative benthic grabs. Those participants not previously familiar with marine water quality samplers and recorders such as Niskin and

Nansen bottles, reversing thermometers, Secchi discs, etc., and continuous profiling devices such as transmissorneters, and fluorometers, were provided the opportunity to see and handle these instruments. A demonstration of chlorophyll prof'fiing by fiuorometer on-line with submerged pump and hose was presented.

Theoretical and conceptual instruction included a series of introductory lectures by the Senior Instructor on the variety of marine organisms, /heir adaptations and ecological niches, the influence of environmental para- meters on organisms, and the problems involved in naming and identifying specimens. Following the introductory series, visiting lecturers surveyed the structure, habitats and common adaptations of various groups of organisms: zooplankton, phytoplankton, benthos, fLsh, bacteria, and birds and mammals. Formal lectures were interspersed with environmentally.relevant cine-~ms, videotapes and seminars led by participants. As an example of the seminars, it became apparent during an informal evening session that one of the participants had considerable experience in air-borne remote sensing, especially use of infra-red f'dm, and that there was considerable interest in the topic. The participant concerned, after some time to use the Station library and consult notes, gave a systematic review of the subject matter and this elicited a great deal of interest amongst the course participants.

Week 1 concluded with a traditional biological laboratory test requiring participants to recognize a variety of specimens and comment on their habitats or ecological niches. Test sheets were evaluated by the team of three laboratory instructors and the senior instructor, and returned, in confidence, to each individual in order to facilitate their personal assessment of the information they had acquired to that time.

Week 2 was given to a monitoring exercise using the nearby industrial marine receiving area. The site presents difficulties to the discharger for effective receiving area quality control since it is located in a small estuary, and the normal river technique of sampling stations above and below the discharge is ineffective. Similarly the normal marine technique of nearby control stations is also ineffective since the entire brackish water area shows signs of effluent influence. These environmental complications are nevertheless fairly common in real situations since estuaries are often used as receiving areas. The exercise thus provided practical experience for the participants in an environment presenting common, but difficult, problems.

The exercise was initiated by dividing the clam into two groups, and both were informed that they had the services of a well-instrumented chartered oceanographic vessel for 24 h. They were able to preview the vessel and its fac]lities. The first group were designated as the representatives of a government regulatory agency, and participants were responsible for designing and implementing a survey to demonstrate whether the industry's Discharge Permit controls were effective in maintaining receiving area quality. The second group were designated as the representatives of the discharging plant, and participants were responsible for designing and implementing a similiar survey. Both groups had available to them considerable background environmental data (but little biological information) accumulated from the receiving area over some 30 years.

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While the exercise was in progress, a series of formal lectures was given on general principles of environmental monitoring within the sea, and on relevant legislation and regulations in force in British Columbia. The latter lectures drew upon specialist experience by two of the participants. Towards the end of Week 2, during the period of data analysis, a further lecture was presented on data processing, data analysis, and some peculiarities of marine biological population data which preclude the use of normal statistical techniques and require species associational or diversity measures. The concluding lecture was by a barrister experienced in prosecuting environmental cases.

In addition during Week 2, some participants con- tributed case histories based on their professional experience, and comments on these cases were both invited and enthusiastically given.

The monitoring exercise in Week 2 terminated in a simulated meeting between the regulatory agency and the discharger. The regulatory group determined the form of the meeting. They presented data taken during the exercise, and requested the industry group to show reason why the Discharge Permit should not be amended to increase restraints on effluent composition. Thus a real permit, and hence a real situation, was the basis for the exercise.

It should be noted that participants were given the choice of the group in which they would act, and there was a tendency on the part of the more experienced participants to deliberately select a role opposite to that which they occupied in real life. It was interes'ting to see that two particularly experienced part i'cipants from industry and a consulting company, respectively, showed considerable skill as regulatory agents. On conclusion of the simulated meeting between the regulatory agency and the discharger, participants continued to argue for half an hour or more informally. This was taken as an indication that the course was of interest and value to the participants.

Participants receive a formal letter from the University on completion of the course with an outline of the material covered.

The principle changes in procedure for future present- ations will be to provide more case histories of real and theoretical problems, using guest lecturers and participants as appropriate, and to accept applications to attend Week 2 only from professionals with prior experience in marine biology. Information on future courses can be obtained from the Division of Continuing Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, B. C., Canada.

DEREK ELLIS

Black Sea Oysters Artificial oyster breeding makes it possible to produce

500 tons of oyster meat per hectare, according to Soviet fLshery researchers now breeding oysters in Yagorlytsky Bay in the Black Sea. The first oyster-harvesting season began at an experimental farm on the Crimean coast 5 years ago. Raised in a man-made pond, the oysters were then re-settled at the age of 1 year on the sea bottom.

Initial experiments were set out in a pond 4 m deep with an area of 500 m 2. It turned out that the oysters grew f'.ater there than in natural conditions. The productivity of

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Marine Pollution Bulletin

the farm is now 2 million oysters a year. On the proposal of Soviet doctors, a resort is to be built nearby where patients can be treated by an oyster diet.

The establishment of oyster farms in the Black Sea was prompted by the fact that larvae of carnivores were brought to the Crimean coast on the bottoms of sea-going vessels. They took only a short time to adapt themselves and within a brief spell had destroyed a considerable proportion of the oyster population. An effective technique to combat them was found.

Young oysters had to be imported from the Pacific and they settled well on the Crimean coast. The experts estimate that their number at present is already at least 250 million.

Eider Breeding in Arctic Sanctuary

The eider population of the Seven Islands bird sanctuary, off the northern coast of the Kola peninsula in the Soviet Arctic, has doubled in recent years due to a successful eider breeding experiment. Zoologists placed eggs from eider nests in an incubator and then put the hatchllngs back in their nests. The eiders readily accepted them into their 'wild' families.

Seven Islands was made a reserve in the 17th century and placed in the charge of special ~Nards. The best gyrfalcons from the reserve were selected for hunting. Scientists have now established that there is a certain biological aff'mity between gyrfalcons, birds of prey riving on the islands, and the peaceful eiders. The two species often nest close to each other with the gyrfalcons pro- tecting the eiders [rom white foxes.

Apart from Seven Islands there are several more bird sanctuaries in the Soviet Arctic. Some of the species which live only in this part of the Arctic basin and on its shores - the red-breasted goose, the ross gull and the white crane - are on the list of threatened species. Specislists hope, however; that thanks to protective measures their populations will increase in due course and they will be struck off the list.

Limits have been imposed on the hunting of many species of Arctic birds in the northern regions of the Soviet Union. In the Archangel region, for instance, the hunting of swans, barnacle geese and other waterfowl which winter on non-freezing waters, has been banned. In Tyumen region and Krasnoyarsk there is a ban on the hunting of swans, red-breasted geese and all birds of prey. The ban operating in Magadan region covers swans, emperor geese, eiders, brent geese-and white geese.

Coral not OK Two American scientists have suggested that disease

caused by bacteria may play a major role in the ecology of coral reefs around Bermuda. Struck by the large number of coral colonies with dead patches, they decided to determine whether these specific affected areas were related to disease. The distribution of diseased colonies did not, however, seem to be related to inshore pollution sources nor to areas of ~eater or lesser circulation.