----- Original Message -----
From: "glaucus25" <Glaucus@...>
To: <Glaucus@...>
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 7:18 PM
Subject: [Glaucus] Adur World Oceans Day


Hello,

The page copy of the write-up for the Shoreview magazine can be found
at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoreham/2711259376/

The original script was as follows:

During the Adur Festival of 2008 we celebrated the tenth anniversary
of Adur World Oceans Day in the marquee on Coronation Green. It was
not and has never been an arts or circus event; it has always been
designed by the committee including representatives of Adur District
Council and West Sussex County Council as an educational exhibit.
Within the limits of our resources and the one day format we designed
an exhibition to introduce children and adults to the wonders of the
sea and seashore, in a setting of historic maritime importance. The
public hards either side of Coronation Green were wharves of the
mediaeval port of New Shoreham dominated by the Church of St. Mary
de Haura.

The main exhibits with Len Nevell and the lobsters and crabs are
designed to show children at first hand what lives beneath the sea
off the Sussex coast. These have to be supported by the aquarium
displays of seashore creatures by Andy Horton of the national British
Marine Life Study Society, with a life support system to keep the
animals alive. Other displays in 2008 included the Sea Watch
Foundation exhibit of whales and dolphins information hosted by
wildlife writer Steve Savage, a display of vegetated shingle plants
an photographs by environmentalists David and Marion Wood, the
strandline exhibit by John Knight and Kathy Eels of West Sussex
County Council Countryside Unit and the displays by the local Friends
of Shoreham Beach. There is the opportunity to ask questions about
puzzling finds on the seashore of which there are many.

Just about every exhibit was an innovative and original concept since
copied by other groups, but the design was unique and trend setting.
One of our successes was the use of magnifying glasses so the young
children can observe the smaller creatures close-up in detail, to see
a Hermit Crab emerge from the shell of a winkle or another mollusc,
see the wavy venomous tentacles of sea anemones, a cute little fish
called the Blenny, the venomous Weever Fish as an identification
guide to avoid a painful sting, as well as learning how to pick up a
crab without getting their fingers nipped.

I think Adur World Oceans Day this is best described by the Nobel
prize winning author John Steinbeck when writing about Ed 'Doc'
Ricketts of Cannery Row fame in which he wrote 'commercial fishermen
harvest the sea to feed men's bodies and a marine biologist harvests
the sea to feed men's minds'

In June 1992, over 150 Heads of States signed the Convention on
Biological Diversity at Rio de Janeiro. They did so to express a
shared belief that action must be taken to halt the worldwide loss of
animal and plant species and genetic resources. World Oceans Day was
first declared as 8th June at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in
1992. Events will occur all around the world on and around this day.

Adur is one of the UK leaders in this initiative because of a
circular from Department of the Environment to local Councils
suggested this was one of the days that could be supported by local
authorities in line with the world wide initiative. Alas, these
circulars in the mass of paperwork often go unnoticed and slide into
the waste paper basket. Not this one, as I suggested to Natalie
Brahma-Pearl the environmental representative on Adur Council that
such an event could prove beneficial to both the town and the concept
and this was enthusiastically supported by her and Neil Mitchell of
West Sussex County Council.

The British Marine Life Study Society had participated in exhibitions
before and we had the knowledge and expertise to organise an event of
our own with rather limited resources. In the latter years we have
had valuable help from David Steadman of the Shoreham Economic
Partnership.

The British Marine Life Study Society was formed in 1990 to study the
sea and seashore and to exchange information about the life in the
oceans. It is not a conservation organisation but a wildlife and
ecology study group, funded by members subscriptions. For the first
ten years we produced paper publication including the national
journal called Glaucus and a newsletter called Shorewatch. At the
turn of the millennium, we moved with the technological changes and
distributed information through the web site and the European
electronic news bulletin called Torpedo, one of the first electronic
bulletins of its kind. The news pages on the web site produce marine
life reports from all around the coast of the British Isles from our
numerous contacts. This information put into the public domain that
might go unrecorded and in its small way narrates the changes that
occur, as a supplement to dedicated scientific study.

The homepage can be found at:
British Marine Life Study Society
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/

and the forum at:

Marine Wildlife of the North-east Atlantic Ocean Yahoo Group
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Glaucus



Cheers

Andy Horton.
glaucus@...
><< ( ( ( ' >
British Marine Life Study Society (formed 6 June 1990)
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/
-------------------------------------------------------------
Marine Wildlife of the North-east Atlantic Ocean Yahoo Group
New Group: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Glaucus

Marine Wildlife News of the North-east Atlantic Ocean News
(British Marine Life Study Society)
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/News2008.htm

MARINE LIFE NEWS BULLETIN TORPEDO
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Torpedo2.htm

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