Reid, PC

Richardson, AJ

Stevens, DP

Plymouth Marine Science Electronic Archive (PlyMSEA)

13GLOBEC INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER APRIL 2005Recent efforts have focused on making CPR data moreavailable by developing software to allow users easieraccess and increased flexibility of data interrogation. Onesuch product that has been developed is the SAHFOSWinCPR.  This free software is available for download viathe SAHFOS website (www.sahfos.org) from March 2005and is available on CD. This product provides researcherswith valuable graphical outputs that aid data interpretationand overcomes some of the problems of non-standardsampling due to the coverage of the shipping routes.WinCPR is a gridded database browser of North Seaplankton containing data over a 50 year period(1948–1997) targeting not only the marine sciencecommunity, but a wider audience including the generalSAHFOS WinCPR Browser for North Sea PlanktonAnthony J. Richardson (anr@sahfos.ac.uk), Darren Stevens, Philip C. ReidSAHFOS PAGEFigure 1. The interface of SAHFOS WinCPR v1.0.Figure 2. Monthly spatial distribution of Calanus finmarchicus in 1985.GLOBEC INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER APRIL 200514A fully illustrated, full color volume that will provide readersfrom high school to professional levels with an account of thedevelopment of ocean fisheries. Starting from early hominidhunter-gatherers, then ocean-going island and continentcolonizers, onward into the Age of Exploration, when resourceexploitation became nationalised, and the expansion onto thehigh seas began in earnest. In the recent two to threecenturies, humans have changed the structures and supportsystems for all the world’s aquatic resources, with devastatingconsequences to riparian, estuarine, and coastal fishingcultures. Ecological relationships and human roles within theseare carefully illustrated to show their interdependencies.The ultimate message is that humans must restructure theirfisheries management around the idea that they are not the solebeneficiaries, nor the major consumers in the world ecosystem.Sustainability will be defined and reclaimed only by theirrehabilitation of the hydrologic functions along with the full widthand breadth of ecological functioning, or we will lose the battle.The book’s layout has been designed around the presentationof colour photos, illustrations and maps in landscape mode, soas not to collapse the materials into unrecognizable formats.This softback, large-type edition was envisioned to serve awide range of ages and reading needs, providing informationfor vested readers interested in the diversity and breadth offisheries issues around the world. Examples of fisheries fromevery continent, and many island regions in all the oceans arethe main source of historical insights. A few black-and-whiteimages amongst the colour images provide the rustic feelnecessary for readers to get the true sense of the primitive stateof most of the world’s fisheries. An additional reference sectionis provided to highlight other readings that expand our text.This is a book for and about people; people whose lives arebeing challenged for all the wrong reasons. Meanwhile thosefolks confortably ensconced on the high inland watersheds aremoving down into the coastal and floodplain environments,and their industries and activities continue to degrade naturalhabitats, and to remove options for sustainability. All this asnatural climate change continues and other ‘events’ leave theirmarks. It is not fishermen who have ‘extincted’ their options,but an ever-growing denial by the larger and more reluctantshorebound cultures who pretend that ‘stability’ is possible,particularly that of aquatic ecosystems, despite Nature’shistorical patterns and surprises. Out of Fishermen’s Hands provides the insights into the howand why of the chaos that is rampant in today’s fisheries, aswell as providing a doorway to the next chapters on solutions,soon to follow.Introductory materials, table of contents and example informationcan be downloaded from http://sharpgary.org/FishermensHandsBrief_Order.pdf and information on how to order copies ofthe book (price US$15 plus US$5 postage and packing fromhttp://sharpgary.org/FishermensHandsBrief _Order.pdf.”Out of the Hands of Fishermen...”By Gary D. Sharp1, Menakhem Ben-Yami and J. ‘Russ’ McGoodwin1Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, Salinas, CA, USApublic, and students from schools and universities (Vezzulliand Reid, 2003).  Figure 1 shows the main interface for thesoftware (Vezzulli et al, 2005). The user-friendly informationand buttons on the opening page are visually appealing,clear, and allow the user to perform sophisticated analysisquickly. The grid consists of 172 pixels centred on 1°longitude by 0.5° latitude. A total of 110 plankton taxa aswell as Phytoplankton Colour (an estimate of phytoplanktonbiomass) have been averaged for each month within aforty or fifty year time span (fifty years for zooplanktonand Phytoplankton Colour 1948–1997, forty years forphytoplankton 1958–1997). To facilitate access in auser-friendly way, a range of eight plotting options areavailable for the presentation and visualisation of CPRdata. These include distribution maps for each month (Fig.2) or annually over the whole 50 years, graphs ofabundance through time and seasonal cycles, and monthby year contour plots for individual and groups of pixels(Fig. 3). The underlying gridded data can also be exported.This facility will be particularly useful for planktonecologists investigating long-term change, as well asecosystem modellers for model validation and initialisation.We welcome feedback on WinCPR, and ask that anypapers or reports that stem from work with WinCPR or CPRdata acknowledge SAHFOS. The more researchersactively use CPR data, the more secure the Survey will bein the future.Figure 3. Contour map of thePhytoplankton Colour Indexby year and by month.ReferencesVezzulli L and P.C. Reid.  2003. TheCPR survey (1948–1997): agridded database browser ofplankton abundance in the NorthSea. Progress in Oceanography58(2–4): 327–336.Vezzulli L, P.S. Dowland, P.C. Reid,N. Clarke and M. Papadaki.  2005.Gridded database browser ofNorth Sea plankton: fifty years(1948–1997) of monthly planktonabundance from the ContinuousPlankton Recorder (CPR) survey.Sir Alister Hardy Foundation forOcean Science, Plymouth, UK. AtURL: www.sahfos.org.

SAHFOS WinCPR Browser for North Sea plankton

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