OLR (1985) 32 (9) F. General 781

monitoring; and most recently, saving lives by detecting distress calls and directing search and rescue efforts (SARSAT is credited with more than 350 lives saved since mid-1982). Future plans for space age, Earth monitoring programs are men- tioned. Johnson is director of science communica- tions at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. (wbg)

85:5361 Lowrance, Christie, 1985. Students at sea [on R/V

Westward of Sea Education Association, Woods Holel. Oceans, 18(2): 10-15.

Sea Semester includes a 6-week cruise on the schooner R/V Westward in which the students assume increasing responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the ship, even as they carry out scientific research projects, learning by doing and by making mistakes. Students from about 270 campuses have participated since the organization began in 1972. Sandwich, MA, USA. (mwf)

85:5362 MacLeish, W.H., 1985. On troubled waters. Oil in

the [Georgesl Bank. Oceans, 18(2):62-66.

In this excerpt from a forthcoming book (Oil and water: the struggle for Georges Bank, Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston), the great uncertainties associated with predicting the impact of offshore oil operations on fisheries are recapped. Some of them: the chemical complexity of crude oil (more than

10,000 compounds) and its variability, the disparity between laboratory and environmental conditions, the natural variability of environments, and behind all, the inconclusiveness, perhaps inapplicability, of any finding to any other setting--a situation ex- ploited by both the industrial apologists and the environmental alarmists. (fcs)

85:5363 Reiger, George, 1985. The sea birds of northern

Britain. Sea Front., 31(2):75-82.

85:5364 Sheppard, Charles, 1985. The unspoiled Little Barrier

Reef of Saudi Arabia. Sea Front., 31(2):94-103.

85:5365 Steinhart, Peter, 1985. In the company of giants. To

study humpback whales, Deborah Ferrari goes where the animals are--underwater. Natn. Wildl., 23(3):22-27.

F420. Miscellaneous

85:5366 James, P.M., 1984. Prehistorical evidence for [Earthl

precession. Speculations Sci. Technol., 7(5):303- 315. 4 Merrilyn St., Chapel Hill, Qld. 4069, Australia.