"The Benthi~Ecology o~ FaJise Bay, w.ith Notes on the Analysis o~ Shallow-water So~t SUbstrata

This work continues the marine tradition o~ the Department o~ Zoology but attempts to open-up a new ~ield by tack].ing for· the first time the ecology of the shaJllow sea bed. False Bay is accessible and provides a large arem that is virtually unaffe.cted by rivers or the works of man. Its' situation happ:ens to be particularly _interesting. It is the nearest part of the flat, submarine shelf called the Agulhas Bank, where there are valuable fishing grounds: and it lies at the boi.mdary of two very dd.f~erent masses of water. Study of Fa-lse Bay should, in addition, be of interest in throwing light on the contrast between the shallows o~ the sea and those of lagoons and estuaries. Field work started with dredging ~rom hired fishing boats. It was soon obvious that one o~ the most important regions o~ ~e sea was es.caping notice, that above the shallowest dep,th in which dredges eould be worked and below low:' tide level. This region could only be studied by diving and so a programme o~ diving with frogman kit was started. Dredging and diving meant considerable training in non-~cademic techni~ues not only in the f~eld but in designing new gElar ( eg. dredges, underwater camera and underwater e1ee:tronic flash )