Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

We collaborated with the Royal Navy’s HMS Endurance and in 1982 were intimately
involved in the Falklands conflict, when the Argentine Navy captured our station on
South Georgia.
Involvement in politics and diplomacy, led to a primary role in the formulation of
two important international conservation conventions in the 1970s and 1980s that
were ahead of their time – and still are.
Finally, while still contributing to research and organisation of international
scientific programmes I became closely involved in academic life over eleven years as
Master of a rapidly developing college in Cambridge, one of the world’s five leading
universities. St Edmund’s College has expanded both in academic stature and as a
foremost sporting institution. Through service on the University’s council and a
range of other committees I contributed to its growth and development - the
horizons are still expanding.
In this trilogy I have attempted to convey the excitement and attraction of
research and management, both in theory and in practice. Chapters on research at all
levels are interspersed with the planning and execution of the programmes needed to
elucidate the lives of large mammals – in relation to their environments and the
ecosystems they live in. This is necessary for understanding their ecology and to
formulate the actions necessary to ensure the survival of species, populations and
ecosystems.
On the way I accumulated rich experiences in travels all over the world. I spent in
aggregate three full years in the Antarctic on field work and another four years
accumulated in travels over many years in that region. I spent many months on the
great waters of the Southern Ocean. I lived and worked in East Africa – Uganda,
Kenya and Tanzania – for a total of some five years actually in the field, backed
intermittently by some three years in Cambridge. My work has been a mixture of
pure science, management and conservation and politics; it has been a sustained
commitment over and above travels to conferences and committees around the
world.
Although my primary interests and satisfaction has come from the science, I also
developed an innate artistic talent – in painting in watercolour, oils and acrylics, in
black and white drawings, and in photography which will I hope illustrate this
account. Visual experiences have always been important to me – more so than music
or cuisine for instance. From a biological point of view this led to a special interest in
growth and form, exemplified by my detailed studies of growth of teeth and/or
tusks in seals, whales, hippos and elephants in relation to estimating their ages. I was
also closely involved in the initial work that developed the use of whale ear plugs to
estimate their ages! Also, while my research has been on the largest animals I have
always had an interest in their beauty, and in the shapes and colours of plants and
smaller animals.
I doubt whether anyone has had the good fortune to experience such an
expansive mix of pure scientific research coupled with research in management and
conservation in dramatic environments and circumstances – and involvement in the
upper levels of the scientific civil service and academia. Varied management,
logistical, political and personal responsibilities that have fallen to me are also
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