Porcupine Newsletter Number 25, Winter 2008/09.

EditorialHaving completed 10 years as Hon. Editor and produced 25issues of the newsletter I will, with much regret, be steppingdown at the AGM in Plymouth in March. For the last fewyears Peter Tinsley has been helping with the Editorship andhas done a marvellous job of putting order into chaos withall the material I send him, adding cheerful photographs andgenerally making the newsletter happen! He has offered totake over from me and will I’m sure make an excellent job ofit, assuming the membership votes him in at the AGM. Gettingmaterial together for the newsletter is a time-consuming joband we rely on YOU, the membership, to send us copy. We areable and willing to publish short articles, accounts of fieldwork, observations, photographs and news from the membersand others, as well as the more formal papers from the Annualmeeting. So please use your newsletter as a forum for all thisand more. It’s a great way to let others know what you areworking on or to tell others about interesting records fromyour dives or shore rambles.If anyone out there is interested in helping with theeditorship in a more formal way or joining Council in any othercapacity then do please let us know so that your name can beput forward at the AGM.For the moment the newsletter will continue to beproduced twice a year, once in summer (around June) followingthe Annual meeting and once in winter around January. Itmay also be possible to produce extra ‘special issues’ if there isparticular interest from the membership on particular topics.Please let us have your ideas!I myself am hoping to make use of the ‘extra’ time I willhave, to start working through large numbers of photographsand specimens of sea fans and soft corals collected from theSemporna Islands over the last 10 years. I have been goingout there with Elizabeth Wood as a volunteer from the MarineConservation Society as part of a project that has includedbiodiversity work, reef monitoring and working with the localpopulation culminating in setting up a new Marine Park. If youwant to know more then visit www.sempornaislandsproject.com. And if anyone happens to have a high power microscopesuitable for peering at sclerites and spicules, that they wantto dispose of, please let me know!I can’t remember when I first joined Porcupine – sometimein the late 80s I think – but over the years I have made manyfriends and learned realms from field trips and meetings. It’sa friendly and welcoming Society open to all ages and walksof life, so please encourage your friends and acquaintancesto join. I shall certainly remain an ‘acitive Porcupiner’ for aslong as I am able!St Oswalds Bay, Dorset - P TinsleyCOPY DEADLINESApril 30 th for Summer issue; October 31 st for Winter issuePMNHS Newsletter No.25 Winter 2008/091