Université de Liège	FMV

PREFACE

Marine environment stability appears more and more as a critical condition for the survival of the planet.

Scientific interest for the role of oceans and seas as reservoirs of life, climate regulators, and, more recently, dumping grounds of human activities, has increased with a new awareness of global planetary changes and a much feared, ill defined idea that human pollutions are key elements in these changes.

Protection and preservation of marine ecosystems are becoming a worldwide priority. They require, as a prerequisite, a basic understanding of the mechanisms that, on a global scale, influence these systems. For a long time, biologists, oceanologists, geologists, ... have accumulated data and offered theories on various aspects related to their field. Now that a challenging task is requested from the scientific community to define the risks, to name the culprits, and to propose solutions to maintain a lasting equilibrium between preservation of the sea and human activities, it is mandatory to develop multidisciplinary research, to integrate the available pieces of knowledge, and to open the field to new scientific disciplines that did not have, up to now, environment in their top priorities. In particular, activities generated by man should be adequately assessed, their relative importance objectively evaluated, and their potential deleterious effects on the marine environment precisely measured. In that vast, expanding field, a particular interest should be given to marine seabirds and mammals that share with man the characteristics to be homeothermic, with a long lifespan, and to act as top predators of the trophic webs. In these regards, they are excellent to study the consequences of long-term pollution and are unique bioindicators of their environment.

Questions that arise, among others, on these key species relate to their distribution, their number, their biology, their lesions, their contaminations, and their response to pollutants. Such studies dictate the approach : a simultaneous, integrated evaluation of individuals, groups, and environment.

A first approach was to organize, June 29 to July 2, 1993, a 4 days intensive course on marine mammals, seabirds, and pollution of marine systems. The objective of that course, held at the Veterinary College of the University of Liège, was to provide scientists, graduate students, public authorities, and private organizations in charge or interested by sea pollution, with a global, multidisciplinary overview in the field.

A second approach is, 3 years later, to publish updated proceedings of that meeting, each text having been re-submitted to its author to emphasize new developments.

The book is divided in 4 sections. A first section (chapters 1 to 3) deals with geohydrodynamics and with the location of marine mammals and seabirds in marine food webs. Oceanographic processes responsible for marine systems dynamics are described, with an emphasis on marine production (Nihoul). Factors that influence marine production in marine food webs, in relation with marine mammals and seabirds are presented (Bouquegneau et al.) and a list of those species, with short indications on ecology, is given (Joiris).

In a second section on marine contaminants (chapters 4 to 7), the mechanisms of coastal eutrophication and Phaeocystis blooms is described, using the predicting model of eutrophication in the continental coastal water of the North Sea as a model (Lancelot et al.). Main sources of marine pollution and mechanisms of bioaccumulation along foodwebs are discussed (André) and ecotoxicology of organochlorines and heavy metals in marine mammals and seabirds is presented (Joiris). Composition, input, and impact of oil pollution on seabirds (Seys and Meire) is the last chapter of this section.

A third section (chapters 8 to 13) deals with diseases and pathology of target species. Detailed descriptions on classification, biology, host range of marine mammals parasites are given (Raga) and, similarly, a chapter reviews the parasites of marine birds (Borgsteede). General concepts of animal pathology and the potential role of veterinary pathologists in determination of lesions and cause of death in wild species are discussed (Coignoul and Jauniaux) and a state-of-the-art review pathology in marine mammals is presented (García Hartmann). The main causes of death of seabirds in the wild and in rehabilitation centers are assessed as well as a guideline for necropsy (Dorrestein and van der Hage). Viral infections in feral birds are presented (Vindevogel and Duchatel) to conclude the section.

A fourth section (chapter 14) on seabirds rehabilitation describes the basic requirements and techniques of oiled seabirds cleaning to allow the release of a highest number of birds. The work done at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is taken as an example of the method (Thomas et al.).

T. Jauniaux
J.-M. Bouquegneau
F. Coignoul

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