Editorial

The Sea

A habitat of extraordinary richness and interest, the sea is being put under enormous pressures that compromise its future along with ours. From its panoply of habitats through to individual species such as the Scopoli’s Shearwater, we must take better care of the sea, and change our ways to bring regeneration to its environments and our thinking.

Crossing the Equator, the ship was seized by a violent storm that hurled it towards the freezing South Polar seas, where, beset by fogs and snows, and trapped by mast-high ice, with sloping masts and dipping prow, it found itself adrift. In a lost and seemingly lifeless corner of the ocean, the situation was desperate, and desperation seized the crew. How could they escape their fate? Then a great white bird appeared, an albatross, that approached the ship and began to follow it, eating the fish that the sailors caught. And with it, there came a wind from the south to bring them back to their course and to hope. Perched on the mainmast of the ship, it seemed a bird of good omen, a symbol of salvation. Then, unexpectedly, the tragic act. Taking up his crossbow, the Ancient Mariner took aim at the albatross, shooting and killing it. Without reason, almost unintentionally, as if seized by a sudden uncontrollable impulse. And despair fell again on the ship.

Contents

• The Sea
• Forty years of White Storks in Piedmont
• Red-footed Falcon research
• Hunting – a new threat

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