"Tony A.J. Morris comments upon the issue of climate change and the possibility of the Gulf Stream shifting away from Britain and Ireland. In connection with the Kyoto meeting, this has been a subject in Norwegian news for the last days as well. It may not be of direct interest to birders, but it surely must be of indirect concern. Last night's news did, however, calm things down a bit, as says one member of a European expert panel: The problem so far is the significant reduction in the production of cold deep sea water going SW from the polar current coming down east of Greenland. This has far reaching consequences as a pump for other currents, partly also the warm Gulf Stream. But this change has already happened, and the Gulf Stream (which experts in fact says has a misleading name) still flows. According to these experts, there is no immediate concern that the Gulf Stream will change. The reduced production of cold, deepwater is reckoned to be part of a natural phenomena. And for those of you still reading this text, I have the following question and seabird related thoughts:

1. Does anyone know of any seabird study that is relating things to the shifting ocean currents?

2. This autumn saw one of history's most spectacular influxes of pelagic seabirds, notably Sooty Shearwaters and Sabines Gulls, but also many others. My "hypothesis" is that these occurrences were not only related to strong winds, but maybe as much to the distribution of the items they feed upon. The distribution of food along the sea surface may be a direct result of ocean temperature and prevailing currents. Maybe seabirders have already "documented" the things that oceanographers are looking for? Any comment is welcomed."--Tor B. <tor.bollingmo@adm.ntnu.no> VIA Bevan Craddock, Penkridge, Stafford, UK >b.craddock@which.net