8 minute read
Local People
Why bother understanding the Indian Ocean?
In October, Peter Burkill will be giving a Tavistock Heritage Trust talk about why we need to understand the Indian Ocean, the least studied and arguably the most sensitive, of all our oceans. The Indian Ocean’s core temperature is rising the fastest of all oceans, and the surrounding populations are also the fastest growing, placing increasing pressures on natural systems. ‘Why bother understanding the Indian Ocean?’ is on 6 October in Tavistock Guildhall - see What’s On for more details.
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Seven years ago, when Peter was Professor of Ocean Science at the University of Plymouth, he started an international programme of research on the Indian Ocean. In his research, he has travelled widely, and is now also a Nikon sponsored wildlife photographer with a particular penchant for pine martens. Peter continues… I was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1950, growing up on the beaches of Malaya and diving before there were any diving qualifications. This was to help my father who was working on seaweeds and my job was to harvest from the offshore reefs. So oceans, wildlife and wild places have always interested me.
My first degree is in biology and my PhD was gained from Southampton University in ocean science. I then moved in 1975 to Plymouth to join the Plymouth Marine Laboratory where I eventually held a prestigious Individual Merit post. In that time, I set up the first marine flow cytometry facility in Europe. I should explain that flow cytometry was a laser-based technique devised for analysing cancer in human blood. I figured that human
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blood cells are fundamentally little different from microbes in the sea (that was my research topic) - and that proved correct. There were though huge challenges. Not only was the instrument seriously expensive (costing hundreds of thousands of pounds) but to operate on a ship at sea required a deck-mounted 20-foot container and a chiller that needed 3-phase electrics to dissipate 15kW of heat from the laser. It was a crazy idea with a lot of teething problems but in the end it worked extraordinarily well. With this unique capability, I amassed a very large number of publications and gained fellowships from the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Microscope Society and very recently from the Marine Biological Association of the UK. I moved back to Southampton University as a professor in 2002 to head up the George Deacon Division for Ocean Science. That involved five years of weekly commuting between Devon and Hampshire before moving back permanently to Plymouth as Director of the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Studies (SAHFOS) on the Hoe. During this time, I also became a professor at the University of Plymouth. In 2012, I was elected President of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). SCOR is an international non-governmental non-profit organization, with some 40 members, that coordinates fundamental research internationally. To be elected president was a great honour and I held the post for eight years. Unfortunately, it was also incompatible with being Director of SAHFOS, so I resigned the latter. In 2020 I decided to seek new challenges and resigned from my paid university post. Judith Petts, the Vice-Chancellor, was good enough to award me an Emeritus Chair which I continue to hold.
During the last decade, I have served on many advisory boards including the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban. While giving a public lecture in Oban, I was asked if I’d ever photographed pine martens. Like almost everyone, I had not even seen one in the wild. But this question started my interest, as the questioner had pine martens visiting her cottage in the wilds of Argyll where I now visit every year. Although wild and very shy, pine martens are addicted to peanuts so I have found I can tempt them into photographic range when I’m out of sight. I photograph them from inside the cottage using wireless connections to my Nikon cameras and flash guns. There is a lot of technology involved but Nikon cameras are good in low light and I feel I have now mastered this. Nikon’s sponsorship is invaluable particularly if anything goes wrong while I am travelling. I have worked on all continents of Earth including Antarctica, and this year I went to Svalbard in July to photograph polar bears and will travel to Ecuador in October to photograph its extensive wildlife.
So, I have been lucky both in ocean science and in my wildlife photography, and throughout very ably supported by my wife. We enjoy living in an old farmstead on Dartmoor which we bought 40 years ago in a derelict state and resurrected, although our parents thought we were crazy. We brought up our two boys there - now married with their own children. My wife is a parish councillor while I am on the village hall committee, so I like to think we are giving back something to our community!
Professor Peter Burkill
Dear Customers Please forgive me if I have not had the opportunity to notify you personally of my impending retirement. Although, thankfully still fit and raring to go, I will have reached the end of the lease on the shop NO13, in September of this year. How truly lucky I have been to have have enjoyed a wonderful 27 years in the business, and I shall miss terribly the interaction and friendship with all my ‘lovely ladies’ who have visited and supported me during this time. Thank you all so very much for your genuine enthusiasm and loyalty. I am also enormously grateful to ‘our Enid’ who has unfailingly attended to the myriad nips and tucks with her amazing tailoring skills - which has often meant the difference between a sale or no sale... I am not leaving town and can be found jogging - sorry, slowly walking (!!!) around Meadowlands Park and joining the ‘ladies that lunch’ in our lovely restaurants. With many thanks and all best wishes Annette
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The end of an era
The end of an era for Annette of No13 Ladies Fashion… Having reached retirement age (and a bit more!) she will now take time for reflection and some new adventures.
In 1995, to get married to Tim who was living in Modbury, Annette took a leap of faith and sold her small restaurant and home in Worcestershire. With wonderful memories of ‘window’ shopping as a young girl with her mum, who had an extraordinary eye for style and quality, Annette developed more than a little interest in clothes, and felt a natural instinct to pursue an occupation in fashion retail. Serendipity played its part, and on a day out to Lydford Gorge, shortly after moving to Devon, she happened to park directly outside number 13 Duke Street, which had a ‘To Let’ sign in the window. The rest is history - 27 very happy years of choosing a collection each season, from a variety of designers. One of the greatest pleasures for Annette has been the repeat custom from many women both local and far afield who have treasured, and still wear, items from the early days, and who have appreciated the passion and personal service - which helps in avoiding expensive mistakes! Deciding not to go into further education, Annette started work at the age of 15 and remembers her mum taking a portion of her (very small) wage each week, which immediately catapulted her into a sense of selfpreservation. Starting out as an office junior in the motor industry (she still makes a good cup of tea), she gained secretarial skills and weekended in the local cinema selling ice cream. At 22, she took a secretarial job in a large, busy restaurant and worked evenings and weekends learning all aspects of the trade, while saving furiously for a deposit on a mortgage. Her first leap of faith was selling the property and investing in a partnership in a wine bar in Cambridge, and after a few years taking on her own restaurant in Worcestershire where she happily lived and worked for ten years. Fifty-six years of commitment and hard work - but Annette assures me she always found time for fun and adventure along the way. She is now looking forward to the next chapter in her life. If her mother was the catalyst for opening a boutique, then it is her father’s love of gardening that is now inspiring her, and plans are afoot to take a share in an allotment – where she will no doubt look very stylish amongst the vegetables.
