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took over as Head of Department.

I had, in fact, started as John Day’s research assistant, gradually rising through the ranks over
the years from the mid-1950s. While rocky shores and estuaries were being well catered for, I

attempted to fill a gap in our knowledge, a gap that everyone had ignored - the ecology of

sandy beaches. Some of my colleagues thought that I was crazy, that sandy shores have so
little life that they were not worth worrying about. They were wrong, however; sandy beaches

teem with life. It’s just that most of the animals there are very tiny and live between the

grains. There are fewer species of larger, visible animals but this, in fact, I found an
advantage, as it allowed me to study each one in detail, not only its distribution but its

behaviour, its reproductive cycles, its biological interactions and its physiology. My favourite

animal became the surfing sandy-beach whelk Bullia and throughout my career I have
returned to it repeatedly. Much of this sandy-beach work was done in False Bay and more

would have been done there if only I’d had the use of the St. James aquarium.

False Bay

Other scientists have investigated the biota off-shore and the ecology of the fishes of False
Bay. As a result of all this, the literature relating to the Bay, which was virtually non-existent

at the turn of the century, would now fill many, many metres of shelving. In 1990, the Royal

Society of South Africa held a symposium on the marine environment of False Bay,
summarising what had been done up to that time, including not only marine biology but also

physical oceanography and related issues. This was published in 1991 under the title False

Bay - an environmental assessment. This is a most important document for anyone interested
in the Bay and concerned for its future.

In 1996 the South African marine science community got together to celebrate Gilchrist’s

arrival at the Cape and the hundred years of marine endeavour since that date. The talks that
were given at that celebration are shortly to be published, again by the Royal Society. My own

talk was on Gilchrist himself and in preparing my talk I believe I read everything that had