14 
Bullet in of the EANHS 28(3) 
Short, L.L. & Home, J.F.M. (1988). Jndicatoridae, 
honeyguides. In The Birds of Africa, Vol. III. 
C.H.Fry, S. Keith & E K. Urban, eds. Academic 
Press, London. Pp. 486-511 
Short, L.L. & J.F.M. Home (1992) Honeyguide-host 
interactions. Proc. VUPun Afr. Om. Congr. 549-552. 
SHIMONI FOREST: BIODIVERSITY WORTHY OF 
PROTECTION 
Shiinoni, a trading and tourism centre in the southeastern 
comer of Kenya, hosts the headquarters of the Kisite 
Mpunguti Marine Park and Reserve. The Kenya Wildlife 
Service buildings and the nearby Eden Bandas are 
located in a forest remnant just off the main mad. On 
W>rld Birdwatch weekend in October 1997, four trainers 
and two trainees from the KWS Waterbird Identification 
and Counting Tedtniques course formed a team covering 
part of the Shimoni area. Our team walked through the 
forest on the KWS property, and part of the neighbouring 
forest to the west. These are coral rag forests, an unusual 
and largely unprotected type of Coastal forest, and rich 
in biodiversity We were amazed by the variety of birds 
and mammals that we saw in just a few hours’ walk 
Black and red elephant shrews, Sykes' monkeys, 
black and while colobus, red duikers, bushbucks, east 
african red squirrels, and eastern red-legged sun 
squirrels (names according to A Field Guide to the 
National Parks of East Africa by John G. Williams) arc 
just some of the mammals that wc saw on the KWS 
land. 
Among the typical Coastal forest birds that we noted 
in the two forest areas were Fischer’s Turaco. Mottled 
Spinctail, Green Barbel, Eastern Green Tinkerbird, 
Eastern Nicator. Red-capped Robin Chat, Eastern 
Bearded Scrub Robin. Little Yellow Flycatcher, Forest 
Batis and Plain-backed Sunbird. However, we missed 
the most exciting bird sighting: on the same World 
Birdwatch weekend. Maia Hemphill saw a Black and 
White Flycatcher in her garden in Shimoni— the first 
record for many, many years. 
In view of the potential of the forest on the KWS 
property at Shimoni for recreation and biodiversity 
conservation, I think it is important that it be protected 
The boundaries of the plot had recently been surveyed 
and demarcated If possible, links should be maintained 
with the forest to the west to ensure a viable area for 
biodiversity conservation. 
I’leur Ng’weno, P.O. Box 42271 , Nairobi 
GETTING SEABIRD? OFF THE HOOK 
In all the World’s oceans, longline fishing vessels set 
and haul their lines, bringing aboard cod, hake, tuna, 
swordfish and Patagonian toothfish— and seabirds. 
Longlining has been commonly regarded as an 
“environmentally friendly” fishing technique. Yet it now 
has the concerted attention of environmental NGOs such 
as 1UCN and BirdLife International (BL1), as well as 
intergovernmental organizations. 
Reports in the early 1990s from Australia of tens of 
thousands of albatrosses being killed in the Southern 
Ocean by tuna longliners first led to this attention. A 
resolution. Incidental Mortality of Seabirds in Longline 
Fisheries, adopted by IUCN at its First World 
Conservation Congress in Montreal. Canada in October 
1996, led BirdLife International, with funding from its 
UK fartner, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 
to inaugurate its Seabird Conservation Programme in 
1997. Its first major project was a global review of 
seabird mortality caused by longline fisheries. 
Seabird mortality has encouraged research into 
mitigation methods. A number of longlining nations, 
are now experimenting with underwater-setting devices 
which have been designed to keep bailed hooks out of 
sight of birds. 
Several agreements are in the offing which will 
require member states to report and regulate the effects 
of longline fishing on seabirds. Among others are an 
“International Plan of Act ion- Sea birds” and a “Range 
State Agreement" for albatrosses. 
Although the alxive activities should go a long way 
to reducing seabird mortality from longline fisheries, 
pirate fishing remains an area of serious concern Only 
concerted efforts llirough international agreements, with 
effective patroling and penalties, will result in longline 
fisheries being managed sustainably and in far fewer 
birds being killed. 
With the collaboration of governments, international 
organizations, environmental NGOs and the fishing 
industry it is hoped that come the next millennium, 
longlining can once more be regarded as an 
environmentally friendly fishing technique, and the 
World’s seabirds will be able to fly their oceans without 
risk of being hooked. 
For more information contact: BirdLife 
International s Seabird Conservation Programme, Avian 
Demography Unit, University of Cape Town, 
Rondebosch 7701, South Africa or on its web site at. 
www.uct.ac.za/depts/statsyadu/seabirds 
John Cooper 
BirdLife International Seabird Conservation 
Programme, E-mail: jcooper@botzno uct.ac.za 
BOOK REVIEW 
Wildflower Safari: the life of Mary Richards By 
William Condry. Pp. 257, incl. 16 colour pages and 
many photographs. Gomer Press, Llandysul, Wales. 
1998. U.K. 18. 
Mary Richards collected herbarium specimens for Kew 
from East Africa between 1953 and 1974. She was not 
