A Life on the Shore

Forest and Bird, Issue 314, 1 November 2004, Page 22

A Life on the Shore

GORDON ELL

talks with distinguished life member Prof. JOHN MORTON

who has just published his magnum opus about the seashore.

t 81, John Morton has completed his work on the rocky shore. His longwaited magnum opus is entitled Seashore Ecology of New Zealand and the Pacific. It is nothing like as frightening to read as it sounds, for John Morton is also a literary man: he writes science in language understandable by lay folk. The distinguished life member of Forest and Bird, and a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for his work in science, John Morton is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Auckland, and was the first Head of the Zoology Department there.

Many of us still cherish a worn copy of his pioneer work, The New Zealand Seashore, which he wrote with a colleague, Dr Michael Miller, and published in 1968. That book recorded for the first time the world of our tidal regions, from rocky shores to sheltered estuaries, and to a degree the new book was expected to be its successor. This new work, however, focusses only on the rocky shore. It also looks beyond New Zealand to hard shores around the Pacific, from coral reefs to the rocky seaboards of eastern Australia, Asia and the Americas. ‘The rocky shore was enough, John Morton

says of the new book which builds on his field work over 40 years in the Pacific. Text and some 380 illustrations explore the creatures and plants which make up the communities which live between high water and low. ‘One of the great unities I wanted to draw out was something which hadn't before been realised — the unity of rocky shores and coral reefs around the Pacific. We have in New Zealand a representative fragment but it is only part of a continuous system around the Pacific... ‘While this book aims to be the successor to

the old Morton and Miller it is far from being a revision, even if this were possible’ John Morton speaks of changing times. "The primary need is no longer to identify species ... some excellent guide books are now available. A new book on our shores can in some sense be synoptic, drawing patterns of species together, to reveal whole communities. fter graduating from Auckland College in the University of ew Zealand in 1946, John Morton taught for 10 years at the University of London, studying for his doctorate at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. When he returned to what was now the University of Auckland, in 1960, he became its foundation Professor of Zoology and used the example of Plymouth as a model for the Leigh Marine Laboratory which opened in 1965. He was ‘shifted aside’ from the departmental headship in zoology in 1970, a ‘happening’ he now sees as a valuable one. ‘T was relieved of being an administrator and got 19 more years to work; he says. ‘If I hadn't stepped aside then I would have remained a molluscan expert. I wouldn't have been able to do anything new. As it was I was able to break into the tropics, the coral shores. I was able to go to America, able to do a book on Hong Kong, able then to get involved in politics [he was an Auckland regional councillor in the days when the regional parks were set up] and in environmental education. He retired as an emeritus professor in 1988, determined to complete his book.

Though increasing age slowed him down, ‘especially with memory for new scientific names; he has still been able to draw the fineline illustrations which have long distinguished his work. These record in ink sketches complete communities of animals and plants found in the tidal zone. One of his mentors was T.A. Alan Stephenson who taught him to read a shore (and to draw it). Stephenson was a natural historian, appreciating all aspects of ecology, the complex mixture and association of plants and animals making up a community. John Morton learnt to record these communities with a pen in the field. They record — better than field notes, he believes — the component parts of an environment; features which can be read just as easily years later by simply looking at the field sketch. His drawings are one of his proudest achievements: they are a feature of his books and a good example of the approach is the ‘Zoned shore of Lang’s Beach, Bream Bay, east Northland} (pictured) finished with the flourish of a northern variable oystercatcher. Professor Morton is a long-time conservationist; an influential authority on conservation science, an active lobbyist too. For a period in the later 1970s and early 1980s, he was active with Forest and Bird in efforts to save native forests from millers, serving then on the Society’s national executive. His conservation advocacy was broader, however, including many local campaigns, such as trying to preserve the fossil kauri forest on Takapuna Beach from conversion to car-parking, and the restoration of scrublands adjacent to his Castor Bay home, now a young native forest and a focus for school nature studies in North Shore City. On the broader scene he co-authored Seashores for the Seventies with the environmental engineer David Thom and biochemist Ron Locker; an influential work which looked at our despoilation of the coast by insensitive development. He also wrote textbooks about the places he worked as a visiting professor, all illustrated in his distinctive pen drawings. He shows me volumes from Hong Kong, Samoa and British Columbia; a textbook entitled Guts is published in English and Japanese. John Morton’s advocacy for nature has extended to radio and television too. His ability to demonstrate biological processes by miming the creatures’ habits made him a popular figure on early New Zealand television. Later he ‘fronted’ nature programmes, providing the New Zealand perspective to largely imported material. As if this wasn’t enough, he has been an active Anglican, a Synod member, and the equally respected author of several

theological volumes. Their themes have included the interdependence of science and theology. John Morton stresses the importance his wife Pat has had in supporting his work. When they had young children she urged him to accept the honour of leading the marine scientists on a Royal Society expedition to what was then the British Solomons, a six-month stint which introduced him to the marine biology of the Pacific islands, and a highlight of his professional career. Nearer home, on the North Shore of Auckland, the couple have shared a reputation as local activists and joint-patrons of community conservation initiatives. He also acknowledges a profound debt to palaeontologist Dr Bruce Hayward whose energy as scientific editor helped bring the project to publication. Bruce Hayward, another polymath whose many publications range from Maori traditions to social history and nature guides, also contributes a chapter on the geology of seashores. In John Morton’s account, the book would not have been finished without his work. ‘Bruce Hayward deserved to be named as a co-author of this book; according to John Morton, ‘but modestly he deferred? Seashore Ecology of New Zealand and the Pacific by John Morton is a hardbound book in A4 format with 504 pages. It is published by David Bateman at $89.95.