From The New York Times fish story

A special kind of fishing expedition was organized in Ohio. Its goal was to collect specimens, most of them known as placoderms, that lived some 300 million years ago.

What had brought about the project was the cutting of a highway into Cleveland. Giant earth-moving machines would cut through a formation of worldwide fame, the Cleveland shale. For more than a century it had been known as a rich source of fossil fish from the Devonian period. Specimens, collected where rivers had cut through the shale, were prized possessions of the British in New York and other centres.

Cleveland's Museum of Natural History conducted the new hunt which, it was hoped, would provide the first complete with movable jaws. Some of these species had been partially reconstructed into creatures of frightening appearan-ce.

From The New York Times trains halted by protest

Eastern region rail services were halted last night after drivers stopped work in sympathy with a driver who was dismissed.

The driver, who is based in Leeds, was acting in line with a decision by Eastern Region staff not to implement changes in working schedules arising from British Rail's economy measures.

After refusing to take out a train in accordance with a new schedule, he was sent home, and 400 drivers at the Leeds Holbeck depot decided to stop work until be was allowed to start work again. The action was supported by drivers in the London area.

On the Southern Region, the National Union of Railwaymen is recommending members to stop work for part of Thursday afternoon to coincide with the funeral of a guard 0 who was stabbed to death.

From Morning Star tidal wave experts working together

Experts from Russia, the United States and Japan have left Vladivostok aboard the research vessel Pegasus to study tsunami - the devastating tidal waves produced by undersea earthquakes in the Pacific.

There is regular exchange of information between the tsunami study centers in Sakhalin and Honolulu. Sakhalin transmits data from observers in Kamchatka and the Kuril islands. These lie in a zone where four-fifths of all earthquakes in the world occur. These earthquakes sometimes originate only 100-125 miles from Russian shores, a distance a tidal wave can cover in 20-30 minutes. But Russian stations give warning of possible danger within seconds of the quake.

North sea oil is polluting the baltic

The oily waters of the North Sea are polluting the Baltic.

This is the verdict of studies conducted by expeditions aboard the research ship Oceanograph. The waters of the North Sea now contain far greater amounts of harmful substances, particularly oil and oil products.

In the past the picture was quite the reserve. The currents passing through the Skagerrak and Kattegat brought oxygen into the Baltic and served as a ventilator for its waters at great depths.

The pollution of the North Sea has been caused by the rapid increase in oil extraction there. Large quantities of oil have escaped on to the northern European, particularly Scandinavian, continental shelf.

Urgent and efficient measures are needed to decrease the quantities of harmful waste thrown into the sea. All the states of northern Europe would agree with that, of course, but many aspects of the problem remain unsolved.

So far as the Baltic is concerned, the states along its shores have worked out a convention to prevent its pollution.