News & Views South African Journal of Science 99, January/February 2003 13

end of the decade.11 The latter’s shares in Ichaboe Island passed to three Cape Historical reconstruction of Town merchants in the 1850s, who set about exploiting the islands to produce an annual crop. Their success, guano production on the coupled with a rising demand for guano in Mauritius, led to mounting challenges Namibian islands 1843–1895 to their tenure in the late 1850s from rival colonial traders, the revenue-hungry a* b Cape Colony and the United States.12 Lance van Sittert and Rob Crawford These threats prompted the incumbents to seek annexation by the imperial (British) government, which was granted his paper presents data on guano produc- the Second World War.5 Records of collec- in 1861 and confirmed in 1868. By the Ttion on the Namibian islands from 1843 to tions of seabird guano are available for latter date the firm of De Pass, Spence and 1895, reconstructed from the nineteenth- many of the southern African seabird Company had bought out the two other century customs records of the Cape Colony breeding localities from 1896.1,3,4 For shareholders (Granger and Thomson, and United Kingdom. As the latter was the primary market for Namibian guano during , this paper extends the record Watson & Co.) in Ichaboe Island and this period, the data series can be considered back to the mid-nineteenth century. The received a 27-year lease on all the islands to encompass the global production on the is- pelagic fish populations off Namibia and ‘between the two civilized boundaries’ lands. Interpretation of the records as a proxy South Africa are relatively discrete.4 which lasted until 30 June 1895.13 index for fish stock abundance is complicated Guano production was hostage to both by the interplay of cultural and environmen- A brief history of the Namibian environmental and market forces. Heavy tal factors in influencing annual production. rain during the breeding season or the When compared with rainfall records from islands in the nineteenth century disappearance of the sardine or pilchard the Royal Observatory in Cape Town (1846– The prolific bird life and huge guano 1895), the guano data are suggestive of a rela- caps of the Namibian islands were known (Sardinops ocellata) and anchovy (Engraulis tionship between guano production and envi- well before the nineteenth century,6 but capensis) shoals from the immediate ronment, but firm conclusions must await the first published and hence widely vicinity of the islands could severely better proxy records, perhaps based on fish disseminated account was that of the deplete or entirely destroy the season’s scales in seafloor sediments off the Namibian American mariner, Benjamin Morrell.7 He crop. The harvesting and distribution of coast. reconnoitered the southwest African the crop was in turn governed by price coast in 1828 in search of seal ‘jackets’ and and quality. Guano from Ichaboe Island The Benguela upwelling system off the made passing mention of an island ‘liter- was widely held to be of superior quality west coast of southern Africa supports ally covered with jackass-penguins and owing to the island’s massive gannet large populations of shoaling pelagic gannets [and] bird’s manure to the depth (Morus capensis) colony, but instead of fishes that are fed upon by several of the of twenty-five feet’.8 By the early 1840s his being sold in pure form it was routinely region’s abundant seabird species. The observations, circulated in an account of mixed with inferior guano from other seabirds breed at islands and on specially the voyage published in the United islands, fossil deposits from the mainland constructed platforms, where the guano States, had acquired new significance in at Hottentots Bay and even, according to they produce has formed the basis of an the context of British “high farming’s” critics, generous amounts of sand. The industry that has persisted for more than hunger for fertilizer and the Peruvian gov- result was a product that failed to find a 150 years.1 The region is one of only two ernment’s conversion of its guano islands market in the United Kingdom, where worldwide where seabird guano contin- into a state monopoly.9 It was brought to scientific analysis was the norm by the ues to be harvested annually on a com- the attention of Liverpool merchants, end of the 1840s, and was sold instead to mercial basis, the other being Peru.2 eager to profit from the burgeoning the less sophisticated sugar planters of Records of guano harvests have value in domestic demand by undercutting the Mauritius.14 By the end of the 1850s, how- providing proxy indices of fish stock Peruvian monopoly’s attempts at price ever, the Mauritian market had become abundance that give useful insight into fixing. They despatched vessels in search equally quality conscious and the practice fluctuations in the abundance of the fish of Morrell’s island at the end of 1842. The of admixing was discontinued in favour stocks on which the birds prey.3 For pelagic arrival of the first consignment of guano of supplying a better quality product. This fish stocks, it is often difficult to separate from Ichaboe Island to Britain in July 1843 trend was reinforced by the granting of a the effects of fishing and the environment touched off the African guano rush that 27-year monopoly over the islands to De on trends in abundance.4 Proxy records of lasted until 1845 and stripped the accu- Pass Spence and Company in 1869, and abundance that pre-date the onset of mulated deposits of millennia, more than the steady improvement in guano prices commercial purse-seine fisheries are 330 000 tons, from the offshore islands in the United Kingdom in the 1870s. therefore of particular value. The south- between Saldanha and Walvis bays.10 ern African purse-seine fisheries that ex- In the south, the then Cape Colony im- Reconstructing nineteenth-century ploit pelagic fishes began in earnest after posed a leasehold system on the islands Namibian guano production within its territorial waters, but Ichaboe The total quantity of guano produced in aDepartment of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. Island and its ‘little dependencies’ north South Africa is known from 1896 E-mail: [email protected] of the were in ‘no man’s onwards, when all the islands passed bMarine and Coastal Management, Private Bag X2, land’. There the British navy imposed from private into state hands and annual Rogge Bay 8012, South Africa. E-mail: [email protected] order in 1844 and Liverpool merchants reports were produced detailing each *Author for correspondence. retained speculative interests until the island’s harvest. Production during the 14 South African Journal of Science 99, January/February 2003 News & Views

half century of private leasehold, how- ever, is unknown owing to the dearth of public records. The chief South African source of nine- teenth-century guano production is the Cape Colony Blue Book/Statistical Regis- ter,15 which records both the quantity of guano exported from the colony (from 1850 onwards) and the quantity imported into the colony from Namibia (1857–1886). These are only partial measures of annual production, the exports not reflecting the guano sold to farmers in the colony and the imports eliding the amount exported Fig. 1. United Kingdom guano imports. Average price per short ton (£/2000 lb): 1844–1899. Thick line from the Namibian islands to places other represents imports from Namibia, the thin line shows imports from the Cape Colony; 1 short ton = 907 kg. than the Cape Colony. We cannot reconstruct Cape domestic obvious omission is that of the Mauritian The German claim to the territory consumption of guano from the islands in trade, embedded in the Cape Colony’s ‘between the two civilized boundaries’ in Cape territorial waters, because it left no export figures as re-exports (guano of the early 1880s19 reinforced the shift in permanent customs trace. The same is not ‘Other Produce and Manufacture’). The customs practice reflected in the way both true of guano production on the Nami- assumption made here is that this guano the British and Cape authorities recorded bian islands, which can in theory be was of Namibian origin in the absence of Namibian guano movements. completely reconstructed because the other regional sources and unlikelihood After 1880, British guano imports from guano originated in a colonial ‘no man’s of imports from further afield. The the ‘Western Coast of Africa, not particu- land’ until the mid-1880s and thus all had Mauritian trade flourished briefly before larly designated’ show a marked decline, to pass through customs in order to reach the planters began subjecting South with several years in which no imports markets. Provided all the markets can be African guano to the same scientific were recorded, before stopping com- identified, the global production of the analysis as in Britain, and discovered that pletely after 1891. Cape guano imports Namibian islands can be reconstructed they were recipients of a heavily adulter- from Namibia also peter out after 1880, from diverse customs records for the half ated fertilizer.17 In addition to Mauritius, with only the value of guano imported century prior to 1896. small quantities of Namibian guano were recorded for 1884–86, after which all The single most important market for re-exported to other regional markets. records cease. What appears to have South African guano in the nineteenth The third adjustment is necessitated by happened is that British customs started century was the United Kingdom (Fig. 1). the changing status of the Namibian recording the Namibian guano as origi- The British customs recorded African islands and Damaraland/Great Nama- nating from ‘British Possessions in South guano imports between 1844 and 1894 as qualand as ‘no man’s land’. The Namibian Africa viz Cape of Good Hope’ after 1880. originating from two sources: the one was islands were transferred from the British This is supported by British customs the ‘Colonial Territory of the Cape of government to the Cape Colony in 1874 records, which logged significantly more Good Hope’ or ‘British Possessions in over the protests of De Pass, Spence and guano imported from the Cape Colony South Africa viz. Cape of Good Hope’. Company, but this had no immediate dis- after 1880 than Cape customs officials The other was the ‘Coast [of Africa] from cernible effect on how either British or recorded leaving the colony (Fig. 3). The [the] Rio Volta to the [Colonial Territory Cape customs recorded Namibian guano. difference, it is reasonable to suppose, is of] the Cape of Good Hope’, or simply the The Cape parliament, as De Pass feared, the Namibian ‘crop’ now entered as origi- ‘Western Coast of Africa, not particularly gradually asserted its authority over the nating from a British source to emphasize designated’.16 The former can be read as Namibian islands and ultimately voted British suzerainty against German ambi- guano originating from the islands in the for their transfer to the Department of tions towards the islands. An earlier Cape Colony’s territorial waters until Agriculture in 1889 to provide western surplus on British customs figures for the 1880 (see below) and the latter as guano Cape farmers with subsidized fertilizer.18 period 1846–56 can be disregarded as it derived from the Namibian islands. The years 1844–45 have been excluded as they represented the removal of the ancient guano caps and are therefore useless as indicators of annual variation in guano production. The rush rendered the islands clean slates, however, on which subsequent variations in this proxy of pelagic fish abundance in the Benguela upwelling system could be recorded. The Namibian data in Fig. 2 are nevertheless incomplete, and need to be amended in three further respects before analysis. The first and most obvious modification is the addition of the Cape Colony’s import figures. The second and less Fig. 2. United Kingdom guano imports from the west coast of Africa: 1846–1895. News & Views South African Journal of Science 99, January/February 2003 15

does not reflect hidden Namibian ex- ports, but was rather the period before the Cape customs started to enumerate its own guano exports.

Interpreting reconstructed Namibian guano production 1844–1895 Any consideration of environmental forcing of the Namibian data needs first to take account of the cultural factors condi- tioning the annual guano crop over the period from 1844 to 1894 (Fig. 4). Prior to 1868, the uncertain status of the islands and hence the tenure of their incumbents invited raids and harassment by competi- tors, especially during periods of high 12 guano prices. During these conflicts the Fig. 3. United Kingdom guano imports from Cape Colony less Cape Colony guano exports: 1846–1899. seabird colonies were severely disturbed, with probable large displacement of birds from their breeding colonies.19 The switchback nature of Namibian guano production from 1844 to 1867 reflects, in part at least, this extraneous human variable. Conversely, guano harvesting during the De Pass tenure of the islands after 1868 was shaped primarily by price considerations. Thus the increase in production after 1870 may have been conditioned as much by market as by environmental forces. Lastly, the decade after 1883 was once again characterized by increased levels of human disruption of the islands associated with German colonization, requiring due caution when analysing the significant decline in output from this date.20 Additionally, as pointed out by Ross and Randall,21 the mixing of sand with guano would inflate the apparent yield of guano. Thus, unlike the post-1895 guano production data, which were not market Fig. 4. Total Namibian guano production: 1846–1895. driven and hence more accurately reflect variations in the Benguela upwelling system, the production data from the 1844–1894 period need to be interpreted with caution. One possible way of filter- ing the cultural from the environmental signal is to compare the Namibian guano data with rainfall figures. Heavy rain may wash guano into the sea, thereby reduc- ing the yield.21 Along the Namibian coast heavy rain is often related to the so-called Benguela Niños, when warm water is advected along the Namibian shelf from farther north in the tropical eastern Atlan- tic Ocean.22 Greatly reduced yields of guano and fish off Namibia may indicate such events. Should depressions in guano and fish production consistently match periods of high rainfall, this would pro- vide confidence that the record reflected natural rather than human factors. Fig. 5. Namibian guano production (bars) and rainfall recorded at the Royal Observatory, Cape Town (continu- Nineteenth-century rainfall data for ous line): 1846–1895. 16 South African Journal of Science 99, January/February 2003 News & Views

southern Africa are scarce and unreliable 3. Crawford R.J.M. and Skelton P.A. (1978). Pelagic Solomon, Cape Town. Cape of Good Hope fish and seabird interrelationships off the coasts (1886–1895). Statistical Register. W.A. Richards, and attempts to substitute them with of South West and South Africa. Biol. Conserv. 14, Cape Town. qualitative data are unhelpful for present 85–109. 16. Public Record Office (1844–1899). CUST 4/39– purposes.23 The longest extant rainfall 4. Schwartzlose R.A., Alheit J., Bakun A., Baum- CUST 4/94. gartner T., Cloete R., Crawford R.J.M., Fletcher 17. Cape of Good Hope (1879). Returns Showing the series for the region is that from the Royal W.J., Green-Ruiz Y., Hagen E., Kawasaki T., 24 Amount of Revenue Derived from Guano Islands of the Observatory in Cape Town, which, Lluch-Belda D., Lluch-Cota S.E., MacCall A.D., Colony [A24–79]. Saul Solomon, Cape Town. coincidentally, began just prior to the Matsuura Y., Nevárez-Martínez M.O., Parrish 18. Esterhuyse J.H. (1968). South West Africa great African guano rush in 1841 (Fig. 5).25 R.H., Roy C., Serra R., Shust K. V.,Ward N.M. and 1880–1894: The Establishment of German Authority Zuzunaga J.Z. (1999). Worldwide large-scale in South West Africa. Struik, Cape Town. There is, however,no direct relationship fluctuations of sardine and anchovy populations. 19. Crawford R.J.M., Shelton P.A., Cooper J. and S. Afr. J. mar. Sci. 21, 289–347. between rainfall in the southwestern Brooke R.K. (1983). Distribution, population size 5. Kinahan J. (1990). The impenetrable shield: HMS and conservation of the Morus Cape, much of which is frontal, and in Nautilus and the Namib coast in the late eigh- capensis. S. Afr. J. mar. Sci. 1, 153–174. Namibia,26 so the Royal Observatory data teenth century. Cimbebasia 12, 23–61. 20. Angra Pequena and West Coast Claims Joint 6. Kinahan J. (1992). By Command of their Lordships: are a poor proxy. As they are the only data Commission (1885). Proceedings of the Angra The Exploration of the Namibian Coast by the Royal available, however, we show them and Pequena and West Coast Joint Claims Commission, Navy, 1795–1895. Namibian Archaeological Trust, March–September 1885. Saul Solomon, Cape Town. the adjusted Namibian guano record in Windhoek. Fig. 5. Although there was a tendency for 7. Best P.B. and Shaughnessy P.D. (1979). An inde- 21. Ross G.J.B. and Randall R.M. (1988). ‘Phosphate’ and southern African guano harvests. South the guano yield to decrease in years of pendent account of Captain Benjamin Morrell’s sealing voyage to the south-west coast of Africa in African National Scientific Programmes Report 157, higher rainfall, the disparate regions of the Antarctic, 1828/29. Fish. Bull. S. Afr. 12, 1–19. 99–103. FRD, Pretoria. the two data series preclude any conclu- 8. Petrie P.(1844). Morrell’s Narrative of a Voyage to the 22. Shannon L.V., Boyd A.J., Brundrit G.B. and Taunton-Clark J. (1986). On the existence of an El sion regarding causality. Whereas the South and West Coast of Africa containing the Information from whence Originated the Present Trade Niño-type phenomenon in the Benguela system. guano record is useful in extending the in Guano found on certain Islands on that Coast. J. mar. Res. 44(3), 495–520. Namibian production record back into Whittaker, London. 23. Vogel C.H. (1987). The reconstruction of the nine- the 1800s, considerable care must there- 9. Mathew W.M.(1972). Foreign contractors and the teenth century Cape climate using documentary Peruvian government at the outset of the guano evidence. M.A. thesis, University of the Witwaters- fore be taken in interpreting it. In future, trade. The Hispanic American Hist. Rev. 52, 598–620. rand, Johannesburg. Vogel C.H. (1988). Climatic proxy records such as the occurrence of Olinger J.P.(1980). The guano age in Peru. History change in the Cape Colony, 1820–1900. S. Afr. J. Sci. 84, 11. fish scales in seafloor sediments off Today 30, 13–18. 24. VogelC.H. (1988). 160 years of rainfall at the Cape: 27 10. Craig R. (1964). The African guano trade. The Namibia may become available to assist Mariner’s Mirror 50, 25–55. has there been a change? S. Afr.J. Sci. 84, 724–726. in such interpretation. 11. Ex-Member of the Committee (1845). The African 25. Hutchins D.E. (1905). The cycle year 1905 and the guano trade. Being an account of the trade in coming season. Trans. S. Afr. Phil. Soc. 16, 237–250. We thank Ian Phimister and Caroline Howell for exca- guano from Ichaboe, and other places on the Union of South Africa (1927). Rainfall Normals up to vating the PRO data and the History of Marine Ani- African coast, more particularly the proceedings the end of 1925 [UG23–27]. Government Printer, mal Populations (HMAP) for funding the research. of the Committee of management. Nautical Maga- Pretoria. The HMAP is the historical component of the ‘Census zine 617–666; and Eden T.E. (1846). The Search for 26. Tyson P.D. and Preston Whyte R.A. (2000). The of Marine Life’ (CoML) programme (www.coml.org). Nitre and the True Nature of Guano. Groombridge, Weather and Climate of Southern Africa. Oxford London. The HMAP was initiated in the autumn of 1999 and is University Press, Cape Town. 12. Cape of Good Hope (1861). Report of the Select 27. Shackleton L.Y. (1987). A comparative study of based on the approach outlined in ref. 28. Committee on the Annexation of Ichaboe [A11-61]. fossil fish scales from three upwelling regions. Saul Solomon, Cape Town. S. Afr. J. mar. Sci. 5, 79–84. 1. Hutchinson G.E. (1950). The biogeochemistry of 13. Cape of Good Hope (1895). Report of the Select 28. Holm P., Smith T. and Starkey D.J. History of vertebrate excretion. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 96, Committee on Petition of Mr D. De Pass [A3-95]. W.A. Marine Animal Populations: Testing Ecological 1–554. Richards, Cape Town. Hypotheses (http://www.cmrh.dk/hmappros. 2. Crawford R.J.M. and Janhcke J. (1999). Compari- 14. Storey W.K. (1997). Science and Power in Colonial html). See also Holm P., Smith T. and Starkey D.J. son of trends in abundance of guano-producing Mauritius. University of Rochester Press, (eds). Exploited Seas. Directions for marine envi- seabirds in Peru and southern Africa. S. Afr. J. mar. Rochester, NY. ronmental history (Research in International Sci. 21, 145–156. 15. Cape of Good Hope (1850–1885). Blue Book. Saul Maritime History, No. 21) St John’s, Nflnd; 2002.

Forthcoming meetings Global change and regional sustainability in South Africa. coelacanth behaviour and ecology, conservation and manage MTN Sciencenter, Century City, Cape Town, 27 29 October 2003. A ment, environmental education and public awareness, and under national symposium under the aegis of the South African Scientific water exploration. Further information is available from Melanie Committee on Global Change with the support of the NRF and en Darlow, Programmes Office, SAIAB, Private Bag 1015, Grahams dorsement by ICSU. Full details about themes, symposium venue, town 6140. Tel. (046) 603 5830; fax: (046) 622 2403; e mail: registration and submissions are available at http://www.nrf.ac.za/ [email protected]; http://www.saiab.ru.ac.za/coelacanth saeon/globalchange.htm. Enquiries: [email protected] African neutron diffraction meeting. Centurion, 21 22 The SASCGC also invites short submissions (not more than a few August 2003. Organized by the neutron diffraction group at paragraphs) summarizing active research from anyone involved in NECSA (South African Nuclear Energy Corporation), the aim of global change research in South Africa for inclusion in the commit the meeting is to introduce the research and industrial communi tee’s report to the internal board of ICSU. Please mail these submis ties to the latest developments in the use of neutron diffraction sions to [email protected] techniques in the investigation and characterization of materials. International Coelacanth Conference. East London Museum Prominent speakers from the European Crystallographic Associa and East London Health Resource Centre, 28 31 October 2003. tion, who will be in South Africa to participate in the ECA meeting Organized by the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, taking place in Durban from 24 29 August, will give talks on their the East London Museum, Rhodes University and the University of activities. Further information is available from Andrew Venter, Fort Hare, the conference will focus on the latest research results and Group head: Neutron diffraction at the Safari 1 research reactor, future prospects. Papers and posters are invited on such topics as NECSA [tel. (012) 305 5038; e mail: [email protected]].