The Anstruther Rotary Club held a special meeting in the Craw's Nest Hotel on November 30th, in celebration of St Andrew's Day. Club president Bill Henderson opened proceedings with a brief account of St Andrew and of his particular association with the town of St Andrews.

After an excellent meal members and their guests enjoyed singing from Sarah Wood and a fascinating talk from Professor Christopher Smout, Emeritus Professor of Scottish History at St Andrews University and the Historiographer Royal in Scotland. During the evening Sarah performed four songs, accompanying herself on the banjo. Robert Burns' 'Ay Fond Kiss' and 'A Man's a Man for A' That' were interspersed with two of Sarah's own compositions, 'Shoot, Shoot' and 'Swinging Song'.  This rewarding combination of songs, combining the traditional and the modern and emotion and wit, had the audience enthralled.

Professor Smout spoke about the environmental history of the Firth of Forth, or, as he put it, 400 years of exploitation and pollution. His astonishingly wide-ranging account, drawing on an enormous body of compelling facts and figures, described the largely deleterious effect of humans on our local marine environment. A phenomenal abundance of shellfish and white fish only 150 years ago contrasts with the dearth of these resources today. Peat thrown into the water from marshland drainage, Edinburgh sewage, leakage from oil refineries, and over-fishing together have been responsible for this dramatic decline. But over time conservation and water-purification measures have brought some good news. The fish stocks have generally not recovered, but seals, dolphins and many species of bird are apparent in increasing numbers.  For example in 1903 there were ten thousand pairs of gannets on Bass Rock; now there are an estimated 46,000 pairs. The evening closed with a vote of thanks from club vice-president John Wood.