Dear All
Hello,
I am based in Namibia and work for the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) through UK based development aid to assist in data
Management.
I seek your advice in rescuing some data which is important for World
Climate studies and Namibia's economy.
I will try to keep this concise- the details are all through 2nd/3rd hand
contact and sketchy:
In 1990 Namibia gained independance from South Africa.
A group of inexperienced Namibians inherited 8 cartridge tapes, allegedly
for a DG30 which have subsequently been lost (many have tried to find them,
they are gone). A copy of the tapes exists in South Africa. There are 8
tapes and no machines to run them on either in SA or here. Attempts have
been made to read them by fisheries scientists in France which failed (I do
not know the details).
As far as I can ascertain a DG30 is a Data General Desktop model DG
014-000767-01 (???) I know nothing about these machines and would appreciate
some links.
The tapes were written in 1988. They contain data in a 'datasensitive file'
(whatever that means) with 80 characters per record and fixed record length
files.
Why are they impt? They contain data from fisheries activities in the
environmentally chaotic Benguela current region for between 1950-1987 for
impt pelagic fish species (sardine). Getting this data into a more usable
format will enable;
1. A better understanding of fish-environmental interactions in the face of
global climate change and human impacts.
2. Provide an increased time series for fisheries modelling, thereby
assisting in developing Namibias economy (of which Fisheries is the 2nd most
impt). The sardine stock is currently at an all time low and employment has
suffered.
3. could potentially improve protein supply to central africa.
If anyone knows how this v.impt data could be rescued I would be grateful.
Please contact me below.
Richard
----------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Aukland
BENEFIT Office,
c/o NatMIRC, P.O. Box 912,
Swakopmund, Namibia
Tel: +264 (0)64 4101163 (NOTE NEW NUMBER)
Fax: +264 (0)64 405913
WWW:
http://www.benefit.org.na
Email: raukland_at_mfmr.gov.na
Received on Fri Jun 08 2001 - 02:28:42 BST