Ecology is still the organized study of distributions, abundances and interactions among species of animals and plants. On a planet with massive problems of loss of habitat, environmental contamination, social needs for restoration and for conservation of biodiversity, never has ecology been so needed. Yet, virtually all management of coastal resources, habitats, environmental issues, biodiversity, etc., is done in ignorance (often wilful ignorance) of and, sometimes, with deliberate perversion of ecological understanding. This has largely come about because many ecologists have become advocates (losing any claim to objectivity), unrigorous (losing any claim to expertise) and too prone to jumping on bandwagons (losing any claim to anything!). Combinations of ignorance of past findings with failures to synthesize, explain or be self-critical have yielded all our real roles to interest groups, environmentalists and those who think that any science will do as long as it is what we want. As a result, management, if it involves any science involves routine data-gathering (so-called monitoring), even though sensible ecologists know that we can only develop predictive understanding of processes by appropriate experimentation. I shall try to illustrate this sorry state of affairs with a view to promoting plans to resolve it.
