26 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Three cruises of the Blake, from 1877 to 1880, 

 represent an outstanding event in the history of 

 scientific explorations of the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 expeditions obtained a wealth of information re- 

 garding the oceanography and biology of the 

 Gulf, and the two volumes describing the work of 

 the Blake written by A. Agassiz (1888) until the 

 present day remain an important source of refer- 

 ence concerning the bottom fauna, the structure 

 and origin of coral reefs, and the distribution of 

 invertebrates and fishes at depths extending to 

 2,000 fathoms. 



Collections obtained by the Blake served as 

 material for many important publications on 

 corals, antipatharians, crinoids, and Crustacea 

 (Pourtales 1870, 1880) ; echinoderms (A. Agassiz 

 1863, 1869, 1878, 1883); hydroids (Clarke 1879); 

 annelids (Ehlers 1879) ; mollusks (Dall 1880, 1886, 

 1889) , and many others. Numerous papers dealing 

 with various taxonomic groups gathered by the 

 expeditions can be found in the first 19 volumes 

 of the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology at Harvard College. A discussion of the 

 deep-water fauna of the Gulf Stream was given 

 by Pourtales (1863-69). 



The establishment, in 1871, of the United 

 States Commission of Fish and Fisheries marked 

 the beginning of the study of the important 

 coastal and marine fisheries of the Gulf. With the 

 building of the 1,000-ton steamer Albatross in 1883, 

 the first Commissioner of Fisheries, Spencer F. 

 Baird, initiated worldwide explorations of the sea 

 fisheries. At the time of her completion, the 

 Albatross was the best equipped dredger for deep- 

 sea work in existence. One of her first details was 

 to explore the bottoms of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The instructions given in 1883 by Spencer F. 

 Baird to the commanding officer. Lieutenant 

 Commander Z. L. Tanner, read in part as follows: 

 "In returning (from the Caribbean) by way of 

 Cape San Antonio it will be well to make a run 

 into the Gulf of Mexico and spend a short time in 

 making soundings and dredging therein, for the 

 purpose of obtaining a general idea of the natural 

 history and the fisheries of the Gulf, preliminary to 

 a more lengthened visit to be made hereafter" 

 (Tanner 1886). The instructions specified that in 

 addition to the purely physical work, soundings, 

 temperature, and observation of currents, the 

 Albatross should secure "a fair representation of 

 the shore fauna of the Caribbean Sea and its 



surroundings including shallow water, to collect 

 parasites of the larger fish, birds, reptiles, fresh- 

 water fish, and the various species of mammals as 

 well as to obtain aboriginal relics in the way of 

 articles of stone, pottery, etc." Large collections 

 made by the Albatross and deposited in the 

 Smithsonian Institution testify that the instruc- 

 tions were faithfully carried out. 



During the first visit to the Gulf in 1884 the 

 Albatross explored the bottoms around the west- 

 ern tip of Cuba (fig. 10, open squares) but return- 

 ing in the following j'ear made more detailed 

 explorations around Cozumel Island, along the 

 eastern edge of Campeche Bank, on red-snapper 

 banks off Cape San Bias in the northeastern part 

 of the Gulf, and occupied a few stations along the 

 west coast of Florida and at Key West (fig. 10, 

 black double circles). 



A brief but interesting account of the history 

 of the Albatross is given by Hedgpeth (1945, 1947). 



Simultaneously with the oceanographical stud- 

 ies the United States Fish Commission conducted 

 an exploration of the fishery resources of the Gulf 

 of Mexico. Accounts of this work with reference 

 to red snappers, shore seine fishery, oysters, and 

 sponges are given by Stearns (1884, 1887), Collins 

 (1887), and Stearns and Jordan (1887). 



In 1880 the United States Commission of Fish 

 and Fisheries built a steamer. Fish Hawk, for the 

 purpose of assisting in fish-hatching operations 

 and conducting surveys of fishing grounds. From 

 November 1895 to 1896, under the command of 

 Lieutenant Franklin Swift, the Fish Hawk sur- 

 veyed oyster regions of St. Vincent Sound, Apala- 

 chicola Bay, and St. George Sound, Fla. (Swift, 

 1897), the work which 20 years later was repeated 

 with the same ship by Danglade (1917). In 1898 

 the Fish Hawk was used by the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey in hydrographic in- 

 vestigations of the inshore waters of Alabama. 

 In 1901 and 1902 the ship was engaged in sponge 

 investigations along the west coast of Florida. 

 The exploration in 1901 covered the grounds be- 

 tween Anclote Anchorage, St. Marks, and Tampa 

 Bay. In the following year the operations ex- 

 tended along the western coast of Florida, to the 

 depth of 10 fathoms, from Cedar Keys to Key 

 West. In 1905 the Fish Hawk was detailed to 

 survey the oyster bottoms and make hydro- 

 graphic investigations in Matagorda Bay, Tex. 

 (Moore 1907), in 1911 made a similar investiga- 



