GULF OF MEXICO 



31 



American scientists interested in marine research 

 were grieved to learn from the report of the direc- 

 tor of the Carnegie Institution for 1939 of the 

 discontinuance of the laboratory due to the 

 •'relatively high cost of its maintenance." At the 

 time of this action the Laboratory was receiving a 

 modest annual grant of $12,000 which constituted 

 about 0.8 percent of the total budget of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington for that year. 



Brief mention should be made of the attempt of 

 the United States Bureau of Fisheries to establish 

 a fishery laboratory at Key West in 1917. Owing 

 to the lack of funds for salaries and equipment 

 the station never became functional and was 

 abandoned in 1928. 



A small laboratory is maintained by Louisiana 

 State University on Grand Isle. The laboratory 

 is used every summer from June to July for teach- 

 ing. Despite modest equipment and lack of 

 modern research facilities a number of valuable 

 scientific papers resulted from its operations which 

 have enhanced our knowledge of the Gulf fauna. 



From 1935 to 1937 the United States Bureau 

 of Fisheries maintained a temporary laboratory 

 at Indian Pass in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, for 

 the purpose of studying the biology of the oyster 

 leech iStylochu~s inimicus) and other enemies of 

 the oyster. Upon completion of this work (Pearse 

 and Wharton 1938) the laboratory was abandoned 

 in 1937 and the equipment transferred to the 

 fisheries laboratory near Pensacola, Fla. The 

 latter laboratory, established in 1937 primarily 

 for shellfish research, is located on a small island 

 in Santa Rosa Sound about 7 miles from Pensacola. 

 The laboratory, with several auxiliary buildings, 

 occupies the site of the abandoned quarantine 

 station. It is equipped with running sea water 

 and outdoor cement tanks for experiments on 

 shellfish. The current work consists in ecological 

 and biological research on oysters in Florida, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana waters. 



The Marine Laboratory of the LTniversity of 

 Miami was established in 1942 at Coral Gables, 

 Fla., for research and teaching in oceanography, 

 marine biology, conservation, and management 

 of fishery resources. Its operations extend over 

 the waters of the West Indies and the Gulf of 

 Mexico. The laboratory maintains a station at 

 Apalachicola for oyster studies and, as circum- 

 stances require, establishes temporary head- 

 quarters along the west coast of Florida. Principal 



research projects, some of which are sponsored by 

 the United States Navj', deal with the circulation 

 of water in the Gulf (Smith, et al., 1951), seasonal 

 changes in the composition of plankton of Biscayne 

 Bay and adjacent oceanic waters, red tide, sponge 

 disease and sponge culture, physiology of fouling 

 organisms, and many others. Several of the 

 articles by the members of the laboratory staff 

 appeared in the newly established Bulletin of Ma- 

 rine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean and in the 

 Proceedings of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries 

 Institute founded by the laboratory. The Gulf 

 and Caribbean Fisheries Institute represents an 

 effort to integrate the work of oceanographers, 

 biologists, economists, fishermen, and admin- 

 istrators. It seems appropriate to point out here 

 that the idea of preparing a digest of the existing 

 literature on the biology and oceanography of the 

 Gulf of Mexico originated at the Second Annual 

 Session of the Institute and has materialized 

 through the efforts of several members of this 

 organization (Walford 1950). 



Several other institutions devoted primarily to 

 the study of Gulf problems, were established in 

 recent years. The Institute of Marine Science 

 of the University of Texas in Port Aransas was 

 founded in 1948 with a grant from the General 

 Education Board and with funds provided by the 

 Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Research 

 Foundation. The Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster 

 Commission established, in 1949, a marine labora- 

 tory at Rockport, Tex. The Fish and Wildlife 

 Service of the United States Department of the 

 Interior has maintained, since 1949, a temporary 

 laboratory for red-tide studies at Sarasota, Fla., 

 and in 1950 established headquarters with lab- 

 oratory facilities at Galveston, Tex., for the con- 

 duct of oceanographical and biological studies of 

 the Gulf. The Oceanographic Institute of Florida 

 State University was established in 1949 with two 

 seaside stations, one at Alligator Harbor and 

 another at the mouth of the St. Johns River about 

 12 miles east of Jacksonville at Mayport, Fla., 

 on the Atlantic coast. Research facilities of these 

 stations, engaged primarily in teaching, are 

 limited. 



Since 1947 the State of Mississippi has main- 

 tained the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at 

 Ocean Springs, Miss., for instruction in zoologj' 

 and botan}^ 



Recent oil-development activities in the coastal 



