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A PIONEER OF INTERNATIONAL DEEP SEA RESEARCH 



By 



Haxs Pettersson 



Oceanographical Institute, Goteborg, Sweden 



Few sciences seem more predestined for international cooperation than 

 the sciences of the sea. Realizing this, Otto Pettersson, together with a 

 few colleagues from the Scandinavian countries, at the beginning of this 

 century took the initiative in the formation of the International Council 

 for the Exploration of the Sea. A most important and fruitful work was 

 carried on by this group in the comparatively shallow but economically 

 important seas around northwestern Europe, especially during the first 

 few decades of this century. Exact research methods were developed and 

 accurate instruments constructed and tested for physico-chemical ocean- 

 ography. In addition, coordinated cruises were organized within the 

 North Sea and adjacent waters, the results from which showed new as- 

 pects of the structure and movements of the water masses, their content 

 of living organisms, plankton and fishes, as well as the most adequate 

 means of preventing destructive overfishing by the novel highly developed 

 technique of fishing gear. 



A quarter of a century before this new departure took place, a pioneer 

 of deep-sea research. Prince Albert of Monaco, had already become en- 

 gaged in work of a very high caliber, the results from which soon at- 

 tracted the attention of the whole world to his small princedom on the 

 Cote d'Azur. As an officer in the Spanish navy, in his early youth the 

 young prince had formed a passionate interest in the ocean, at first as 

 a navigator but in due time as an indefatigable worker in marine re- 

 search. Starting with a sailing yacht of 200 tons, the "Hirondelle," he 



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