T 



DISCOVERY INVESTIGATIONS 

 STATION LIST 



1950-1951 

 (Plates III-V) 



INTRODUCTION 



his list contains particulars of the observations made during the sixth commission of the R.R.S. 

 'Discovery II' from May 1950 to December 1951. Earlier observations by the same ship have 

 already been published in Discovery Reports, vols. 1, in, iv, xxi, xxn and xxiv, and although the 

 present stations have been separated from those by a gap of eleven years, numerical continuity has 

 been maintained with the pre-war station numbers. 



The sixth commission of the R.R.S. ' Discovery II ' was planned primarily to round off the general 

 survey of the Southern Ocean, which had been one of the major tasks of the Discovery Committee. 

 Most of the region had been well covered during the pre-war years, but there were insufficient 

 observations in some areas, especially in the winter months. The voyage was therefore timed to cover 

 one summer and two winter seasons in the South. In addition, opportunity was taken to co-operate 

 with various home and dominion authorities in making observations of mutual interest. 



The first seven Stations (2653-2659) were worked in conjunction with the Marine Biological 

 Association of the United Kingdom, from the continental shelf into deep water west of the English 

 Channel. The ship then proceeded through the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, making miscel- 

 laneous observations in the Bay of Biscay, through the Straits of Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean and 

 through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea. The first major item of the 

 programme then followed : a line of stations from the equator to 30 South in 90 East. This line was 

 later continued south to the ice-edge. Some Stations (2706-2725) were then worked off the east 

 Australian coast at the request of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Division of 

 Fisheries, and this was followed by a line of stations across the Tasman Sea. After a second Antarctic 

 voyage comprising a line of stations in i5o°W, the ship returned to Australia and made further 

 observations at Stations 2778-2801 in conjunction with the Australian authorities. This completed 

 the work in Australian waters and a repetition of the stations on the southern section of the 90 E. line 

 initiated the circumpolar cruise, which took the ship across the Tasman Sea, the Pacific, Atlantic and 

 Indian Ocean Sectors of the Antarctic, and eventually back to Australia. On the homeward voyage 

 further stations were worked in the Central Indian Ocean, in 90 E., and again through the Straits of 

 Bab-el-Mandeb, the Red Sea and Mediterranean. 



The chemical estimations at Stations 2653-2659 were done at the Laboratory of the Marine 

 Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, and those at Stations 2706-2725 and 

 2778-2801 at the laboratories of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Division of 

 Fisheries in Australia. At all other stations analyses were carried out on board the ship. The salinity 

 and oxygen determinations at Stations 2664-2704, 2726-2777 and 2802-2816* were made with new 

 techniques which were found to be unsatisfactory and were abandoned after Station 2816*. Although 

 these salinity and oxygen figures are considered to be of doubtful accuracy and no precise estimation 



* For the oxygen determinations the final station was 2820. 



300 



