

FOREWORD 



By Robert E. Coker, Chairman. *' Jf^ 



A request from President Graham of the University of North Carolina in 

 October, 1944, for a project in marine biology led to the proposal of an 

 Institute of Fisheries Research with a laboratory at a suitable place on the 

 coast. Underlying the proposal was the thought that there was definite need 

 for a State or regional agency through which the techniques and principles 

 of the natural and social sciences could be applied to all manner of problems 

 in the use and preservation of the State's marine resources. Hitherto North 

 Carolina's valuable fish and shellfish have been virtually neglected so far as 

 regards the application of scientific research or systematic studies such as 

 have been so productive in respect to resources of the land. It was hoped that 

 properly directed research on resources of the sea and the sounds might lead 

 to greater profit in exploitation and to sounder practices in conservation. 



The provisional draft of the project for fisheries research was considered 

 successively by a number of committees and boards of the University, in- 

 cluding the Division of Natural Sciences, the Advisory Committee, the 

 Administrative Board of the Graduate School, the Administrative Council of 

 the Consolidated University and the Executive Council of the Graduate 

 School of the Greater University. After full approval by all such committees 

 and boards, the President appointed an initial committee of organization 

 with membership as follows: L. D. Baver, Director of the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Raleigh; R. W. Bost, Head, Department of Chemistry, 

 Chapel Hill; R. E. Coker, Department of Zoology, Chapel Hill, Chairman; 

 William deB. MacNider, Department of Pharmacology, Chapel Hill; Z. P. 

 Metcalf, Department of Zoology, State College; W. W. Pierson, Dean of 

 the Graduate School, ex officio. 



The committee met in Chapel Hill, August 9, 1945, with all members 

 present, except that, in the unavoidable absence of Dean Pierson, his place 

 was taken by John B. Woosley. Present also and participating by special 

 invitation, were Harden F. Taylor of New York, recently President of 

 The Atlantic Coast Fisheries Company, and Herbert F. Prytherch, Di- 

 rector of the U. S. Fisheries Laboratory at Beaufort. The group decided 

 unanimously on the need for an Institute of Fisheries Research and on the 

 desirability of its affiliation with the University in Chapel Hill. In the discus- 



J. 



«2^ 



# 



