OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION 

 By A. F. Bruun 



Earlier deep-sea expeditions, such as the Challenger and those of the 

 Prince of Monaco, although they had explored depths down to between 

 5,000 and 6,000 metres, had fished only a few times and with small gear. 

 When the Galathea Expedition was planned nothing was known about 

 the fauna in depths beyond 6,000 metres, and very little of that in the 

 reaches between 4,000 and 6,000 metres. Indeed, it was problematical 

 whether at the very lowest depths there was any life at all. These regions 

 — below 6,000 metres — make up 1.3 per cent of the earth's surface, 

 an area which may not sound very much, but which is over 4,000,000 

 square kilometres, or nearly half that of Europe. 



The first knowledge of these abyssal waters was obtained as late as 

 1948, when the Swedish Albatross Expedition succeeded in making a 

 single trawl north of the West Indies at depths ranging from 7,625 to 

 7,900 metres. 



Accordingly, the primary purpose of the Galathea Expedition was to 

 explore the ocean trenches in order to find out whether life occurred 

 under the extreme conditions prevailing there — and if so, to what 

 extent. Our second object was to seek more information, by making 

 greater use of large-scale dredging implements than had been done in the 

 past, as to whether, and to what extent, there are large and active animals 

 in the abyss, also at somewhat higher levels. Thirdly, we wished to study 

 the bottom fauna; that is to say, to gauge the amount of living animals 

 per square metre of sea-bed, by a method first employed in Danish waters. 

 It seemed a natural task for a Danish expedition to extend this method 

 to the unknown deep and the unfamiliar coastal waters in the tropical 

 regions which we proposed to visit, and which had never been explored 

 by such methods. 



Since the projected deep-sea research called for a large vessel able to 

 carry heavy gear, it followed that there would be relatively good space on 

 board, which in turn would provide facillities for undertaking a number 

 of other objects, both scientific and representative. 



The objects of the expedition are summarized in these extracts from the 

 instructions given to the leader by the committee: 



I. The scientific objects of the expedition are to carry out biological 

 and oceanographical research and make collections, principally in abyssal 



