Project Coral Fish Looks at Palau 



By Frederick M. Bayer 



United States National Museum 

 Smithsonian Institution 



and 



Robert R. Harry-Rofen 



The George Vanderbilt Foundation 



[With 20 plates] 



We who live on continents can rarely appreciate the vastness of 

 the world's oceans. Those of us who may be prompted by business or 

 pleasure to traverse them learn of their two-dimensional magnitude, 

 but there are a few of us who are privileged to investigate the secrets 

 of the seas first-hand, by living among them. We look upon the seas 

 in their role as an environment and seek to unravel the interwoven 

 facts of life within them. One of the first facts we learn is the com- 

 plexity of their many-faceted wonders, and we consider ourselves 

 fortunate when we are able, as it were, to polish a few of these facets 

 so as to see more clearly into them. 



Of all the seas, the one with the greatest area, greatest depth, and 

 most to tell us is that restless giant, the Pacific. Even before we begin 

 to study it we must concede, if not defeat, at best a draw, for it is prac- 

 tically axiomatic that one solution leads to another problem. When 

 our words are as antiquated as those of the Renaissance pioneers Belon 

 and Rondelet and Marsigli now seem to us, people will still be learning 

 new things about this watery one-third of our planet. 



When we look upon the Pacific, or any ocean for that matter, as an 

 environment, the central problem deals with the physical and chemical 

 properties of the fluid medium that make it adequate to support life. 

 This is a vast field of investigation to which many people in many 

 laboratories are devoting tireless efforts. We, however, as biologists, 

 can devote time to such problems only when they have direct and im- 

 mediate bearing upon some question involving the organisms with 

 which we are concerned, and even then we must rely upon specialists 

 in those restricted fields for most of the information we need. The 



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