Center of attention is the harbor seal in the salt-water pool 

 adjacent to the aquarium entrance. 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Lab- 

 oratory, Water Street (mail address: P.O. Box 6), Woods 

 Hole, Mass. 02543, is the oldest permanent marine lab- 

 oratory in the United States. It was established by 

 Spencer Fullerton Baird, the first U.S. Commissioner of 

 Fish and Fisheries, in 1875 although land for a permanent 

 building was not acquired until 1883. The town of Woods 

 Hole also has two other prominent marine research or- 

 ganizations: the Marine Biological Laboratory, estab- 

 lished in 1888, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic 

 Institution, established in 1930. 



The Laboratory's first permanent home, constructed in 

 1884, withstood the onslaught of three hurricanes before 

 it was razed in 1958 to make room for a modem 3-story 

 structure. The new laboratory-office building has 24,000 

 square feet of floor space, 33 research rooms, a large 

 tank room, a running salt-water system on the first floor, 

 an extensive library, a conference room, and adminis- 

 trative offices. A second building houses the aquarium, 

 the automatic data processing unit, and the maintenance 

 shop. Other physical facilities include an outdoor salt- 

 water pool and a deep-water dock for the Albatross IV, 

 the 187-foot fishery-oceanography research vessel that op- 

 erates in the northwestern Atlantic. The Blueback, a 40- 

 foot motorboat, is used for inshore collecting. The 

 laboratory has about 70 employees of whom 20 are 



professionals. 



(Cover) 



Scientists and crew of the Albatross IV brave severe venter 

 storms in the North Atlantic to carry out oflFshore groundfish 

 sampling which provides data needed for research programs. 



