These layers of water change in size and position, and 

 sometimes most rapidly; along a meridian, displacements by 

 as much as 300 miles in a month have been observed. The 

 movement of each of the various layers appears independent, 

 yet the distribution of properties is dependent upon occur- 

 rences in each of the layers. 



These initial results of the Pilot Study support the feasi- 

 bility of the full-scale investigation. This research will 

 require the use of three ships over a period of 18 months 

 to 2 years. It will start in 1967. 



Nothing exactly like the Trade Wind Zone Oceanography 

 investigation, both in nature and scope, has been attempted 

 before. Although it springs from an interest in fishery 

 problems and the compelling need to understand better the 

 relation of the fish to the sea, the study will bear impor- 

 tantly on the fields of meteorology and naval operations. It 

 might also provide information that would make this type 

 of investigation no longer necessary, for it could point to 

 those sites in the ocean where such observation platforms 

 as anchored buoys might most appropriately be located, thus 

 making it possible to obtain truly synoptic data on oceanog- 

 raphic and meteorological conditions in midocean without 

 the use of surface ships. 



The First Mile Down 



In the preceding section it has been shown that to under- 

 stand the nature of the water column in the vicinity of the 



FI(;i'RE 22. The heart of (he Pilot Sludv of the Traile 

 \^in<i /one waj* an unvarying pattern of observations of 

 <M-eani>eraphir properties month by month. At the left a 

 terhnirian reads temperature registered by thermometer 

 in >ansen boltle. In the center a technician operates the 

 hnth> thermograph winch. She is Karbara Boldt, the first 

 ttoman to serve as a sea-going technician at this l.ab<irator> . 

 Al the right the '*fish*' of the salinity-temperaturcHlepth 

 recorder is brought aboard the Townnend i'.roinwoH. 



32 



