30" S. 20' 



10' 0" 10' 



LATITUDE 



50° N. 



FIGURE 26. Vertical section showing average values of 

 salinity and depth from lat. 30' S. to 53^ N. along long, 

 139 W. 



raphy have been conducted. One, now nearing completion, 

 is a continuation of the .study of surface ocean currents 

 around the Hawaiian Islands by the use of drift cards. For 

 a year or more, drift cards have been dropped from an 

 airplane flying a fixed pattern near the island of Oahu each 

 month. The results of the drift-card returns are now being 

 analyzed. The ,second study ventures far afield from physical 

 oceanography and concerns itself with the mathematics 

 involved in the problem of trapping the small creatures of 

 the sea in nets. 



Fishermen are not the only persons who deplore the fish 

 that got away. Scientists are equally concerned. As has 

 been mentioned, the standard collecting device for plankton 

 is the 1-meter net. Barkley has published a short paper 

 with a long title, "The theoretical effectiveness of towed-net 

 samplers as related to sampler size and to swimming speed 

 of organi.'^ms," in which he explores the relation of the 

 mouth opening of the collector, the towing speed, and the 

 estimated swimming speeds of the animals captured. One 

 of the interesting things that has come out of the paper 

 is a set of estimates as to how fast the creatures would 

 have to swim to escape nets, both standard and uncon- 

 ventional, towed at various speeds. The data collected by 

 Walter Matsumoto and mentioned earlier may be of value 

 in testing the soundness of this theoretical treatment, 



A Submarine for Research 



On June 17, 1965, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. 

 Udall announced that a study sponsored by the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries shows that it is feasible to build a 

 specially designed nuclear-powered submarine for fishery 

 and oceanography research. 



The study was conducted by Electric Boat Division of 

 General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Conn., the pioneer 

 submarine designer and builder that developed the Xautiliis, 

 Skipjack, George Washington, and other submarines. 



Much of the preliminary re.search on this project was 

 conducted at the Honolulu Laboratory by Donald W. Stras- 

 burg. It has become increasingly apparent to the Laboratory 

 that neither the tuna resource nor the oceanic environment 

 can be fully understood on the basis of observations from 

 surface vessels, A submarine would make a better platform 

 for tuna research. The known behavior and distribution of 

 tunas indicated that such a vehicle should have a 20-knot 

 speed, a 1,000-foot operation depth, and a submerged endur- 

 ance of 6 weeks. Provisions for direct viewing of fish, con- 



38 



