A great deal of the work inside the building was made by the 

 Superintendent and Station carpenter. 



By the summer of 1947, the Station was sufficiently re- 

 stored as a laboratory to be used by a small number of investi- 

 gators. During that year Galtsoff, acting Director of the Labora- 

 tory, assisted by J. Griggs, made observations on the density of 

 oyster blood under various environmental conditions, and made 

 toxicity tests of the water and plankton associated with the bloom.- 

 ing of Gymnodinium brevis, a microorganism which causes "red 

 tide" along the west coast of Florida (Galtsoff, 1948). Develop- 

 ment of the nervous system and the reactions of fishes were stud- 

 ied by H. C. Tracy and a group of his students, supported by a 

 grant from the U. S. Navy. For brief periods the Laboratory 

 space was used by two visitors from South America: Horacio 

 Rosa, Jr. , of the Division of Protection of Fishes in Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil, and Antonio Landa, of the Guano Company in Lima, Peru. 

 Landa was a Peruvian fishery trainee, studying the problems and 

 methods of investigation in fishery problems in the United States. 

 Other visitors to the Laboratory were: Jacques Monod of the 

 Pasteur Institute, Paris, France; George Teissier, Director of 

 the Biological Station at Roscoff; Paul Tchernia, Major General 

 of the French Navy in charge of fishery investigations; and G. N. 

 Mitra, Assistant Director of Fisheries, Cutack (orissa), India. 



The major investigation carried on in the Laboratory in 

 1948 was an experimental study of the toxicity of crude oil absorbed 

 by carbonized sand. This investigation was undertaken at the 

 request of the U. S. Navy. The technique of using carbonized 

 sand in combatting fire of oil spilled from naval ships was de- 

 veloped during the war and proved to be effective as a fire preven- 

 tion measure. A heavy slick of crude oil on the water's surface 

 can be eliminated in a few minutes by sprinkling it with carbonized 

 sand. Granules of this specially prepared sand readily absorb oil; 

 they form large lumps and sink to the bottom carrying with them 

 oil globules. The experimental work conducted for the Navy by 

 Galtsoff and Walter Chipman showed that the oil absorbed by sand 

 remains toxic and that water soluble materials which are grad- 

 ually extracted from oil affect bottom animals in varying degrees 

 (Chipman and Galtsoff, 1949). This work lead to the development 

 of the method of bioassay which later on was employed in the tox- 

 icity tests of all pipes and naaterials used for the construction of 

 the new Fisheries Laboratory. Study of the respiration and sex 

 change in oysters was continued by Galtsoff, and the exhibits of 

 the Public Aquarium were prepared by him with the assistance 

 of A. R. DeMetriff (fig. 39). 



Intensified interest on the part of the New England fishing 

 industry on the depletion of groundfish resources and renewed 

 interest on the part of the Fish and Wildlife Service on the value 

 of oceanographic studies on fishery resources resulted in a re- 

 birth of the Laboratory. A new era started with the transfer of 



92 



