REVIEWS OF PACIFIC OCEANOGRAPHY 



REPORT ON THE OCEANOGRAPHIC LABORATORIES OF THE 

 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 



By Thomas G. Thompson, University of Washington 



The Oceanographic Laboratories of the University of Washington 

 comprise the main laboratories situated on the campus of the University 

 in Seattle and the field laboratories near the town of Friday Harbour 

 on San Juan Island in Washington Sound. 



The laboratories in Seattle are housed in a three-storied brick building, 

 funds for the construction and equipment of which were provided by 

 the Rockefeller Foundation in 1930, and are well equipped for research 

 in the various branches of oceanography. A circulating sea-water system 

 is maintained at a temperature of 9° c, the average temperature of the 

 waters of Puget Sound. 



The Friday Harbour laboratories are situated on a 480 acre tract 

 with about two miles of shore-line. There are about a dozen buildings 

 in the area, half of which are one-storied buildings of hollow tile con- 

 struction and well equipped with all modern laboratory facilities. At 

 the present time ten cottages with housekeeping conveniences are under 

 construction for use of scientists and their families throughout the year. 

 Much of the activities of the field laboratories centre around the summer 

 quarter, when about one hundred persons are in residence. This number 

 includes members of the staff, advanced investigators from a number 

 of institutions, and graduate students, and also members of families. 

 Tents are used for living quarters in the summer, and a central building 

 serves as a mess hall. 



The professorial staff consists of thirteen persons, two of whom 

 devote full time to the work of the laboratories, one being the resident 

 scientist at Friday Harbour. The other eleven members, including 

 the director, are also affiliated with one of the following departments : 

 botany, chemistry, fisheries, geology, meteorology, microbiology, physics, 

 or zoology. The research interests of the staff and their graduate students 

 centre around various problems in oceanography as related to their 

 several specialties in the fundamental sciences. 



With the entry of the United States into World War II many of the 

 staff were called into service or to other war duties. The Seattle labora- 

 tories were taken over by the United States Navy, and the Friday 

 Harbour laboratories were changed to a training school for the United 

 States Coast Guard. The research vessel, " Catalyst," which had been 

 especially constructed for oceanographic work from funds granted in 

 1932 by the Rockefeller Foundation, was converted to a patrol vessel 

 for use in Alaskan waters by the (^oast Guard. 



After the war it was two years before the laboratories began to 

 operate again to capacity. An Act of the United States Congress provided 

 for the replacement of the research vessel, but currently two small 

 vessels are charted, the plans for the research ^'•essel still being only on 

 paper. 



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