The " Makua," operated by the Division of Fish and Game of the 

 Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry, is a 65 ft. diesel craft 

 which has been converted to a general purpose fishery and oceanographic ' 

 vessel with a 3,000 mile cruising range. It carries winches for deep-sea 

 dredging and net hauls as well as for both bathythermograph observations 

 and light plankton hauls. Sufficient Nansen bottles and reversing 

 thermometers to initiate the programme of physical oceanography are 

 on hand. The " Makua " also carries an improved type of live-well 

 in which the water may circulate at 400 gallons a minute. 



The conversion of the three vessels to be operated by the Pacific 

 Oceanic Fishery Investigation in the pelagic fishery investigation is in 

 progress. One of this trio of vessels will be converted into an oceano- 

 graphic research vessel. The remaining vessels will be outfitted mainly 

 as fishing craft. This fleet, in addition to the vessels mentioned above, 

 will comprise a concentrated supply of research vessels in Hawaii and the 

 central Pacific which should provide abundant physical facilities. 



Research Programme 



The current research programme can best be presented in three phases, 

 although all are closely integrated : — 



Physical Oceanography .—The Scripps Institution of Oceanography 

 has issued recently completed reports on the analysis of bathythermo- 

 graph records and echo soundings taken in Hawaiian area during and 

 subsequent to the war. These reports describe the diurnal and seasonal 

 variation in sea temperature and vapour pressure, the variation in salinity, 

 and the bottom contours for several miles out to sea in the vicinity of 

 Kaneohe and Hilo. 



A long-period wave -recorder or tsunami recorder, designed at the 

 Scripps Institution, has been installed in the Hawaiian Islands. This 

 device suppresses by hydraulic filtering short-period wind-waves and 

 swell and very long-period waves such as the tides. This instrument has 

 a maximum sensitivity of periods of one hour and is designed to cut out 

 tides of a mean range of 15 ft. It will record waves primarily in the 

 period range from six minutes to six hours, and of amplitude of 

 less than 1 in. as well as tsunamis of amplitude of 6 ft. to 8 ft. The 

 study of such records will lead to results of considerable geophysical 

 interest, and an instrument in the Hawaiian Islands is particularly 

 desirable because of the frequency of occurrence and magnitude of 

 tsunamis there. 



With the completion of the Hawaii Marine Laboratory the Univer- 

 sity's research plans will be implemented. These comprise a study of 

 those aspects of oceanography peculiar to this subtropical region. Broadty 

 speaking, the physical oceanographic programme may be called a study 

 of the ecology of the near-shore and off-shore waters around the islands 

 of Hawaii and the study is readily divided into three parts : (1) ecology 

 of the in-shore waters {i.e. primarily the waters inside the reefs of Kaneohe 

 Bay), (2) ecology of the transition region beyond the reef, (3) ecology of 

 . the oceanic waters. 



These subdivisions are established for the following reasons : the 

 very near-shore waters have their endemic faunal and floral populations 

 but these waters are also nursery grounds for much of the food of pelagic 

 fishes. Within many of the near-shore areas there is a rapid exchange of 



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