REPORT ON OCEANOGRAPHY 41 



gress was held in New Zealand in 1949. A summary of the activities in 

 the universities, institutions and government organizations will be re- 

 viewed. 



2. OCEANOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS IN JaPAN DURING THE PERIOD 1949-53 



Oceanographic observations in our adjacent seas are now being 

 carried out very frequently, with the surveying ships of the Hydrogra- 

 phic Office, Maritime Safety Agency, Tokyo, Seven Fisheries Research 

 Laboratories, and the Central Meteorological Observatory, Tokyo, in- 

 cluding its four subordinate marine observatories, and some local agen- 

 cies subordinate to them. The elements observed range over almost 

 all branches of physical, chemical, biological and geological oceanogra- 

 phy. The activities were no doubt interrupted by World War II, but 

 they are now getting rapidly recovered. Still the facilities and the ap- 

 paratuses are so inadequate that the observations are mostly confined 

 to the layer shallower than 1000 to 1500 meters. We imported bathy- 

 thermographs, and many ships now are equipped with lorans and ra- 

 dars. Still we do not have a great number of observations in all layers 

 from the surface down to the ocean floors. At the same time it is de- 

 sired that the instantaneous states of the oceanic phenomena should 

 be caught with great accuracies. 



The above organizations responsible for oceanographic research are 

 divided into three groups, namely: 



1) The Hydrographic Office, Maritime Safety Agency, Tokyo. 



2) The Tokyo and six other Fisheries Research Laboratories, dis- 

 tributed over this country, 



3) The Meteorological Observatory, Tokyo, and subordinate Marine 

 Observatories at Hakodate, Kobe, Maizuru and Nagasaki, and 

 some coastal meteorological stations. 



The Hydrographic Office, Maritime Safety Agency, which celebrated 

 its 80th anniversary in 1951, has been carrying out hydrographic obser- 

 vations once to three times a month with the Surveying ships "Kaiyo" 

 No, 4 and "Kaiyo" No. 5 and "Tenkai No. 1," the explored areas being 

 seas around Kyushu, seas to the south, southeast and northeast of Hon- 

 shu, a part of Japan Sea, seas around Hokkaido, etc. In September 

 1952, they lost "Kaiyo No. 5" by a submarine eruption to the south of 

 Japanese Island. (M. Nakano KH, 2, 1952). 



Current measurements continuing for 15 days were carried out at 

 the central part of the Hirado Straits, Kyushu, during July and August 

 1948, in the Shimabara Kaiwan, Kyushu, during the period July to 

 September 1949, and in the Yatsushiro Sea, Kyushu, during the period 

 July to August 1950. The number of current stations where the meas- 

 urements continued for one day amounts to 61 in 1948, 39 in 1949 and 



