OCEANOGRAPHY 117 



not the least of them is biology. To a biologist, oceanography without biology is 

 a contradiction in terms. 



As director of a comparatively small marine laboratory, I have been able to 

 watch at close hand the growing interest these last few years in all things 

 pertaining to the sea demonstrated by teachers, students, and the general pub- 

 lic. This development of interest is undoubtedly due in part to the activities 

 of the National Science Foundation in sponsoring summer institutes for teach- 

 ers at marine stations in various parts of the United States. These teachers 

 return to their schools and bring their students to visit nearby laboratories. 

 On May 14, when a good low tide fell on a Saturday, several hundred students 

 visited our laboratory. I talked to three such groups. It is evident that there 

 will be no dearth of young people interested in marine biology, and we will have 

 no difficulty recruiting people. Many universities are requiring their advanced 

 students to spend a summer at the seashore, and we expect two from Kansas 

 and several from Chicago this summer in our classes. This pattern of enroll- 

 ment is typical of marine stations on all our coasts. Training facilities are 

 also increa.sing: new laboratories are plannetl for various parts of the I'aeilic 

 coast and curricula for marine biology and oceanography are being established 

 at various institutions. What we must hope for is that there will be satis- 

 factory opportunities for these young people once they have completed their 

 training. The quality of their training will depend in part on present research 

 opportunities and these in turn should lead to further opportunities. We hope 

 that the proposetl supiwrt of oceanography is implemented in such a way that 

 there will not only be employment for young people who can do the things that 

 need to be done, but for those who want to do things that do not have any 

 apparent necessity for national defense, or to expand ocean resources, but 

 simply to "enhance the general welfare." 



Although we cannot define aquatic biology in any precise way, we shovild 

 always remember that great deal of fundamental or basic work is being done 

 without any direct concern for oceanography although the applications of such 

 studies may profoundly influence the direction of oceanographic studies in the 

 future. For example, there are people studying the problems of pure culture 

 of micro-organisms in laboratories affiliated with hospitals and medical founda- 

 tions ; these studies promise to have direct bearing on the problem of utilization 

 of trace materials found in the oceans, or the rate of increase of small poisonous 

 micro-organisms. In general much more work in aquatic biology is being 

 carried on in university laboratories and in small marine stations than in the 

 large oceanographic institutions. The work we have in mind is that carried 

 out, not in the spirit of "what is this good for" but in the spirit of "this is in- 

 teresting and worth knowing for its own sake." With this in mind, we consider 

 a diversified program involving several granting agencies to be a better way 

 to stimulate significant research rather than to channel money through some 

 new agency set up to embrace all of oceanography. We agree that the more 

 strictly applied phases of aquatic biology, as carried out by the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries, require further support, but we also urge more generous 

 support of the National Science Foundation, bearing in mind that a variety of 

 boards and panels charged with supporting research in aquatic biology should 

 insure a broader consideration of research proposals. On a purely administra- 

 tive basis the number and diversity of proposals having some possible bearing 

 on oceanography is too large for a single agency to handle effectively. 



Systematic biology, the process of identifying organisms and studying changes 

 in structure as related to genetic and environmental differences, whether natural 

 or artificially induced (as by radiation), deseiwes particular consideration, since 

 the program proposed will result in collections of material on a magnitude com- 

 parable with that of the survey program of the old Bureau of Fisheries late 

 in the last century. Because the magnitude of the problem was not realized at 

 that time, many collections from that former survey were never properly studied. 

 Nevertheless, what was adequately treated now forms major parts of collections 

 at the museums at Yale and Harvard as well as in the National Museum in 

 Washington. Proper study of the material which will result from this program 

 will require support of these and other museums having the background collec- 

 tions on which to base further studies. Knowledge of the organisms is one of 

 our prime categories of data, and it cannot be obtained in a mechanical way or 

 by beginning technicians, since recognition of species is essentially a process of 

 mental computation, not of recognition by rote. Nevertheless, there is no 

 scarcity of students offering themselves as prospective systematists, but we can- 

 not encourage them to persist (as some will anyhow) until employment pros- 

 pects are more encouraging. We need these people in our society, and will need 



