174 OCEANOGRAPHY 



Certain marine organisms, when disturbed mechanically, tend to 

 luminescence, or produce light, so that the wake of a submarine pro- 

 ceeding at periscope depth or a surface ship or an underwater swim- 

 mer, becouies illuminated. An enemy aircraft overhead at night could 

 easily detect the wake. 



The second objective concerns the utilization of marine organisms 

 in ways that tend to enhance naval operations. Here we have a 

 number of classified implications that I will present at your pleasure. 

 However, among the unclassified aspects is the continuing problem of 

 sustaining a survivor under emergency conditions at sea until he can 

 be rcvscued. 



This means in terms of basic research the necessity for ecological 

 as well as taxonomic studies to determine the edible flora and fauna 

 of the oceans, both in terms of seasonal and geographic distribution 

 and to provide the survivor with enough know-how so that he can 

 avail himself of these local edible resources in order to sustain himself 

 at sea. 



Now the third general objective concerns our desire to study marine 

 animals as well as other living organisms, both plant and animal, be- 

 cause of their ability to accomplish complex tasks of direct interest to 

 the Navy. 



For example, as you well know, many marine fishes are able to mi- 

 grate or "home" over great distances, sometimes intercontinentally. 

 This involves abilities of target identification, target selection, and 

 "navigation" over great distances with a high degree of accuracy. 



Tlie interesting part here is that fish and other marine organisms are 

 able to carry out these tasks without sextants and the other parapher- 

 nalia that man requires. They are able to do this with biological 

 "equipment" which frequently weighs only a few pounds and may 

 weigli as little a couple of grams. Man. with hundreds of pounds of 

 highly sophisticated electronic and mechanical gear is not able to per- 

 form similar tasks in as efficient a manner as these organisms. Obvi- 

 ousy, we are interested in studying these animals as biological models. 



This illustration presents a rather stylized comparison of the abili- 

 ties of fishes and birds to perform in ways which our missile men are 

 quite interested in duplicating. It also points up another closely re- 

 lated problem, the problem of communication among underwater 

 swimmers and submarines. The problem of being able to communi- 

 cate with one another under water in a secure fashion is becoming 

 acute. Yet I am sure you have all seen schools of fishes execute to-the- 

 right flank, or to-the-left flank, or to-the-rear movements with military 

 precision. They do this in ways that we certainly do not understand, 

 but they are obviously communicating and we are interested in dis- 

 covering the mechanisms involved. 



Closely related is the aspect of silent propulsion in marine organ- 

 isms, their hydrodynamic characteristics and boundary layer control 

 mechanisms. 



This is a bird's-eye view of some of the unclassified interests of the 

 Navy in this basic research field of hydrobiology. 



Now, what do we mean by hydrobiology ? As I mentioned earlier, 

 it is really a ditl'use collection of basic biological disciplines associated 

 very closely with physics and chemistry attempting in concert to ob- 

 tain more knowledge of the oceans as well as of estuarine and fresh- 

 water areas of our planet. 



