93 



Bureau is the necessity of confining most of its cruises to the 

 waters over ;:he continental shelf, in comparatively shallow water and 

 near land, where practically all the important fisheries are located; 

 for as explained elsewhere (pag-e l£l) , it is to these fisheries that 

 the Bureau must devote most of its attention. In the past, when 

 funds have been available from other sources for fuel (which is the 

 chief item of expense) long voyages have been made on the high seas 

 by the vessels of the Bureau. And there is every reason to suppose 

 that the Bureau will continue this policv whenev-r cooperation with 

 outside agencies makes funds available, bccausr it is now fully 

 appreciated that the key to many of the riddles of marine economy in 

 our sho^l watirs is to be sought in the fluctuations in the "flow and 

 in the temperature of the waters of the oceanic basins. 



No program of regular oceanographio cruises is now in progress 

 off the A.tlantic coast of the United States south of Chesapeake Bay, 

 or anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. But a general oceanographic :'-x- 

 ploration of the triangle Katteras-Bermuda-Florida was made by the 

 Coast and Goedetic Survey jointly with the Bureau of Fish.-ries on the 

 BAGHE in 1914; while the ALBATROSS in 1920 again ran profiles across 

 the Straits of Florida. Thes^, with the intensive study of various 

 problems in the chemistry of sea water, sponsored from the Tortugas 

 Laooratory of the Carnegie Institution (pagelCS), may, W2 hope, be 

 forerunners to futuii activity in that very interesting oceanic 

 province. 



So far as we can learn, no regular continuing program of oceanic- 

 exploration oth^r than the collection of surface temp'^ratures and 

 salinities, is now being sponsored anywhere from the east or west 

 coasts of South America, and it is too early to foresee how much work 

 of the sort will te done from the Fisheries vessel recently acquired 

 by the Argentine Government. The "Discovery" Expedition, recently at 

 work in the Atlantic, and continued in 1938-1339 by the "William 

 Scoresby" from headquarters in the Falkland Islands is British, and 

 in any case falls, rather, in the category of occasional exploration. 



Neither are there any centers of oceanographic exploration along 

 the west coasts of Crntral America, or Mexico. But serial measure- 

 ments of temperature (v/ith water samples) are tak-n oy the survey 

 ships of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey on their cruises 

 between the cast and west coasts, as wdl as north and south along 

 the latter. 



Oceanography is w-11 served in the coastal b.jlt along southern 

 California, and for a couple of hundred miles out to sea, by the 

 periodic cruises of the Scripps' Institution of Oceanor=rraphy of the 

 University of California, which constitute the most extensive con- 

 tinuing program of the sort now in progress off the Pacific Coast of 

 North America. The institution'? vessel, of th-- typ? usually used 

 for fishing in that region, is fully eouipped for the collection of 

 all sorts of routine data, biological as well as physical-chemical> 

 down to considerable d-pths (about 1800 meters). An3 thanks to the 

 narrowness of the continental shelf there, she is able to extend her 

 cruises out into the ocvsn basin, as w-11 as for considerable 

 distances along the coast to north and south. The temperatures, 

 salinity and chemical state of the water of th.- area thus r?ccrd2d: 

 and collections of Plankton obtained, form the basis for man^.^ of the 



