137 



gvilra- str-tion-program.s of research in the basic fields of Oceanic 

 biologv, ir.cl-uding: chemical :is -'/oil as Biological investigations. 

 The T.^arine Biologic Station of the Marine Biological Association of 

 the United Kin-dcm, at Pl-;Tnouth,_ England, and the Station of the 

 Universltv of Liverpool at Port iJrin, have heen especially product- 

 ive in this field. The Plymouth Laboratory, in fact. Is now one of 

 the riost active of European centers of sea science and in many re- 

 spects a present-day leader in irsvestigations of this sort. 



Another group as related to Oceanography would incli.ide the 

 many other marine biological laboratories that dot the coasts of 

 Europe. Even thcuffh tbe:^-- do not, as institutions carry station- 

 programs of explorations at sea, their combined influence can hard- 

 ly- be over-valued in the general advance of s^a science, because the 

 purel'- biological vi/ork done at them during the last half of the 19th 

 century (in embryology-, ph^-siology, etc.) Ir.id the indispersable 

 foundation for our modern vie'vs as to the cycle of life in the ocean. 

 And the-- continue equally to serve in tlis respect today, b" offer- 

 ing facilities to Independent Investigators for the study cf pro- 

 blems for which the data can bo obtained near at hand and 'Arbich need 

 the laboratory method for their prosecution. 



One notable characteristic of present day oceanography in .^r- 

 ope, is, then, the translation of a widely disseminated interest in 

 the' sea' into the development of a Inrge number of institutions, not 

 only designed to encourage researches in a -nde variety of fields, 

 biological, ph-^.^3ic3l, and chemical, but in many cases actually en- 

 dowed with the material means, and ■-■■ith the personnel reaulsite for 

 that pi;rpose. 



Corresponding to the great num.ber of institutions, the volume 

 of work now beine undertaken b''- them is correspondingly- greater in 

 Europe than in America: without making invidious com.parisons the 

 quality mu.st bo classed at least as high. To a lesser degree t>'ls 

 development, which (as we now see it) is the cliirax of a process ex- 

 tending over more than hnlf a century, has had its counterpart en a 

 smaller scale in America. 



B. C00RDI7ATING INSTITUTIONS 



A second outstanding chrracterist ic of the present situation 

 in oceanography in Sirope, namel^.'" the establishment of an Internat- 

 ional and Officicl Agency with executive power to Insure coordina- 

 tion of scientific effort between the fisheries Bureaux of the var- 

 ious European countries, has no direct parallel elsewhere. ""'e re- 

 fer to the Permanent International Council for the Exploration of 

 the Sea, an institution thr.t has been familiar (nt least b^- name) 

 to every student of the sea for the past quarter century. 



1. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. 



With the multinlicity of agencies that were alrerdy in 

 existence at the beginning of "the -oresent century (most of them 

 well equipped and functioning actively) there was no lack of fac- 

 ilitit/s in' Eurone for the study of whatever phase of the sea. But 



