140 



digestion shall proceed is one of the chief difficulties with which 

 modei'ii Oceanography is faced. 



2. International Council for the Exploration of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. 



The administrative sriccess that the International Coiincil 

 for the Exploration of the sea has en;oyed, and the leading role 

 that it has pla^^ed in Oceanogrnphy in Northern Europe, has recently 

 led to the establishment of a less formal association of the nations 

 bordering on the Mediterranean, known as the International Council 

 for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean Sea. This asso- 

 ciation, founded in 1919 \inder the leadership of the late Prince Al- 

 bert I of Monaco, is not a replica of the older Permanent Council 

 for the Exploration of the Sea in its organization, for it has no 

 direct executi'^-^e authority and makes no attempt to lay down definite 

 programs for the several nations to carry out. Its aim is rather 

 the exchange of inform.ation as to the work in progress by each and 

 the encouragement of coordination, generally, betv/een the different 

 national services that actually have scientific investigations in 

 progress in the Mediterranean. But as it is directly supported by 

 the several governments, and since its individual rnembarship (nomin- 

 ated by the subscribing governments) inclvdes the directors of the 

 Fisheries Services of m^ost of the subscribing nations, it is in a 

 position to exert very strong influence in the programs of m.arme 

 investigations acti.ially adopted. Tlius, both in organizat"'.on, nnd 

 in actual practice, it corresponds closelv to the North American 

 Committee on Fisheries Investigation: an interesting example of 

 parallel but independent develo-^^ment , to fulfill similar needs for 

 international coordination. Although this Council is st-i 11 in the 

 formotive stage, some ;'oint projects have already been arranged, 

 both in the biological and in the more strictly oceanographlc fields? 

 and it performs a real service in its annual reports, bv summarizing 

 the progress of the scientific projects actually under way in the 

 Mediterranean 7;-ear by year. 



3. International Hydrographic Bureau. 



In this same general category, so far r- s organisation is 

 concerned, we may class the International Eydrographic Bureau, with 

 headquarters at Monaco, an association of the National Hydrographic 

 Services of most of the important maritime nations, which aims to 

 coordinate the efforts of its signatories in the fields of hydro- 

 graphy, of tidal phenomena, and of physical oceanogrpphy, especially 

 as effecting navigation. The Bureau does not of itself initate ex- 

 ploration. But the official standing of the national delegates to 

 its meetings gives the recommendations of the latter much v/eight in 

 the development of programs of investigation by the various govern- 

 ments. 



4. Other Coordinating Inst itti.t ions. 



The coordinating institutions so far mentioned either ex- 

 ercise executive powers directly (as in t""e case of the Perm.anent 

 International Council for t^^e Exploration of the Sea") or indiroctly 

 as thev influence the Marine Investip;atlons of f^e governm.ents 

 through inclr'ding the executive officers of the national fisheries 



