OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 305 



also comprises the Fishery Board for Greenland. Then we have my institute: 

 The Marine Biological Laboratory belonging to the Copenhagen University under 

 the Ministery of Education. 



The practical fisheries investigations started as a most important scientific 

 institution with such famous research workers as C. G. Johs. Petersen, Johannes 

 Schmidt, and Martin Knudsen. Now, however, this institution is strictly focus- 

 ing on practical studies and only that, and much of its time is devoted to routine 

 work: following the growth and migrations of fish populations without adding 

 too many new ideas. Among the people working there are, however, several good 

 scientists who should want to do basic research, but their routine program is 

 so comprehensive and the Ministery of Fisheries is keeping them so busy on 

 practical problems, that they may hardly get any time for basic research. 



My institute under the Copenhagen University is exclusively focusing on 

 basic science, but since our basic research work is concentrated on the plank- 

 tonic larvae, on life cycles, on the upgrowth of the invertebrates of the sea 

 bottom, the balance between predators and their prey animals, et cetera, our 

 results nevertheless are of much practical significance. We also have a very 

 narrow collaboration with the Zoological Museum of the Copenhagen Uni- 

 versity, where I have been a curator during 23 years. Several of the zoologists 

 from the museum are working in our laboratory on living material, and the 

 specialists of the museum help us identify animals, which we wish to study 

 in detail. It only takes 1 hour by train from Copenhagen to Elsinore, and since 

 we have got a guesthouse where people may sleep at night, we may offer our 

 colleagues from Copenhagen good facilities during their stay here, and we have 

 a very good collaboration. 



As you probably know, our institute is only a "baby" : 2^4 years old, while 

 the other Scandinavian countries : Sweden, Norway, and Finland have had such 

 marine stations for 40 to 70 years already. On the other hand our station, 

 being fully new, has been able to exploit all the modern technical stuffs and 

 apparatus to make it fullv modern. Our station, however, is a very small one 

 only (too small already), but extremely well situated at the very border of the 

 sound and just at the harbor. We have an excellent 33 t cutter : "Ophelia" 

 (8.3 knots, 6 cylinders, 100 horsepower Rolls Royce diesel motor) which brings 

 in fresh material everyday, and all animals, even those from deep water in 

 the Skagerak, seem to live well in our aquaria, which are based on a system 

 of recirculating water, 60 m* in all. 



Our staff, so far, consists of four permanent scientists and six nonseientific 

 assistants and technicians, among them our mate and our fisher on the boat. 

 We also have managed to build up a very good library already (18,000 reprints 

 fully filed, several of the most important periodicals). Much and good re- 

 search work is already done, and several young Danish zoologists are being 

 trained. 



Besides our research work, we also give courses (classes) during the 3 summer 

 months, and here is a most important thing : We give classes as well for the 

 Danish students of the Copenhagen University as also the Swedish students 

 of the Lund University. They all are taught by Danish teachers, and every 

 year in August we, furthermore, have an Interscandinavian specialist course, 

 comprising about 15 trained young marine biologists from Finland, Norway, 

 Sweden, and Denmark. 



I am going to tell you more about this, but first I shall have to add, that outside 

 the two institutions mentioned (Charlottenlund and Elsinore) we also have good 

 marine biologists associated with other institutions. Dr. Anton F. Bruun is in 

 the Copenhagen Zoological Museum. Professor E. Steemann Nielsen is in the 

 pharmaceutical high school, but we all keep in close contact and are working 

 eagerly together. So, in Denmark there is no distinct line between the system- 

 atic zoologists in the museum and the biologists and ecologists at Elsinore or 

 Charlottenlund. We have very good relations, and our students are trained 

 equally well in systematics as in ecology. Also the University of Lund stresses 

 systematical knowledge as most important but are doing a bit less ecology than 

 are the Danish students. 



The most important of all, which I have to tell you about, is the fairly new 

 Interscandinavian collaboration-programme in marine biology. Encouraged by 

 the great success of the Scandinavian Airlines System, the Scandinavian Govern- 

 ments finally realized that as soon as all four countries put their efforts together 

 as a unit, they might exploit their forces much better. This led to the start of a 

 "Nordic Council" (prime ministers and ministers of foreign afifairs) and a 



