142 MARINE SCIENCE 
research, this bill seems to exclude the Navy from this activity. It 
seems to me that this branch of our armed services, which spends more 
time under, on and over the ocean, should not be denied the oppor- 
tunity to study its everyday companions. _ 
The importance to the Navy of biological research dealing with 
problems of fouling is obvious. But there can be a military role to 
such biologic studies. Let me give you an illustration: 
Consider the famous phosphorescent bay of Puerto Rico. This 
bay and the adjacent coastal waters abound with a microscopic organ- 
ism, which when disturbed—as for example by the movement of a 
ship—gives off biological light. The wake of even a small outboard 
in the dark of night produces sufficient light to read a newspaper 
by. This phenomenon of bioluminescence is possessed by many ma- 
rine organisms in many parts of the oceans. It seems prudent that 
such organisms be studied as they are potential tattletales of the 
movements of both ships and men. 
The possible effect of such organisms on Navy operations is of 
course of some concern. But besides that there is a possible utiliza- 
tion of these organisms for defense. If these organisms could be 
cultivated and inoculated into our own coastal waters, where their 
growth could be controlled, they might provide a very convenient and 
cheap warning system against intrusion. 
I believe that you can see from this illustration that it is not only 
necessary for the Navy to make field observation of distribution and 
occurrence of marine phenomenon, but also to engage in greenhouse 
experiments which permit rigorous analysis of such ocean companions. 
in short, Iam here to stress to you the importance of in vitro labora- 
tory studies to the advancement of the marine sciences. To quote the 
eminent Dr. K. M. Rae of the Scottish Marine Biological Association, 
Edinburgh: 
We require, first, more realistic experiments in the laboratory designed to 
test the relative importance of various environmental factors in order to insure 
that we are measuring those which are significant in the sea. 
I have one comment, sir, on your radiation business and the boat in 
the harbor. We knovy, sir, that these micro-organisms, as the witness 
before me indicated—Dr. Ray—that they concentrate radioactive ma- 
terials preferentially against a gradient. You have a high concentra- 
tion of trace elements—copper, cobalt—all of the real heavy radioac- 
tive materials—biologically dangerous. These are the food of the 
phytoplanktons. If these become heavily infected with radioactive 
materials because these particles are necessary for their own existence, 
their own metabolic activities, the phytoplankton infected, the smaller 
fish become infected, and when you get that trout or shad, you may be 
getting a strontium which has passed through this chain, as a con- 
centrated factor. 
The essence of our work is can we go into the ocean, pluck the 
organism out of the ocean, take it into the laboratory, and get it in 
a sterile media and there grab hold of it, using all the variables that 
we can control in the laboratory, and see what makes it grow? In 
a sense Tama farmer. We try to grow these things, to see what are 
the limits. Why, if the ocean is a homogenous mass of sea water and 
everything is equal in it, evenly distributed, why do you have, within 
a certain population, one organism suddenly becoming very dominant 
and causing complete discoloration of the water ? 
