NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 697 
A famous example of this is the study of the poisonous nature of the Portu- 
guese man-of-war. The French researcher Richet, who was a guest of the Prince of 
Monaco, was curious about the nature of this poison, and made tests on various 
animals. He found that sometimes there was no effect until the second test, and 
thereby discovered tue phenomenon of allergy -- which he called anaphylaxis. And 
who isn't allergic to something or another these days? This is also one of the 
few discoveries in marine biology to be honored on a postage stamp. 
The study of sea urchin eggs -- a perennial favorite for the summer habituees 
of Woods Hole -= and of Bodega to be, no doubt, has yielded much significant infor- 
mation about the fertilization process -- in fact a current school movie on sex 
for teen agers shows the fertilization of sea uchin eggs in lieu of the human pro- 
cess -- without, it must be said, making it clear that they are not watching the 
beginning of human babies. Somewhere in the study of sea urchin embryology may 
lie a Nobel prize, but in the meanwhile we have learned much about the initial 
stages of development from this line of inquiry. 
Other marine biologists study nerves of squid -- which has some of the 
largest of all known nerves -- giant telegraph systems that enable the animal to 
react swiftly, as anyone who has observed squid in an aquarium will remember. 
Such studies give us insight into the mechanism of nerves -- how they work. Still 
other marine biologists are interested in the ways by which marine and brackish 
water organisms -- the creatures of bays and river mouths -- can adjust their salt 
balance to the changing environment. 
As for the plants of the sea, they present many fascinating problems. We 
have all heard of chlorophyll, perhaps as something that is used to make green 
toothpaste. But there are different kinds of chlorophyll in different kinds of 
seaweed, wiich may have something to do with the circumstance that some kinds of 
seaweed grow best near high tide while others grow only beneath low tide levels. 
The efficiencies of these substances is a question of particular interest to 
those concerned with harvesting seaweeds or hoping to understand the efficiency 
of the plants of the sea as converters of energy. 
These are some of the studies that go on at marine stations. Others are 
concerned with the more general aspects of the plants and animals in the actual 
environment -- the broad field known as ecology. Surprisingly little has yet 
been done on the year to year changes in life along the seashore which may in 
turn help us understand such spectacular changes as the great sardine collapse of 
two decades ago, but beginnings of this sort of study have been made at Pacific 
Marine Station in Tomales Bay and have just been startod -t Bodega. Without 
such long range studies we cannot really say what the effects of man's tampering 
with nature may be. 
In these days of governmental support of science, many organizations are 
actively interested in supporting and fostering marine biological studies at 
marine Stations and university laboratories. Although its primary concern is the 
application of information to naval problems, the Office of Naval Research has 
supported many projects which might be considered pure science in addition to 
Supporting research on the habits of creatures that destroy pilings and docks 
and foul ships and buoys. The navy's interest in developing artificial breathing 
systems for people and submarines has led to the support of studies of respira- 
tion in gills in marine organisms and even such matters as how some types of 
jellyfish maintain gas in floats. The ability of many marine animals - shrimp, 
fish, and whales to produce sounds, some of which sound like machinery, is inter- 
