SECTION D.— ZOOLOGY. 



OCEANOGRAPHY AND THE 



FLUCTUATIONS IN THE ABUNDANCE 



OF MARINE ANIMALS 



ADDRESS BY 



STANLEY KEMP, Sc.D., F.R.S. 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



In my title to this address I have used the term Oceanography, and I 

 should like at the outset to enter a protest against the use of this word in a 

 narrow and restricted sense, as a synonym of hydrography or the physics 

 and chemistry of sea water. I must maintain that Oceanography is a com- 

 prehensive term, equivalent to the science of the sea. It includes within 

 its scope not only physico-chemical work, coastal surveys, soundings and 

 studies of tides and currents, which may collectively be referred to as 

 hydrography, but marine zoology and botany as well, together with some 

 parts of geology and even of meteorology. It is in this broad sense that 

 the word is understood on the Continent. 



The great advances which have been made in the study of oceanography 

 may perhaps be said to have begun about seventy years ago, when the 

 first marine biological station was established at Naples, when Maury was 

 studying winds and oceanic currents, and when zoologists had just become 

 aware of the new and unexplored realm of nature which exists in the 

 depths of the sea. Before many years had passed H.M.S. Challenger 

 made her celebrated voyage, and since then numerous expeditions have 

 added to the wealth of our knowledge. Some of them, following the 

 example of the Challenger, had zoological research as their main objective, 

 but almost all of them made valuable contributions to our knowledge of 

 the hydrography of the areas they explored, while, in recent times in 

 particular, many research vessels have concerned themselves exclusively 

 with this branch of oceanography. Notable results have also been 

 obtained by ships with other primary objects : we owe, for instance, the 

 greater part of our comprehensive knowledge of the Antarctic fauna to 

 expeditions whose principal aim was geographical exploration. 



The great marine expeditions have given us much knowledge that could 

 not have been obtained in any other way ; it is to them that we owe our 

 acquaintance with the oceanic and abyssal faunas and a very great deal 

 of information on the currents and other hydrographical features of the 

 ocean basins. For such work there is still a vast scope, many areas which 

 would richly repay investigation by modern methods and many which 



