I. Introduction 



The Indian Ocean has two adjoining semienclosed sea areas, the 

 Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. These two water areas plus the Arabian 

 Sea and eastern Mediterranean encompass the lands considered to 

 be the birthplace of civilization. Since waters of the Tigris and Euphrates 

 Rivers empty into the Persian Gulf, it is probable that the gulf was 

 among the first sea areas sailed by civilized man, perhaps by citizens 

 of the ancient city of Ur or Babylon. It is somewhat paradoxical 

 that until recently the seas adjoining lands which were among the 

 first in the development of learning and civilization have been among 

 the least investigated by the modern marine scientist. Indeed, probably 

 more is known about the Polar seas, which adjoin almost totally 

 unpopulated land areas, than about the Persian Gulf. 



In the early 1900's the German environmentalist Schultz (7) described 

 in a brief article some general physical characteristics of Persian 

 Gulf waters. Gerhard Schott (6) continued this work for another 10 years, 

 compiling from widely scattered sources and observations an important 

 treatise of almost 50 pages on the environment of the Persian Gulf. 

 His work stood alone for more than 30 years as the most complete 

 reference source on the environment of this area; even today, some 

 two score years after publication, it is considered a prime reference 

 despite the relative sparsity, heterogeneity, and varying quality of 

 observational data used. 



Because the lands bordering the Persian Gulf offered little, in the 

 last few hundred years, in the way of natural resources or manu- 

 factured goods for sale, barter, or trade, the gulf area has remained 

 almost isolated from maritime commerce. Even as late as 1940 

 ships from western countries visited the area irregularly; therefore, 

 few marine observations were recorded annually, and these were 

 of little aid in extending the knowledge and understanding of the area. 



Planned explorations or surveys of the area were almost nonexistent 

 prior to World War II. Only one environmental survey done before 

 1945 is noteworthy (a study of the biology of the area by Danish 

 investigators in 1935-38), but it too has shortcomings since it concen- 

 trates on marine life; environmental data were collected only as 

 incidental supplementary information. A description of related obser- 

 vations taken by the group is given by Blegvad (1). 



With the conclusion of World War II and the simultaneous expansion 

 in exploration and production of the oil industry along the Arabian and 

 Iranian shores of the Persian Gulf, shipping in these waters increased 



