News Notes 
During the months of November, 1951, 
through February, 1952, a field party con- 
sisting of F. Stearns MacNeil, F. R. Fosberg, 
and Theodore Arnow, all of the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey, will conduct a scientific re- 
connaissance of a series of atolls in the 
northern part of the Marshall Archipelago. 
This project is a part of a co-operative pro- 
gram with the U. S. Corps of Army Engineers. 
The islands to be visited are Taongi, Bikar, 
Ailuk, Jemo, Utirik, Taka, Wotho, Likiep, 
Lae, Ujae, and Ujelang, with short stops at 
Kwajalein for refueling. 
The objectives will be a co-ordinated study 
of the marine geology, marine ecology, land 
geology, hydrology, soils, vegetation, fauna, 
flora, and general ecology of these atolls. The 
work is a part of the Pacific Geologic Surveys 
program of the Military Geology Branch of 
the Survey and will be done in such a manner 
as to fit into the Atoll Research Program of 
the Pacific Science Board. 
This expedition is of particular interest as 
several of the atolls to be visited have never 
been studied scientifically, and two of them, 
Taongi and Bikar, are reported to be only 
very slightly altered from their primeval state 
by human activity. It may be possible, from 
study of these islands, to gain some idea of 
the original condition of other similar atolls 
of the drier type, which are now greatly 
changed and almost entirely planted to coco- 
nuts. 
The George Vanderbilt Pacific Equatorial 
Expedition of 1951 returned to Honolulu in 
September after a 31^-month cruise through 
the Hawaiian, Leeward, and Line Islands. 
Under the joint sponsorship of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the 
California Academy of Sciences, the expedi- 
tion obtained the largest fish collections as 
yet taken from the Leeward and Line Islands. 
Preliminary indications are that there will be 
many new records and species. The expedi- 
tion was under the personal direction of 
George Vanderbilt who was assisted by E. S. 
Herald, California Academy of Sciences, V. E. 
Brock, Territorial Board of Agriculture and 
Eorestry, and R. R. Harry, Natural History 
Museum, Stanford University, California. 
A Committee on Hydrobiology was or- 
ganized in Washington, D. C., on August 9, 
1951, under the sponsorship of the American 
Institute of Biological Sciences. As its first 
task the committee will follow up its reso- 
lution that it would be desirable to have a 
directory of the facilities and personnel in 
marine and fresh-water hydrobiology in 
North America. The directory planned will 
be sufficiently detailed to be useful to be- 
ginning scientists as well as to research 
scholars and administrators in the field. A 
second and confidential report on the status 
of hydrobiological research today and that 
proposed for the immediate future will be 
compiled for use by the Office of Naval Re- 
search and other appropriate agencies. 
Robert W. Hiatt, of the University of 
Hawaii, is chairman of this committee and * 
editor of the proposed directory. Other mem- 
bers are: Arthur D. Hasler of the University 
of Wisconsin, Carl L. Hubbs of Scripps In- 
stitution of Oceanography, Daniel Merriman 
of the Bingham Institute of Oceanography, 
William E. Ricker of the Eisheries Research 
Board of Canada, and William R. Taylor of 
the University of Michigan. 
[ 77 } 
