History of Marine Science

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History of Marine Science
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Ancient Times
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• Stone Age clambakes
• Polynesians beginning around 30,000 B.C.
• Sailed extensively through the Pacific
• Stick charts
• Colonized Samoa, New Zealand, Easter Island,
  Hawaii

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• By 2000 B.C. Phoenicians were accomplished
  mariners
• Commerce Colonies
• Mediterranean
• Through Strait of Gibraltar into Atlantic
• 4th century B.C. Aristotle 1st marine
  biologist
• Gills are breathing structures of fish
• Library at Alexandria

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Middle Ages
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• Dark Ages most scientific study halted in
  Europe much knowledge lost
• 995 A.D. Leif Eriksson discovered N. America
• North Atlantic
• Detailed knowledge of currents, wind, tides,
  ocean phenomena
• Arab traders learned about wind and current
  patterns

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Renaissance
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• 1450s Prince Henry the Navigator
• Recognizes oceans potential for trade/commerce
• Establishes 1st oceanographic institute
• 1492 Columbus rediscovers America
• 1519 Magellan 1st expedition to sail around
  globe

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1700s
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• 1736 John Harrison invents 1st chronometer
• Spring-operated clock
• Necessary for determining longitude
• 1768 James Cook
• Uses chronometer in his journeys
• 1770 Ben Franklin
• 1st map of Gulf Stream

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1800S
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• 1831 HMS Beagle
• Map coastlines
• Darwin made detailed observations of natural
  world
• 1840s - Matthew Maury
• 1840s 1850s Edward Forbes
• Dredged the sea floor
• Discovered many new species
• Different life at different depths

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Marine Labs

• 1872 Stazione Zoologica Naples, Italy
• 1st Marine Lab
• 1879 Laboratory of Marine Biological Society of
  the United Kingdom Plymouth
• 1870s-1880s Marine Biological Laboratory at
  Woods Hole, Massachusetts

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Modern Times
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• 1900s Polar Expeditions
• 1940s-1950s Thor Heyerdahl
• Recreates trips of Polynesians

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SCUBA

• Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
• Developed by Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnon
  post WWII

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• Scuba opened a new world to marine scientists
• Prior to its development, divers were restricted
  by the length of the air tube coming from their
  ship

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WWII

• Sonar (sound navigation ranging)
• Developed to detect enemy submarines