Transcript Document
Stone Age clambakes
Polynesians – beginning around 30,000 B.C.
Sailed extensively through the Pacific
Stick charts
Colonized: Samoa, New Zealand, Easter Island, Hawaii
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
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
1450s – Prince Henry the Navigator
Recognizes ocean’s potential for trade/commerce
Establishes 1st oceanographic institute
1492 – Columbus rediscovers America
1519 – Magellan – 1st expedition to sail around globe
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
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
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
1900s – Polar Expeditions
1940s-1950s –Thor Heyerdahl
Recreates trips of Polynesians
SCUBA
Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
Developed by Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnon
post WWII
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
WWII
Sonar (sound navigation ranging)
Developed to detect enemy submarines