History of Marine Science By Emily Silliker

Henry Bryant Bigelow Henry Bigelow was an ocean researcher whose investigations in the early parts of the 20 th century was later recognized as the foundation of modern oceanography. Many of his expeditions were in the Gulf of Maine where he collected water samples and studied various fish. In his earlier years he grew up in Boston, spent his Summers on Cape Cod and immediately had an interest for nature. He grew up in a family that was always well off, and he attended different private school’s. He was accepted into Harvard in 1897, and didn’t like college and did not make very many friend’s. He did excell in natural history though and graduated in In 1974, Bigelow Laboratories was founded, which is an independent, non-profit organization, which focus’ on several ocean’s from around the world.

Mariana Trench Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific ocean, near Japan. It is known as the deepest ocean trench, and measures at about 35, 838 feet. It was first discovered by a British survey ship, the Challenger II, in It is said that if you were to take Mount Everest and set it in the Mariana Trench, there would still be over a mile of water over top of it. It is also said that it could be at the lowest surface of the Earth’s crust.

Oceans In earlier years there were only four recognized oceans, but by the year 2000, the Southern Ocean was declared by the International Hydrographic Organization. The five oceans are: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic.

Pacific Ocean: Extends from the Arctic ocean in the north, to the Southern ocean in the south. This enormous body of water is bordered by North and South America in the east and Asia and Australia in the west. This is the largest and deepest ocean in the world and Mariana trench, the deepest trench in the world lies in this ocean. Atlantic Ocean: After the Pacific, the Atlantic ocean is the next largest and deepest. It stretches over 41,100,000 square miles. The Puerto Rico trench is the deepest point which measures 8,648 meters. Indian Ocean: Known as the third largest ocean, it covers 20% of the earth’s water surface. Out of the five oceans, this ocean is the only one names after a country. It is surrounded by India, Indochina, East Africa, and Southern Ocean. The deepest point is the Java trench measuring 7,235 meters. Southern Ocean: Also known as the Antarctic ocean and is surrounds the south portion of the Antarctica continent. It is the fourth largest ocean and covers a bigger area than the Arctic. Arctic Ocean: The Arctic lies in the northern hemisphere. Eurasia and North America lie in the boundaries of this ocean and the deepest point is the Eurasia basin which is about 5,450 meters.

The Great Barrier Reef  The Great Barrier Reef is located off the coast of Queensland in the Northeastern area of Australia.  It is so big that it can actually be seen from outer space!  It is home to a big variety of species, like 30 different species of whales, 6 species of sea turtles, 125 species of sharks and stingrays, 17 species of sea snakes and about 1,500 species of fish.  Some of the largest clams can be found in the reef, and one of the largest pearls were found and sold in New York City for 10 million dollars.

Oil Spill On April , a 750 ft bulk carrier was on its way to China, from Queensland. One of the vessels fuel tanks was damaged and created a long narrow strip of oil for 2 nautical miles or 3.7 km. After investigations it was found that 3 to 4 tones of oil was lost. This created the largest grounding scar on the Great Barrier Reef known to date.

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