1. History of Aquatic Science
This unit will give an introduction to the history of oceanic exploration and the major events & discoveries that shaped the course of Aquatic Science.
On the following slides, the green sections are the most important.
Underline words = vocabulary!

2. Aquatic Science What is Aquatic Science?
The study of all water environments, and the plants, animals, and organisms that live in them.

3. Background
About ¾ of our Earth is water; without water, life on Earth as we know it would not exist.
The ocean is one of our last frontiers – the last places to discover.
Since the beginning of time human kind has required water for survival.

4. The Ocean Through the study of the world’s oceans, we:
Enjoy recreation
Explore aquatic animals & plants
Find food
Get our weather systems
Learn the history of the planet
Mine for minerals, oil & building materials
Trade between countries
Transport goods and people

5. Areas of Study in Aquatic Science
Physical: currents, tides, waves, pressure, temperature, depth, density, as relating to weather phenomenon
Geological: history of the Earth, seafloor features, sediments, changes over time
Chemical: evolution and composition of seawater, its influences on animal and plant life, and impact of water pollution on the environment
Biological: plants, animals and their ecosystems (life cycles, food chains, and environments)

6. Oceanography What is oceanography?
A multiscience field encompassing geology, geophysics, chemistry, physics, meteorology, and biology as they pertain to marine ecosystems.

7. Marine Biology
Marine Biology – the study of marine organisms, their behaviors, and interactions with the environment.

8. Aquaculture
Aquaculture – the management of fisheries and hatcheries, where fish eggs are incubated and hatched.

9. Egyptian Technology
The Egyptians established sea trade throughout the Indian Ocean as early as 2300 B.C.
B.C. a canal was built, the Isthmus of Suez, to navigate ships across land.
The canal operated until 775 A.D.

10. The Phoenicians
Phoenicians: (from the Middle East) Sailed around Africa in 590 B.C.
A stone carving from the 1st century AD shows the kind of ship that the Phoenicians used on the Mediterranean Sea.
The Granger Collection, New York
Image

11. The Greeks
Herodotus (a Greek): published an accurate map (see below) of the Mediterranean region, 450 B.C.
Greeks: Developed trade routes throughout the Mediterranean and expanded their empire under Alexander the Great, 336 B.C.

12. Amazing Math!
200 B.C. – the Greek Eratosthenes mathematically calculated the circumference of the Earth to be 40,000 km.
The circumference is 40,032 km.
2,200 years ago his math was good enough to be off only 32 km!
Eratosthenes knew that at noon on the summer solstice the Sun is directly overhead at Syene (a city)….He also knew the distance between Syene and Alexandria (another city), which, combined with his measurement of the solar angle a between the Sun and the vertical, enabled him to calculate Earth's circumference.
From Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

13. The Arabs
200 B.C Islamic and Arab Merchants: traded throughout the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans.
They are believed to have invented the lateen sail, the triangular sail important in early navigation.

14. In the Middle Ages
900 A.D. The Vikings crossed the North Atlantic to colonize Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland using the North Star to determine latitude.
Exhumed Viking ship;
Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway. Image

15. 15th and 16th Centuries
Chinese: Sailed to influence and impress their neighbors.
1492 Columbus: Sailing for Spain, sailed the Atlantic and “discovered” the America’s.
1497 Vasco da Gama: Sailing for Portugal, sailed around Africa from Portugal to India to establish trade routes.
Europeans searched for the Northwest passage through northern Canada to trade with Asia; and explored the Artic.

16. Around the World in…
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was on the 1st European expedition to circumnavigate (travel all around) the world.
237 men began the voyage; only 18 returned.
Magellan actually died before the journey was finished, but his crew returned in 1522.

17. Benjamin Franklin
1762- The American Ben Franklin created a chart of the Gulf Stream.
The Gulf Stream gives the US its warm climate, bringing warm water north from the equator.

18. Device invented by John Harrison (a carpenter) who was paid by the British government; a chronometer is a device that calculates longitude.
The English explorer Captain James Cook made 3 voyages to chart the Pacific Ocean.
He was the first to use a chronometer for navigation.
Harrison & Cook

19. Charles Darwin
In 1831 Charles Darwin took his voyage on the ship the HMS Beagle which led to his book “The Origin of Species” and the theories of evolution.

20. Matthew Maury
U.S. Navy’s Lt. Matthew Maury, called the Father of Modern Oceanography, made charts and sailing directions and wrote the first book of oceanography in 1855.
A Monument in Richmond, VA named him “Pathfinder of the Seas”.

21. The Challenger
From 1872 to 1876, the ship HMS Challenger Expedition led by Sir Charles Wyville Thomson gathered more data in its time than all other data to date.
It was this voyage that discovered the world’s deepest ocean trench, the Marianas Trench, now sometimes called the Challenger Deep.

22. 20th Century
1898 – The world wars were the catalyst for US oceanographic research; invention of the 1st gas engine & battery powered submarine bought by US government in 1900.
Development of technology including electronic equipment, deep sea drilling programs, (1916) SONAR, use of GPS (global positioning system) and satellites.

23. The Meteor The Meteor Expedition: mapped the ocean floor and features.
The German Meteor expedition surveys the South Atlantic with echo-sounding equipment

24. The Trieste
On January 23, 1960, the bathyscaph (small submarine) Trieste reached the greatest oceanic depth existing on our planet.
Don Walsh and Jacques Picard (US navy) piloted the Trieste to the deepest part of the trench (35,797ft > 6.5miles) .

25. Alvin
Designed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and built in 1962, Alvin has traveled around the world completing 4,162 dives.
Alvin has mechanical arms and in 1966 helped to locate a H-bomb that was lost in the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1979, Alvin and its crew discovered black smokers on the sea floor.

26. The Glomar Challenger
1968 – The Glomar Challenger, a drilling vessel that proved seafloor spreading and changes in the earth’s climate by taking core samples from the sea floor.

27. View from Space
1985 – JASON, a satellite found and documented the wreck of the Titanic.

28. The Japanese
Japan launched the Shinkai 6500 which can carry a crew up to 21,414 ft deep into the ocean (a world record).

29. 21st Century
In 2006, a Chinese mineral company (COMRA) designed a craft to reach 23,000 ft.

30. How do we study the ocean?
Types of Research Vessels:
Submersibles – small underwater vehicles
ROV – remotely operated vehicle
Bathysphere – is lowered by a cable from a ship
Drilling ships – which take sediment cores
Floating and Fixed platforms (FLIP – floating instrument platform) to gather data like temperature, salinity, density, and weather patterns

31. Other Research Instruments
Airplanes
Satellites
SEASAT: 1st satellite dedicated to ocean studies
Topex/Poseidon
Echosounding
Underwater cameras
Side scan sonar – great for sunken ships

32. TOPEX/Poseidon
Launched on August 10, 1992, TOPEX/Poseidon was a joint satellite mission between NASA, the U.S. space agency, and CNES, the French space agency, to map ocean surface topography.
The first major oceanographic research vessel to sail into space, TOPEX/Poseidon helped revolutionize oceanography by proving the value of satellite ocean observations.
Oceanographer Walter Munk described TOPEX/Poseidon as "the most successful ocean experiment of all time."[1]
A malfunction ended normal satellite operations in January 2006

33. In Conclusion
The ocean represents the Earth’s last frontier for exploration and the key to understanding the future of our planet.
The human race depends on the life and sustainability of the ocean for economic, biological, and environmental stability.
The world of Aquatic science is ever reaching for new discoveries in this blue realm.