Ocean Sciences Supplement in 1977

This paper is a personal travel report from a visit to the People's Republic of China in September and October 1976. Oceanographic research, as seen from visits to institutes, participation in fieldwork and personal contacts, is discussed, with some emphasis on the physical and chemical aspects. There is a tangible striving for utility in research policy. Research activities are also to a large extent integrated with other functions of society. Marine research is of increasing importance in China today; there is a growing cognisance of the hazards involved in pollution of the marine environment. The technical standard varies; some institutes are equipped with older apparatus based on manual methods, whereas others had access to modern analytical instruments. Information about the important centres for oceanographic research, at Tsingtao on the Yellow Sea coast and at Kwangchow for the south China Sea is presented.

“Third Fisherman—Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. First Fisherman—Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat the little ones” Pericles

Improved techniques have demonstrated a remarkably high species diversity in the deep sea. Long-term environmental stability has resulted in establishment of diverse communities whose species have become biologically accommodated to each other. The deep-sea meiofauna (about 60–500 μm) mainly consists of foraminiferans and nematodes. The macrofauna is dominated by polychaetes, peracarid crustaceans, and bivalves. The major components of the megafauna are brittle stars bathyally, large scavenging fish and amphipods abyssally, and amphipods hadally. Biomass and numerical density decrease rapidly with distance from land. Biomass seems to be of the same order of magnitude for the three size groups, while meiofaunal density in the upper bathyal zone may be up to 1,400 individuals per 10cm² and macrofaunal density 20,000 individuals per m².

Plate tectonics gave a great stimulus to marine geology and geophysics; in the years since its enunciation there have been major drilling programmes, a new science of global palaeoenvironmental oceanography and much more detailed oceanographic surveys. The pace shows no sign of slackening—in the next few years the passive continental margins will be much studied.

Measurements of ocean finestructure (with typical time scales of 15 min to 1 d, spacial scales of 10 to 100 m vertically and 1 to 10 km horizontally) are consistent with the measured variability in the transmission of acoustic signals through the ocean volume. The observations suggest that the statistics of acoustic fluctuations can be used to monitor the statistics of ocean finestructure. Further, fluctuations in the travel time are a measure largely of temperature fluctuations along the acoustic path, and the difference in reciprocal travel times is a measure of the component, along the path, of current and current shear. Such acoustic measurements give integrals along the paths, with the attendant advantages and disadvantages as compared with the traditional ‘spot’ measurements; precision promises to be comparable or better.

Drugs from the sea are as much a potential marine resource as cultivated fish, and mineral deposits. The study of the chemical structure and properties of unusual metabolic products of marine life is a subject where marine ecology and the experimental sciences of chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology and medicine share a common and complementary interest. The development of ad hoc collaboration between specialists has advanced basic knowledge and resulted in a significant feedback to marine biology and ecology as well as in the development of some useful drugs.

In this and the following article developments in the law of the sea are described and their impact on marine research is considered. Agreement seems close on much of the negotiating text concerned with coastal and economic zones. But beyond, on the sea-bed in deep water, there are still many difficulties to be resolved. Is the outlook for scientific research therefore bleak? It is argued that if scientists come to terms with the new order, prospects for research in the economic zone and beyond could well be bright.

Luminescence is a feature common to many marine organisms. Certain squid and fish utilise luminous bacteria as symbiotic sources of light, and the symbionts have physiological features which are of potential advantage in the association. The luciferins of some marine fishes, squids, crustaceans and coelenterates are of very similar chemical structure, though differing markedly from the luciferins of non-marine forms. Luminescence in many marine animals is probably used for ventral camouflage purposes.

Why do waves break ? What happens during breaking itself? More than a hundred years of mathematical studies still leave some aspects of these questions unanswered, although we are now understanding much about the processes leading up to breaking and the period after breaking has occurred.