AN OCEAN LARDER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 34, 9 February 1934, Page 6

AN OCEAN LARDER

i SECRET OF DEEP WATERS RECENT MARINE EXPLORATION Workers in the Oceanographic Labo-1 ratones of the University of Washington, of which Dr. Thomas G. Thump-1 son, chemist, is director, have extracted another secret from the depths of Davy Jones’ locker, with the aid of their new laboratory boat, the Catalyst, states the Christian Science Monitor. Research work conducted on the Catalyst last summer leads these men to advance a theory to explain the existence of an over-abundance of sea life in the waters of Puget bound, and specially in the waters of the ban Juan Islands, lying north of the sound. Since 1792, when the daring English explorer, George Vancouver, sailed into the waters of the San Juan Islands, to this day, all visitors to the islands have marvelled at the extreme brilliance of the phosphorescence in the water. It has been determined previously that phosphorescence is emitted from sea animals and that a great abundance of sea life thrives iu the waters of the San Juan Islands. Though simple deduction indicated that the phosphorescence brilliance, or luminescence, of the San Juan waters is greater than in most parts of the world because sea life is more abundant, the reason for the over-abund-ance of sea life there had to be found before the reason for the extreme phosphorescence could be given, ft is the second half of the question whieh scientists now believe they have answered. Dr. Thompson explained that during the summer’s work on the floating laboratory, a great submarine canyon in the Pacific Ocean was discovered, located below the west coast of Vancouver Island. Those men now believe, he continued, that as plant and animal life dies in the region of this newly-discovered submarine canyou, the material settles

to the bottom of the cavern and changed into nutrient salts. Bwitt tides then sweep the nutrient material from the canyon, through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into Ban Juan Island waters where there is a tremendous updrawing of the current. The salts are forced to the water's surface, making the San Juan Island region into a bountiful larder for the innumerable members of the more than 1-00 forms of sea animals found there. The submarine valley from whence this nutrient material comes may be on what geologists call the Lost Land of Cascadia, that part of the North American continent which is thought to have become submerged off the Pacific coast when the Cascade Mountains rose in their splendour. The scientists of the Oceanographic Laboratories of the University of Washington, who are carrying on a three fold programme consisting of research work at the main laboratories on tho university campus in Seattle, at the field laboratory a 4: Friday Harbour, and on the Catalyst, are attacking the study of tho sea with a wellbalanced programme between the biological and physical sciences. Tbo work of the laboratory is in co-opera-tion with the United States Navy and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Already the Catalyst has aided th* .scientists of this laboratory in finding tho zone of minimum oxygen and the light penetration of water. They believe that they have discovered several forms unknown to scienfle. These forms are now being checked, preparatory to announcing them to the scientific world. Three hundred shore and Bottom forms, 100 hydroids, 75 bryazoa, or moss animals, 40 kinds of jellyfish, 500 members of the floating population, and 200 fish, besides mammals, including the killer-whale, seals, porpoise and sea lions have been found in the San Juan Islands. Sharks, 12 feet in length, wolf fish and skates are among the large varieties of fish in these waters. with salmon and halibut abounding for commercial use.