1. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Oceanography and Marine Biology began as a necessity - not a science. Some of the greatest leaders are alive today!
Minoans and Phoenicians used the Mediterranean for trade.
Greeks calculated the Earth’s size, shape, and latitude lines.
Vikings, led by Leif Erikson, colonized Iceland by 700 A.D. and North America by 1000 A.D.

2. Arabs and Chinese developed the compass and navigation.
Polynesians used the stars to explore
Micronesia in double-hulled canoes.
Voyages of Columbus (1492) and Magellan (1522) began the “Age of Discovery”.
Columbus
Ponce de Leon found the Gulf Stream by accident en route to Cuba.
In 1760, John Harrison solved the problem of calculating longitude by using time.

3. In 1768, Capt. James Cook’s 3 voyages
discovered Australia, New Zealand and
circumnavigated Antarctica. He and
his crew were killed in Hawaii.
NOAA
Ben Franklin named and mapped the Gulf Stream while serving as Postmaster General for the colonies.
Matthew Fountaine Maury is called the Father of Oceanography. He published the first oceanography text as a military tool for use during the Civil War.
By author

4. 1872 - H. M. S. Challenger was the first scientific voyage
H.M.S. Challenger was the first scientific voyage. It lasted only 3 years, but it took 20 years to analyze all the data they collected.
Prince Albert of Monoco established the first Oceanographic School.
An expedition on the ship, Meteor, made 14 crossings of the Atlantic Ocean.

5. William Beebe descended 3,000 ft. in the first bathysphere in 1930.
During WWII, Cousteau invented SCUBA and many other devices that opened the oceans to millions.
1950 -International Geophysical Year (IGY) studied the Indian Ocean.

6. Trieste (bathyscaphe) descended 36,000 ft
Trieste (bathyscaphe) descended 36,000 ft. into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific - the deepest ocean depth.
NOAA
Project FAMOUS (French American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) and Deep Sea Drilling Project researched plate tectonics with the ship, Glomar Challenger.

7. 1990’s - Global Positioning Satellites were opened for public access.
1978 SEASAT satellite launched for measuring global surface temperature, bio-productivity, and wave heights.
Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES) drilled on the ocean floor at a depth of 27,000 ft. and went 1000 ft. into ocean floor sediments.
NOAA
1990’s - Global Positioning Satellites were opened for public access.
2000’s – a 10-year project, Census of Marine Life, will seek to identify marine life and preserve species.