Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2006)

8 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) recently took delivery of

Henry B. Bigelow, one of a new class of fisheries sur- vey vessels being built under contract with VT Halter

Marine Inc., in Pascagoula, Miss. Henry B. Bigelow will support NOAA research efforts in conservation and management of fisheries and marine ecosystems primarily in northeastern U.S. waters, replacing the 45- year old Albatross IV. The ship will be home ported in

New England, although a permanent base has not been named.

Henry B. Bigelow is the second of four 208-ft. fish- eries survey vessels (FSVs) to be delivered by VT

Halter Marine, with the third ship, Pisces, and the as- yet unnamed fourth ship in various stages of construc- tion. The FSVs will have the ability to perform hydro- acoustic surveys of fish, and will also be able to con- duct bottom and mid-water trawls while running phys- ical and biological-oceanographic sampling during a single deployment -- a combined capability unavail- able in the private sector. The ship is named for Henry

Bryant Bigelow, the founding director of the Woods

Hole Oceanographic Institution and a pioneering ocean researcher whose extensive investigations are recog- nized as the foundation of modern oceanography. His expeditions in the Gulf of Maine, where he collected water samples and data on the phytoplankton, fish and hydrography, made this region one of the most thor- oughly studied bodies of water, for its size, in the world.

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NOAA Accepts New Survey Vessel

Father of Oceanography:

Henry B. Bigelow

Henry Bryant Bigelow, born in 1879, developed an early pas- sion for nature, sailing and fish- ing that would ultimately lead to the foundation of modern oceanography. Raised on the

Massachusetts coast, Bigelow enrolled at Harvard in 1897 and graduated cum laude in 1901.

During his time at Harvard,

Bigelow befriended Professor

Alexander Agassiz, who was well-known at the time for his

Pacific Ocean expeditions. In the winter of 1901, Bigelow requested to accompany Agassiz on such a voyage, and served as assistant on a trip to the

Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. At the end of the trip,

Bigelow had the opportunity to study the medusae that had been collected, and his research served as material for his doc- toral thesis and was published in 1904.

In 1927, Bigelow was asked to prepare a scientific paper for the

US National Academy of Sciences' Committee on

Oceanography to address "…whether the United States was contributing as broadly as was desirable to the study of the oceans and if not, what should be done to improve the situa- tion." His work on this project persuaded the Committee that more needed to be done in the field of oceanography, which led to the establishment of the Woods Hole Oceanographic

Institution (WHOI); incorporated in 1930. Bigelow served as its first Director from 1930 to 1939, and his report, titled

Oceanography: Its Scope, Problems, and Economic

Importance, was published in 1931. Upon his retirement as director in 1939, he was a member on the Board of Trustees and, in 1960, was named Founder Chairman of the Board in recognition of his achievements there. Additionally, in 1961, the

Institution established the Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal in his honor, of which he was the first recipient. Bigelow remained a member of the Harvard faculty during his time at WHOI and after; teaching for a total of 62 years; a tenure he thought must have broken some sort of record. In jest, he remarked that the university owed him a bottle of whiskey for his loyal service; to his surprise, upon his retirement, he was presented with such a gift, "compliments of the President and Fellows." His autobiog- raphy notes that he is the only one to ever have been present- ed a bottle of whiskey on behalf of Harvard University.

Bigelow died on December 11, 1967, at the age of 89. His last papers were published following his death, in 1968. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

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