Marine Science

Simply stated, marine science is the science of the sea. It is a multidisciplinary field of scientific inquiry that encompasses the fields of biology, fisheries, ecology, chemistry, geology, physics, and oceanography as they pertain to the marine realm. Marine scientists focus on a variety of marine habitats distributed worldwide in tropical, temperate, and arctic regions, including: coral reefs, estuaries, and lagoons, as well as benthic, pelagic, intertidal, coastal, and deep sea environments.

The marine realm encompasses over 71 percent of the earth's surface. It is a primary driver of the hydrological cycle, plays a major role in the earth's weather and climate system, and provides critical habitat for millions of marine species. The oceans contribute to international commerce, transportation, and tourism. They contain large amounts of valuable minerals such as hydrocarbons and manganese nodules. They are a source of fish, shellfish, algae, and plant species that form the basis of the world's commercial, artisanal, and subsistence fisheries and aquaculture operations. Marine species have given rise to new genetic and pharmaceutical products. The oceans also comprise a realm of strategic military importance. Understanding these mechanisms, roles, and resources is an integral part of marine science. In addition to providing insights into the structure, functions, and human uses of the ocean realm, marine scientific endeavors have also contributed to our understandings of the origins of life, human biology, and evolutionary, developmental, and tectonic processes.

Until recently, a lack of appropriate technology constrained the ability of humans to conduct scientific investigations of the marine environment. The development of the bathysphere, and, more significantly, SCUBA gear (also known as Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), manned and unmanned submersibles, and remote sensing (acoustic, seismic, optical, and satellite) technologies have generated a number of new insights and substantially enlarged our knowledge base in the field of marine science.

Although premised on the idea of objectivity, science is a particularly human endeavor and no accounting of the field of marine science would be complete without reference to some of the many scientists who have worked in this field to expand the boundaries of knowledge. The following represents an all too brief and incomplete sampling of internationally important marine scientists. Among them is Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, a Scottish scientist who directed the first purely scientific exploration of the oceans aboard the HMS Challenger from 1872 to 1876. It took an additional 10 years to complete the 50 volumes summarizing the cruise's findings. As a result of this work, Thomson stimulated the beginning of a modern science of the oceans, identifying thousands of new species of organisms and confirming that there was indeed life in the deep ocean—debunking the azoic theory, which posited that it was absent. The Norwegian scientist and explorer Fridtjof Nansen enhanced human understanding of arctic marine environments, exploring the Arctic Ocean aboard the vessel Fram and by dogsled.

Henry Bryant Bigelow conducted seminal studies of the Gulf of Maine, and emphasized the importance of creating interdisciplinary understandings, combining the natural and physical sciences to gain insight into the complexity of the marine environment. He became the first director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the preeminent marine science institutes in the world, serving from 1930 to 1940. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, although not necessarily one of the great marine scientists in the world, did much to popularize the findings of marine scientists, introducing the general public to the study of the oceans in his numerous collections of photographs, books, television shows, and movies, and to the sea itself through his invention of SCUBA gear and techniques for creating underwater photographs.

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