History of marine biology
[1] The earliest studies of marine biology trace back to the Phoenicians and the Greeks who are known as the initial explorers of the oceans and their composition.
Individuals who contributed significantly to this pool of knowledge include Captain James Cook (1728–1779), Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Wyville Thomson (1830–1882).
[5] The era was important for the history of marine biology, but naturalists were still constrained by available technologies that limited their ability to effectively locate and accurately examine species that inhabited the deep parts of the ocean.
Technological advances, such as sound ranging, scuba diving gear, submersibles and remotely operated vehicles, progressively made it easier to study the deep ocean.
[6] The history of marine biology can be traced as far back as 1200 BC when the Phoenicians and the Greeks began ocean voyages using celestial navigation.
Herodotus (484–425 BC) wrote of the regular tides in the Persian Gulf, the deposition of silt in the Nile Delta and used the term “Atlantic” to describe the western seas for the first time.
His observations on catfish, electric fish (Torpedo) and angler-fish are detailed, as is his writing on cephalopods, namely, Octopus, Sepia (cuttlefish) and the paper nautilus (Argonauta argo).
[19] James Cook is well known for his voyages of exploration for the British Navy in which he mapped out a significant amount of the world's uncharted waters.
The expedition collected and analyzed thousands of marine specimens, laying the foundation for present knowledge about life near the deep-sea floor.
This was followed by the progressive development of more advanced technologies which began to allow more extensive explorations of ocean depths that were once thought too deep to sustain life.
Notable was the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in America,[24][25] which established a model for other marine laboratories subsequently set up around the world.
[29] Submersibles were built like small submarines with the purpose of taking marine scientists to deeper depths of the ocean while protecting them from increasing atmospheric pressures that cause complications deep under water.
The first models could hold several individuals and allowed limited visibility but enabled marine biologists to see and photograph the deeper portions of the oceans.
[29] In the late 20th century and into the 21st, marine biology was "glorified and romanticized through films and television shows," leading to an influx in interested students who required a damping on their enthusiasm with the day-to-day realities of the field.
