History of american marine laboratories: Why do research at the seashore?

Abstract

SYNOPSIS. Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, researchers have gone in increasing numbers to the seashore to carry out biological research. Some people have chosen to study organisms in the sea, others life forms at the sea's edges. While not all of these researchers actually have needed to be at the seashore to do their work, a significant number of research programs have, in fact, depended on the ability to study marine life in its natural setting. The Marine Biological Laboratory pioneered in supporting the research functions in the United States, though the MBL also received inspiration from the successes of the Naples Zoological Station and other European laboratories. This paper explores the initial moves by researchers to study marine life and to set up stations in remote settings away from the comforts of home and of the home laboratories. It also outlines the sorts of work undertaken at the seashore. © 1988 by the American Society of Zoologists.