Subsequently it was realised that organized international cooperation could be very
beneficial for obtaining scientifically based information with respect to the role of
the ocean conditions for fish production, including as regards physical and biological conditions, providing advice on the fisheries yield. This organized international
cooperation came gradually to feed into fisheries management. This resulted in the
establishment in 1902 of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea,
following a series of intergovernmental consultations. Likewise the Commission
for Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean and the Indonesian Fisheries Council were created as formal organizations. However, even if international cooperation in ocean research focusing on physical and chemical oceanography was
organized in some regions during the initial decades of the 1900, it was not until
well after World War II that such organized international cooperation gradually
matured over a period of 2–3 decades. The global expeditions of Swedish and
Danish origin with Albatross 1947–1948 and Galathea 1950–1952, respectively,
brought use of new technologies into focus leading to major new scientific results,
in some cases even breakthroughs, in geophysics and sedimentology, in ocean
physics, chemistry and biology. These considerable efforts by small countries
also involved international cooperation on individual scientific basis, and stimulated new thinking.
Subsequently in the 1950s several consultations were hold involving leading
scientists and organizations as ICSU, IAPO, IUBS and IUGG, on how best to
organize constructive and persistent international cooperation in ocean science.
The coupling between physical, chemical and biological processes and conditions
in the ocean together with the ocean dynamics required interaction between scientific disciplines as well as international cooperation. Furthermore the ocean could
not be studied fruitfully without taking into account the ocean-atmosphere interactions, as well as the coupling between the ocean and the other compartments of the
environment. At the same time the very limited capacities to do advanced ocean
research were serious obstacles. Only very few leading institutions had the capacity
to drive extended deep ocean research. The limitations were noted both as regards
human resources and infrastructure. How attract well qualified scientists to this new
field and how attract sufficient funding? The early efforts had been based on private
donations. The social factors as well as the dynamics and size of the ocean made
internationally organized cooperation necessary, but also not easily achieved. The
scientific fisheries services were organized at the regional level. For the ocean
research generally, however, the global or planetarian basis was regarded as more
appropriate. ICSU and UNESCO took up the challenge.
Following consultations between leading scientists, ICSU established a Special
Committee on Deep-Sea Research which met in 1955. The Committee argued that
the main problem was to “apply recent great developments in all basic sciences to
the study of the ocean to bring about a level of understanding of the earth and of
living organisms.” (Wolff 2010). It concluded that more knowledge of the ocean
biology should stimulate revisiting studies of terrestrial organisms and help elucidate further the evolution and distribution of plants and animals. The Committee
stressed that problems related to the origin of continents and ocean basins, forces in
32 Development of International Cooperation in Oceanography: Incentives from. . .
535
beneficial for obtaining scientifically based information with respect to the role of
the ocean conditions for fish production, including as regards physical and biological conditions, providing advice on the fisheries yield. This organized international
cooperation came gradually to feed into fisheries management. This resulted in the
establishment in 1902 of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea,
following a series of intergovernmental consultations. Likewise the Commission
for Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean and the Indonesian Fisheries Council were created as formal organizations. However, even if international cooperation in ocean research focusing on physical and chemical oceanography was
organized in some regions during the initial decades of the 1900, it was not until
well after World War II that such organized international cooperation gradually
matured over a period of 2–3 decades. The global expeditions of Swedish and
Danish origin with Albatross 1947–1948 and Galathea 1950–1952, respectively,
brought use of new technologies into focus leading to major new scientific results,
in some cases even breakthroughs, in geophysics and sedimentology, in ocean
physics, chemistry and biology. These considerable efforts by small countries
also involved international cooperation on individual scientific basis, and stimulated new thinking.
Subsequently in the 1950s several consultations were hold involving leading
scientists and organizations as ICSU, IAPO, IUBS and IUGG, on how best to
organize constructive and persistent international cooperation in ocean science.
The coupling between physical, chemical and biological processes and conditions
in the ocean together with the ocean dynamics required interaction between scientific disciplines as well as international cooperation. Furthermore the ocean could
not be studied fruitfully without taking into account the ocean-atmosphere interactions, as well as the coupling between the ocean and the other compartments of the
environment. At the same time the very limited capacities to do advanced ocean
research were serious obstacles. Only very few leading institutions had the capacity
to drive extended deep ocean research. The limitations were noted both as regards
human resources and infrastructure. How attract well qualified scientists to this new
field and how attract sufficient funding? The early efforts had been based on private
donations. The social factors as well as the dynamics and size of the ocean made
internationally organized cooperation necessary, but also not easily achieved. The
scientific fisheries services were organized at the regional level. For the ocean
research generally, however, the global or planetarian basis was regarded as more
appropriate. ICSU and UNESCO took up the challenge.
Following consultations between leading scientists, ICSU established a Special
Committee on Deep-Sea Research which met in 1955. The Committee argued that
the main problem was to “apply recent great developments in all basic sciences to
the study of the ocean to bring about a level of understanding of the earth and of
living organisms.” (Wolff 2010). It concluded that more knowledge of the ocean
biology should stimulate revisiting studies of terrestrial organisms and help elucidate further the evolution and distribution of plants and animals. The Committee
stressed that problems related to the origin of continents and ocean basins, forces in
32 Development of International Cooperation in Oceanography: Incentives from. . .
535