Jade Lin

Project 1 Draft 1

I came to Northeastern looking toward the oceans. There is something mysterious and

fascinating about the vast expanse of water that covers about 70 percent of the planet’s surface.

50 percent of people live by the coast, and yet, most people don’t really take the time to think

about what goes on beneath the waves. I certainly did not think the oceans were all that

interesting up until high school. I remember feeling puzzled when my older sister by four years

decided to go to college for marine biology. What was so interesting about a bunch of fish? I

soon found out that there is more appeal to the oceans than just fish when I joined the National

Ocean Sciences Bowl team in ninth grade. Buzzing in a fun quizbowl style competition

introduced me to and piqued my interest in oceanography. My curiosity about how the natural

world works and has causes and effects kept growing. And now, I am here at Northeastern,

studying Environmental Science with a marine concentration.

One class I have taken in pursuit of marine science is geographic information systems

(GIS). In this class, we learned how to use a powerful piece of software that allows people to

digitally create maps. Most people don’t realize how much information goes into a map, but a

map can tell the reader how two things are related both visually and spatially. Oceanography

depends heavily on maps, not only for navigation, but also for research. The ocean is so vast

that it is impossible to make conclusions based on only the parts one can access. A map lets a

researcher zoom out to see the larger picture. Many things that oceanographers study such as

currents or habitat ranges are also intangible or not easily visible, which makes a map very

useful tool for visualizing sets of data.

The first person to create such a collection of oceanographic maps was Matthew Maury,

an American naval officer and the so called “father of modern oceanography”. In 1842, Maury
provided blank logs to ship captains so that they might record observations such as winds,

currents, and compass direction. These logs became the standard for seafarers and became

part of a systematic, scientific method to record ocean conditions. The data from these logs

were then incorporated into Maury’s 1848 Wind and Current Charts. Maury figured out that one

could reduce the time it took to sail across the oceans by taking advantage of global winds and

currents. By referring to his maps, mariners could shorten their journeys significantly and

additionally could navigate through treacherous waters more safely. The success of his work led

to global cooperation among nations the first international marine conference in 1853. Mariners

from many nations soon sent in data to be included into his maps (NOAA, 2007). In 1855,

Maury published The Physical Geography of the Sea, sharing his hypotheses on oceanographic

topics such as ocean currents, climate, seawater chemistry, and the seafloor. This book was the

first modern oceanographic text and though many of it hypotheses were later disproved, it

heavily influenced following scientific texts regarding the oceans (Encyclopedia Britannica,

2017, NOAA, 2007).

But perhaps Maury’s greatest accomplishment was not his publications, but rather the

change in attitude that he caused. By having sailors observe and make record of ocean

conditions, Maury instilled in them curiosity and appreciation of the oceans. In the introduction of

The Physical Geography of the Sea, he cites an English ship-master who had commented on

the educational implications of his work. Once a seaman had learned how to make observations

for the research of maps, he would then “dwell with interest on the phases of the ocean, the

storm, the calm, and the breeze, and will look for traces of the laws which regulate them”

(Methuen, 1854). This was the birth of oceanography as a science.

The curiosity that Maury inspired still lives on today. I in particular loved learning about

the global winds and ocean current systems that Maury worked so hard to analyze and map.
When I look at natural phenomenon such as the shape or direction of a wave, or the pattern of

the ripples when the river freezes over, I wonder how is this caused? How do physics and the

local geography influence what I am seeing? If I were to map it spatially using GIS, would there

be an overall pattern? I am very glad that at Northeastern, I had the opportunity learn how to

use GIS to make maps and could personally see how maps can be used as a powerful tool for

research.

Another class that I am very excited to be taking this semester is called Global Oceanic

Change. The class will go into depth in how the oceans have changed from the very beginnings

of Earth to how they have changed in the past few decades. This is just my kind of class

because I love the systems thinking of oceanography. Oceanography, as well as environmental

science in general, at its core is an mishmash of several different science disciplines. One

cannot just study one specific aspect of the oceans because all the different sectors influence

and are influenced by one another.

For example, over the summer I helped the one of the labs at the Northeastern Marine

Science Center (MSC) working with The Nature Conservancy in an oyster restoration project in

Rhode Island. The purpose of the project was to restore the environment of damaged oyster

reefs, large masses of oysters growing atop one another in wall like structures. But in order to

understand how to rebuild the oyster reefs, the organization had to research not just the biology

of oysters, but also how the local geography and geology of the area would affect the reef and

choose an appropriate location. The study of the physics and how the tides would affect the

reefs was also important in deciding whether the reefs would stay stable under the rush of the

tides going in and out. Water chemistry was an important consideration for the oysters as well.

Oysters are filter feeders and feed by sucking in water and filtering out suspended particles;

therefore, the oysters would be exposed to any harmful chemicals or pollution in the water. The
reefs would also be influenced by human interaction, and humans would in turn affected by the

oyster reefs. Some Rhode Islanders were unhappy that we were creating reefs near their

waterfront houses because they might be ugly to look at or hinder navigation of private boats.

However, these same people would also benefit from the restoring of this habitat because reefs

can act as natural barriers to coastal erosion and storm surge.

Consideration of all different types of sciences such as biology, geology, chemistry, and

even social sciences are necessary to have a complete picture of the study of oceans. Part of

why I enjoy studying the oceans is because I like finding all the different interconnections and

making new connections to the knowledge I already have.

Oceanography is truly interdisciplinary, and the birth of this sort of thinking can be traced

back to the Challenger expedition in 1872. The voyage of the HMS Challenger was the first

global expedition for the research of the oceans and the life within it. The motivation for the

Challenger expedition was naturalist Charles Wyville Thompson’s curiosity for the creatures of

the deep and an interest in constructing cables across the ocean floor to connect the continents

(WHOI 2005(a); University of Washington). Aboard the ship were different types of scientists

including naturalist John Murray, chemist and physicist John Buchanan, as well as an artist to

record the likenesses of the creatures they discovered (The Challenger Society for Marine

Science). In the confines of a ship with a shared labspace sailing the world in a four year long

voyage, the scientists had to communicate and collaborate with each other. The Challenger

sampled the three major oceans (the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Southern Oceans), and the

records that they brought back filled 50 volumes. It took many years after the expedition ended

to analyze the data and much of it is still used today. The Challenger Expedition proved that life

could be sustained in the deepest parts of the ocean, that the bottom of the ocean had

mountains and canyons, and overall established oceanography as a science. The existence of
many oceanographic institutions such as the Northeastern MSC may then be in part attributed

to researchers analysing the data from the Challenger Expedition (Brown, 2014).

It amazes me to think that the first global oceanographic research voyage was only

about 150 years ago. It was a massive undertaking to take data from all three major oceans,

and it makes me wonder how many research expeditions of this magnitude have been

conducted since then. But on the other hand, a large global expedition may no longer be

needed because of the global cooperation between different countries. The world is now more

interconnected than it ever has been before. Looking from the past to the future excites me

because of how much we have progressed in a relatively short amount of time. During my time

at Northeastern and beyond, I hope to learn from oceanography’s historic events and people to

further the field in someway of my own.

References
Brown S., J. Goodman. 2014. The Challenger Expedition. Historical Association.
https://www.history.org.uk/historian/categories/561/module/7382/podcast-series-the-hist
ory-of-science/7390/the-challenger-expedition
The Challenger Society of Marine Science. History of the Challenger Expedition.
http://www.challenger-society.org.uk/History_of_the_Challenger_Expedition​. Date
Accessed 13 Jan 2018.
Encyclopedia Britannica Editors. 2017. Matthew Fontaine Maury.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Fontaine-Maury​.
Maury, Matthew F. The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology. 2003. Dover
Edition. New York. J. Leighly, ed. 3-9p.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pFu_G8USY8EC&oi=fnd&pg=PR31&dq=
matthe+maury&ots=lJXaZRqUOR&sig=U2LH2JRnUPoEvxc5umWtSHCjCAc#v=onepag
e&q&f=false
Methuen, R. The Log of a Merchant Officer. 1854. London.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 2007. The Physical Geography of
the Sea, 1st edition. ​https://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/rarebooks/sea/welcome.html​.
University of Washington. The Voyage of the HMS Challenger.
http://www.interactiveoceans.washington.edu/story/HMS_Challenger​. Date Accessed 13
Jan 2018.
WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). 2005. The Challenger Expedition.
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/history-ocean/challenger.html​. Date Accessed 13 Jan
2018.