The most striking and distinctive feature of our planet, when viewed from space, is the amount of water on its surface. Its called the water planet. And, while some is contained in clouds as water vapor and a few percent is present in lakes, rivers ice caps and in cavities of pores of rocks, most is contained within the oceans. The sea probably played a part in man's life and experience from the very earliest times, even his prehuman ancestors are likely to have included shellfish from the shore in their diet.
Water transportation was used at least since 50000 years ago to colonize Australia and maybe even longer but little trace remains because of the materials used for primitive boat building, reeds, wood, skins rapidly decompose. While the Greeks, Pacific Islanders and Vikings were responsible for some of the earlier spectacular maritime achievements, the Portuguese sea men were the first true pioneers of European oceanic exploration. Sent out by Prince Henry in 1420's they continued new discoveries, and charted these with considerable skill. In the 1460's they devised a system of nautical astronomy to improve navigation.
By the 1480's a pilot could calculate his latitude. Longititude could not be measured yet so "running down the latitude" was practiced...sailing to the latitude of landfall, for three to four hundred miles seaward and then sailing due east or west to the landfall. Columbus used his method on his return voyage from the New World.
It wasn't until 1760+ that John Harrison's fourth chronometer and the lunar distance method of calculating longitude provide answers to measure longititude at sea.
Cook's Endeavour 1769-71 was one of the earlier expeditions, followed by the Discovery in 1791 a war sloop which surveyed the northwest American coast (George Vancouver).. an annual Undiscovery Day is held in Ocean Shores Washington to celebrate the night in 1792 that George Vancouver bypassed Ocean Shores without discovering it. Locals gather on the beach at midnight and shout "Hey George over here?!" and other appropriate instructions. The Columbia, Robert Gray, discovered the Columbia River (only river named after a ship!) in 1792 because of Vancouver's stubbornness believing there was no river in the area. .The voyage of the beagle with Darwin was one of the most important exploratory scientific expeditions and information relating to oceanography was collected.
121 years ago the H. M. S. Challenger (1872-5) set out of England for 3 1/2 yrs. and 68,890 mile journey exploring sea depths and laying the foundation for modern oceanography. Before the Challenger, only a few isolated soundings had been made with Magellan believed to have made the first, lowering hand lines to about 1200 feet in the Pacific (12,000 deep) and after him, no other soundings were recorded until the 19th century.
The American Navy's' ship the Blake carried out research from 1877-80 in the Caribbean gulf of Mexico and coast of Florida and from there the science continued to flourish... Note names!
In the ceaseless quest for knowledge about the human body and remedies for its afflictions, scientists long have turned to the sea for answers. And the sea, cradle of life and home to the oldest and most diverse collection of organisms ever to inhabit the planet, has provided. For more than a century, simple sea creatures have helped scientists probe some of biology's most complex riddles.
Researchers have used sea urchins, starfishes, and clams for example to elucidate the cellular processes of fertilization and provide insights into the development of the embryo. Squids have revealed much of what is known about how nerve cells work and led to improved drugs for epilepsy. A simple sponge, the Beard of Moses, has shed light on aspects of the immune systems inflammatory response. And various fishes and other invertebrates have yielded clues to come of human kinds most intractable diseases, including epilepsy, cirrhosis, arteriosclerosis, diabetes and cancer.
Whether a sponge or a skate, whether healthy or diseased, marine organisms are used in biomedical research for one ultimate purpose: To understand that most complex of all living things--the human animal. Marine animals serve as analogous of structures or functions that, at some basic level, are similar to our own. Marine models offer investigator a powerful scientific advantage: Their systems generally are vastly less complicated and more accessible than those of mammals. Invertebrates as well as marine and freshwater fishes can help illuminate biological mechanisms common to all animals.