Oceanographic activities of the Coast and Geodetic Survey during the past year

Abstract

The prolongation of the war has forced a continued curtailment of the oceanographic activities of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. At the beginning of the war six major vessels of this Bureau were transferred to the Navy, with only one replacement made during the spring of 1944. During the past year three major survey‐ships and three small vessels operated in Alaskan waters under the direction of an officer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey attached to the Naval District Headquarters as liaison officer between that District and the vessels of this Bureau. On the east coast one survey‐ship and five small vessels were in operation. In connection with the hydrographic work being accomplished by all of these parties, observations of temperature and salinity were taken in the areas being surveyed. All offshore radio‐acoustic hydrographic work, which was under way at the beginning of hostilities, was discontinued and all work has been limited on the east coast to harbors and inside waters, being confined principally to surveys requested by the Armed Forces. In Alaska all surveys were confined to areas of strategic military importance.