Du laboratoire de zoologie marine de Marion à la station marine d' Endoume, 1889-1989
Pérès, J.-M. (1989). Du laboratoire de zoologie marine de Marion à la station marine d' Endoume, 1889-1989, in: Denis, M. (Ed.) Océanologie: actualité et prospective. pp. 13-36 In: Denis, M. (Ed.) (1989). Océanologie: Actualité et prospective. Centre d' Océanologie: Marseille. ISBN 2-907752-00-6. 387 pp., more |
| Abstract | A.-F. Marion (1846-1900) was among the scientists who set the French Marine Biology, but he was indeed at first a "naturalist" in full meaning of this word, i.e. inquiring in any nature things and their past. Experienced taxonomist, he was also interested in the biology (mainly embryogeny) and behaviour of animals he was able to sample. In two remarkable reports brought out in 1882, he methodically analysed all the benthic assemblages along Provence and Côte d' Azur coast from shore down to 400-500 m depth -and sometimes to 2 000 m depth -according to the substrate nature and seawater dynamics, that means he was the founder of marine bionomy. Respectful of Nature laws, Marion was also among the first scientists anxious for the degradation of inshore waters by anthropic pollution and for depopulation by some fishing practises. Marion dedicated the last years of his short lifetime to promote a better management of yields from marine life, e.g. he obtained from the Administration for maritime affairs a quartering area, in front of the laboratory, where any fisheries activities were prohibited, more especially those which may ruin some populations of youngest fry, that may endanger the recruitment of next generations. He was also among the first scientists to catch sight a glimpse of relations between changes in annual fish landings and middIe-range climatic fluctuations. From 1947 and following the ways Marion opened or foretelled in his last writings, the Station Marine d'Endoume investigated both pelagial and benthal domains -including mariculture and polIution; sometimes with geological aspects -using the most sophisticated techniques, e.g. submersibles, at first in whole Mediterranean Sea. From 1956 investigations spread out in the North Atlantic Ocean, and from 1961 in many areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans as far as the Antarctic Ocean. |
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