University Marine Biological Station, Millport

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University Marine Biological Station, Millport
Established	1897 (as Millport Marine Station)
Type	Public HE Institution
Acting Director	Prof. P. Geoff Moore
Staff	4
Location	Millport, Great Cumbrae, Scotland
Campus	Marine biological lab.
Affiliations	University of London, University of Glasgow
Website	www.gla.ac.uk/centres/marinestation

The University Marine Biological Station, Millport (or UMBSM) is a higher education institute located on the island of Great Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. It is run jointly by the Universities of Glasgow and London (of which it is a listed body).

Located just outside the town it has an interesting curriculum and research programme, with an influx of UK and foreign students throughout the academic year. A Museum and Aquarium (named after founder, David Robertson) is open to visitors. The station has recently taken delivery (May 2003, in the presence of Princess Anne) of the Macduff-built, 22 metre marine Research Vessel, RV Aora. UMBSM also functions as a Meteorological Office Weather Station and Admiralty Tide Monitor.

[edit] History

The Ark, an 84ft lighter was fitted out as a floating laboratory by the father of modern oceanography, Sir John Murray. She formed the Scottish Marine Station for 12 years from 1884. In 1885 she was moved from Granton and drawn up on the shore at Port Loy, Cumbrae.^[1] She attracted a stream of distinguished scientists drawn by the richness of the fauna and flora of the Firth of Clyde. The Granton station eventually closed in 1903.

In Millport, amateur naturalist David Robertson was encouraged by meeting Anton Dohrn and by the wealth of findings from the Challenger expedition. In 1894 he formed a committee to build a marine station in Millport and took over The Ark. Millport Marine Biological Station was opened in 1897 by Sir John Murray. The Ark was totally destroyed by a great storm on the night of 20th January 1900.^[2]

On 21st of July 1904 Scotia, the ship of Dr William Speirs Bruce's Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, returned to her first Scottish landing site, on the Isle of Cumbrae.

From this beginning the station was gradually built up to its present size. The original building proved too small for the purpose and an architectural copy was built alongside.

[edit] External links

• University Marine Biological Station Millport – official website. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
• Millport Folklore. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
• SAMS History. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.

1. ^ Original Ark. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
2. ^ PG Moore & JA Gibson (January 2007). "Marine Station at Millport". The Linnean 23 (1): 31-49.