Discovery Investigations
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The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the Southern Ocean. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, which was formed in 1918. They were intended to provide the scientific background to stock management of the commercial Antarctic whale fishery. The work of the Investigations contributed hugely to our knowledge of the whales, the krill they fed on, and the oceanography of their habitat. The investigations continued until 1951, with the final report being published in 1980.
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[edit] Laboratory
Shore-based work on South Georgia took place in the marine laboratory, Discovery House, built in 1925 at King Edward Point and occupied until 1931. The scientists lived and worked in the building, travelling half a mile or so across King Edward Cove to the whaling station at Grytviken to work on whales as they were brought ashore by commercial whaling ships.
[edit] Ships
Vessels used were:
- RRS Discovery from 1924-1931
- RRS William Scoresby from 1927 to ??
- RRS Discovery II from 1929 to ??
[edit] Reports
Results of the investigations were printed in the Discovery Reports. This was a series of many small reports, published in 38 volumes by the Cambridge University Press, and latterly the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences. Many were printed as individual reports rather than in large volumes.
[edit] (Incomplete) List of the Discovery Reports
| Volume/Pages/Plates | Title | Author | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol. I pp 1-140 and Plates I - VI | Discovery Investigations Station List 1925-1927 | January 1929 | |
| Vol. I pp 143-232 and Plates VII - XVIII | Objects, Equipment and Methods | S Kemp ScD, A C Hardy MA & N A Mackintosh ARCS MSc | July 1929 |
| Vol. I pp 235-255 and Plates XIX - XXIV | The Natural History of the Elephant Seal with Notes on Other Seals Found at South Georgia | L Harrison Matthews MA | July 1929 |
| Vol. I pp 259-540 and Plates XXV - XLIV | Southern Blue and Fin Whales | NA Mackintosh ARCS MSc & JFG Wheeler MSc | December 1929 |
| Vol. I pp 543-560 | Parasitic Nematoda and Acanthocephala Collected in 1925-1927 | HA Bayliss MA DSc | December 1929 |
| Vol. I pp 563-592 and Plates XLV - LVI | The Birds of South Georgia | L Harrison Matthews MA | December 1929 |
| Vol. IX pp 65-160 | Distribution of the macroplankton in the Atlantic sector of the Antarctic | NA Mackintosh DSc | April 1934 |
| Vol. IX pp 351-372 | On the stock of whales at South Georgia | JFG Wheeler DSc | December 1934 |
| Vol. XIII pp 77-106 | The Royal Research Ship Discovery II | RAB Ardley RNR & NA Mackintosh DSc | July 1936 |
| Vol. XIX pp 285-296 | Distribution of the pack ice in the Southern Ocean | NA Mackintosh DSc & HFP Herdman MSc | July 1940 |
| Vol. XXXVII pp 1-324 | Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale biology | Malcolm R. Clarke | March 1980 |
[edit] Books
The Discovery Investigations are described in the following books, all of which are out of print:
- Great Waters by Sir Alister Hardy - Collins, 1967
- South Latitude by F D Ommanney - Longmans, 1938
- Discovery II In The Antarctic by John Coleman-Cooke - Odhams, 1963
- A Camera in Antarctica by Alfred Saunders - Winchester Publications, London, 1950
