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Sinking Beneath the Surface—William Beebe, the Department of Tropical Research and Marine Ecology

2015; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/lob.10021

1539-6088

K McLeod,

Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses

Limnology and Oceanography BulletinVolume 24, Issue 2 p. 26-31 ARTICLEFree Access Sinking Beneath the Surface—William Beebe, the Department of Tropical Research and Marine Ecology Katherine McLeod, Katherine McLeodSearch for more papers by this author Katherine McLeod, Katherine McLeodSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 April 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/lob.10021Citations: 1AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat As my line stretches back my brain contracts, my muscles expand, I drop down on all fours, sprout a tail, develop long ears and snout, my teeth simplify and insects satisfy my hunger; reptilian characters accrue, my ribs increase; I slip into the water, and looking for the last time upon the land, I sink beneath the surface. Gills mark my rhythm of breath, limbs shrink to fins, and even these vanish, while my backbone, last hold upon the higher life, dissolves to a notocord. At one end of my evolution Roosevelt called me friend- millions of years earlier any passing worm might have hailed me as brother. —Nonsuch: Land of Water (Beebe 1932) 2200 feet- Temperature 70 degrees 4 big fish going by- hundreds going- more jellies than anything else Pteropods- Everything- all lights lighted up- at least 6" seen. Can see upper and lower side of fish, new elongate fish. 2100 feet- No lights on head bright row strong blue along body, 2 fish six feet-same school of squids and rows of lights- network of lights all over body sailing me past- 3 feet. 1900 feet- In diameter enormous wheel-like- 3 feet in diameter- maybe was jelly fish- lights of past. half of body green and those in front paler- more reddish —Beebe and Hollister 1932 On September 22, 1932, five miles southeast of Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, 2100 feet beneath the ocean surface, the staccato observations of William Beebe traveled up the telephone line installed in his submersible to Gloria Hollister, the scientist writing down his words topside. This was the twentieth descent of the bathysphere and the first time people had ventured this deep into the ocean anywhere in the world. Beebe and his staff, the Department of Tropical Research, spent three seasons studying the ocean-life of Bermuda through the 8-inch window of a hollow steel ball designed to shuttle two (cramped) people over 3000 feet down into the ocean and back over the course of a few hours. They were the first to describe the behavior of animals that now fill our cultural imagination with thoughts of otherworldly chimeras and ethereal bioluminescence. Their fieldwork exponentially expanded our understanding of ocean ecology; their relentless and creative communications about their findings seeped far beyond the scientific community, influencing popular understanding of the natural world for decades to come. Beebe's initial professional focus was ornithology. In his final year of undergraduate study at Columbia University construction of the Bronx Zoo was almost complete. The New York Zoological Society, administrative body of the Bronx Zoo, was founded in large part by members of Theodore Roosevelt's Boone and Crockett Club, a group of wealthy American politicians and powerful socialites brought together by their shared enthusiasm for the regulated hunting and conservation of big game animals (The New York Zoological Society is now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society). As an alternative to taking the last class required to fulfill a degree in zoology, Beebe was offered a position as assistant curator of birds at the new zoo. Beebe opted for the job, which thrust him into a network of funding and intellect that facilitated his scientific studies for over six decades, his entire career. Along with the requisite animal displays and inherent controversies, the Bronx Zoo developed into a hub for cutting-edge ecological research. Beebe began as assistant curator of birds in 1899 and quickly expanded his interests beyond animal husbandry. The trajectory of his work can be traced through the essays he wrote for the New York Zoological Society Bulletin: Success of the Indoor Flying Cage (Beebe 1903) and The Keeping of Ducks for Pleasure (Beebe 1903) gave way to Exploring a Tree and Yard of Jungle (Beebe 1916a) and The Establishment of a Tropical Research Station (Beebe 1916b). Initially, survey expeditions funded by private donors and forays into the jungle to collect living specimens for the zoo took Beebe out of his office adjacent to the aviary and into the field-Mexico to study birds in 1903, and a global circumnavigation in search of pheasants in 1909. In the spring of 1915, the zoo sent Beebe on a trip to Belém, a city at the mouth of the Amazon Delta in Pará, Brazil. It was during his walks through the trails of the surrounding jungle that Beebe hatched the idea for what would eventually become known as the Department of Tropical Research, a conglomerate of people and resources ensconced in various tropical environments for extended periods of time, conducting discreet but connected scientific inquiries. Faced with the verdant expanse of Amazonian trees and undergrowth for which he had more questions than answers, Beebe recognized a dissatisfaction with his usual methods of scientific interrogation, "…roam[ing] aimlessly about, shooting any interesting birds [he] came across in the usual collector's fashion." (Beebe 1916a). In a revelation that is now easy to take for granted, Beebe decided that worthwhile results of scientific substance, in terms of the biology he was interested in, could only come from extended and immersive observation. His solution was to spend a few hours each day lying supine on a steamer chair under the branches of a wild cinnamon tree, a species particularly popular with the local bird life. Binoculars, notebook and gun at hand, he focused his attention on the tree and tried to ignore the incessant biting of the bête rouge (chiggers). From this reclined position, he recorded the behaviors of visiting birds and learned some of the rhythms of the jungle. Before a reluctant return to New York City he cast his scientific gaze downward and filled his duffle bag with leaf litter shoveled from beneath the aromatic Nectandra nitidula. He spent the 10-day boat ride home sifting through the dead leaves, cataloguing the animals and animal remains found within. Excited with the novelty and successes of his new methodology, Beebe immediately got to work planning a jungle expedition to Guyana. Biologists, writers and artists were selected by Beebe to work for a few months together in a donated mansion-turned-research headquarters located on a hill straddled by the Essequibo and Mazaruni Rivers. Kalacoon, as the station was known, was the first iteration of what would be christened into official existence in 1918 as the Department of Tropical Research. Instead of accessing a region only long enough to collect specimens for study back in a distant laboratory, Kalacoon brought the laboratory to the jungle. The Department of Tropical Research fostered a new approach to ecological study that combined the skills of scientists from different disciplines working collaboratively with artists and photographers. While much of their fieldwork contributed to traditional scientific pursuits such as taxonomy and expanding biological collections, innovative experiments in evolution and animal behavior were initiated. This research structure built the foundations of field biology. The Department of Tropical Research was pioneering in that under Beebe's direction, women were hired as lead scientists and field artists. Artist Isabel Cooper, joining in 1919, publicly relished her opportunity to travel through the jungles of Guyana juggling, in her words, a "vivid serpent or tapestried lizard in one hand, and the best grade of Japanese paintbrush in the other" (Cooper 1924). At a time when most women were relegated to secretarial jobs, Cooper published articles in The Atlantic Monthly eschewing the bustle of city life and mundane office work in favor of the excitement that comes with working in the jungle. The professional platform of the Department of Tropical Research enabled the successful careers of marine biologists Jocelyn Crane and Gloria Hollister. Artists Else Bostelmann and Helen Tee-Van were lauded for their contributions to science and art. The writing of expedition historian Ruth Rose impressed the producers of the eco-thriller blockbuster King Kong (1933) so much that they hired her to rewrite the screenplay. These women became household names and cultural icons1. Figure 1Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Jocelyn Crane working on deck during a Department of Tropical Research expedition, taken November 22, 1937. © WCS. It was on the long ocean commutes between New York City and Kalacoon, and a second research base, Kartabo, in Guyana that Beebe and his staff first encountered the Sargasso Sea. The steamer to Guyana lacked equipment for extensive study of this seaweed prairie and its inhabitants, and other research directives diverted their attentions, but Beebe's curiosity was piqued and he began to organize a series of ocean-oriented ­expeditions that successively increased in complexity and technology. First, a 21-day trip to the Galápagos in May of 1923, with stops in Key West, Cuba, and Panama onboard the Noma. The science of this trip remained mainly terrestrial, but Beebe used the experience to gather insight into how to prepare for a longer, fully oceanographic expedition following the same route. In what would be the largest outpouring of money and time to date for the New York Zoological Society, the next and ninth iteration of the Department of Tropical Research was focused on studying the marine life found at surface, bottom, and mid-level depths of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic, paralleled by a similar investigation of ocean life at various depths within the Humboldt Current in the Pacific. A 282-foot cargo steamer named the Arcturus was retrofit with a functional laboratory, library, and dark room. Beebe added a double-boom walk that stretched 30 feet off the side of the boat and a bow pulpit that could be raised or lowered as needed, for easy access to the ocean surface. An impressive winch was designed and commissioned for the specific needs of deep-sea trawling, able to toll out 30,000 feet of half-inch cable without tangling. The Arcturus set sail February 10, 1925 with a crew of biologists (including Dr. and Mrs. Fish—specializing in diatoms, crustaceans and larval plankton distribution and Lillian Segal—an ichthyologist researching the viability and habits of deep-sea fish and given the title "Associate in Charge of Special Problems"), artists and writers (Isabel Cooper, Don Dickermen, and Ruth Rose) and cinematographers (John Tee-Van, long-time collaborator and friend of Beebe and Ernest Schoedsack, eventual codirector of King Kong). They spent six months at sea, occasionally stopping in ports to refuel and conduct shore experiments. The Atlantic was stormy and the large swaths of Sargassum weed Beebe had hoped to find were reduced to scattered handfuls. Traveling west ahead of schedule, the Department once again could not locate their intended target—the cold nutrient-rich waters of the Humboldt were replaced by the warmth of El Niño, a phenomenon Beebe was unfamiliar with. Undaunted by these unexpected conditions, the Department spent their time dredging and trawling, cataloguing, and naming new species. Whenever location and weather allowed, the scientists and artists descended upon coral reefs in a diving helmet, captivated by the ability to observe marine creatures without removing them from their habitat. Before heading back to port in Brooklyn, the Department of Tropical Research stopped to trawl for deep-sea creatures in the Hudson Gorge, an ancient canyon about 100 miles south of New York City. In his romantic style of writing, Beebe merges himself with his tools as he describes the final undertaking of the expedition2: Figure 2Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Arcturus shipboard laboratory, 1925. © WCS. It was in this stately, invisible gorge that the Arcturus steamed her last lap, and between waterfalls over which, in pre-Pleistocene times, perhaps two millions of years ago, the Hudson poured its volume, falling to depths many times greater than those of any waterfall on the earth today. Here I spent four days feeling about in the cold black depths with the fingers of my nets and trawls for the strange blind and luminous creatures which today dwell in the sunken river-bed (Beebe 1925). 1927 brought the Department of Tropical Research to the waters off the northern coast of Haiti, near Bizoton, for five months of helmet diving in the coral reefs. Besides a general survey of fish found in the waters of Haiti, Beebe hoped to make observations of life in coral reefs using his diving helmet, take extensive ­underwater motion pictures and test out his augmented floating laboratory. Among his motion picture crew was Floyd Crosby, who would go on to film mega-blockbusters such as High Noon with Gary Cooper and popular B-movies like The Pit and the Pendulum with Vincent Price3. Figure 3Open in figure viewerPowerPoint William Beebe in a diving helmet; illustration from "The Arcturus adventure: an account of the New York Zoological Society's first oceanographic expedition" (Beebe and Rose 1926). While pleased with the technology of the diving helmet for shallow water research, Beebe lamented the lack of control inherent to deep-sea trawling, likening it to, "…a game that must be played blindfolded, a sort of bathybial grab-bag with the added thrill of Christmas morning anticipation. A trawl put down to a depth of seven hundred fathoms may fetch from the depths amazingly formed creatures, grotesque, beautiful, or monstrous; or it may contain nothing at all. Perforce we only grope blindly, aided by a knowledge of the sort of ocean bottom on and over which animals are most likely to be abundant, and guided to some extent by the work of our predecessors in this field, but all the same playing a blindman's buff in which the human animal is always 'it' (Beebe 1925). Like his steamer chair beneath the cinnamon tree in 1915, Beebe needed new technology in order to successfully observe deep ocean habitats. Independent of Beebe, engineer Otis Barton had been working on this exact problem and by 1929 had designed and fabricated a 5400 pound steel sphere theoretically capable of ferrying people a half-mile into the ocean and back. He contacted Beebe and the twelfth expedition of the Department of Tropical Research commenced. Debuting off the shores of Nonsuch Island, Bermuda in 1930, the submersible, dubbed the Bathysphere, was tethered to a large ship by a steel cable and a telephone line, equipped with oxygen tanks and flashlights. Beebe and Barton spent three seasons descending together on over 30 dives. With his face pressed against the three-inch thick quartz window, oblivious to the discomfort of sitting cross-legged in a cold steel ball for hours on end, Beebe intended to use the immersive observational methods he had developed in the jungle to go beyond the piecemeal contents of net hauls, "to make every individual fish mean something besides the mere fact of its name and capture." (Beebe 1930). The staff that occupied the house and laboratories on Nonsuch Island was made up of Department of Tropical Research stalwarts John and Helen Tee-Van (General Assistant and Artist, respectively), Gloria Hollister (ichthyologist in charge of fish clearing and staining), Dr. and Mrs. Fish (who brought along a sculptor to model a realistic coral reef out of wax) and William Merriam, an engineer and biologist who had accompanied Beebe on every expedition thus far. To this were added Else Bostelmann and Llewellyn Miller (wildlife artists), Professor J. Newton Harney of Princeton (along to study luminous tissues), a host of rotating interns and visiting scientists and Jocelyn Crane, her first job out of college, who would eventually become a leading voice in the field of carcinology and tropical animal behavior. Nonsuch was the Department's terrestrial base from 1929 to 1935. The Great Depression miraculously slowed their research only slightly, and with additional funding from the National Geographic Society they were able to operate the bathysphere for three seasons, 1930, 1932, and 1934. Beebe and Barton went on over 16 deep dives, eventually reaching a record depth of 3028 feet4. Figure 4Open in figure viewerPowerPoint The Bathysphere with William Beebe (left) and Otis Baton (right). Illustration from Beebe's 1934 book "Half mile down." Less concerned with record breaking and more in awe of the new environment he had entered, Beebe spent his time in the sphere describing as much as he could into the telephone transmitter dangling from his neck. Communication about this environment that had few experiential parallels to terrestrial or even shallow-water habitats was difficult. In reference to one of his deepest dives in 1934, Beebe explains that, "adequate presentation of what I saw on this dive is one of the most difficult things I ever attempted. It corresponds precisely to putting the question, 'What do you think of America?' to a foreigner who has spent a few hours in New York City." (Beebe 1934). Paintings made by Else Bostelmann proved to be one of the most effective means of introducing the deep ocean to a wide audience. Descriptions of what was seen from the sphere were augmented by Beebe's memory once he returned topside. Without ever entering the Bathysphere herself, using specimens captured in net hauls as reference material, Bostelmann successfully envisioned deep-sea animals hunting, breeding and glowing. What captivated people beyond the scientific was a vicarious glimpse into an unknown and thrilling world. The action and vibrancy of Bostelmann's paintings were an instant success. Featured in such popular publications as National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair, they gave people a way to envision nature beyond the prepared specimens of natural history museums and the stoic profiles found in field guides. A major department store in Manhattan, Oppenheim Collins, designed a line of handbags and jewelry after her undersea paintings. (Anonymous 1938). For the 1939 World's Fair held in Flushing, New York, the Department of Tropical Research and the New York Zoological Society created rows of undulating clear material painted with deep-sea animals that glowed in a sphere-shaped room suffused with black-light. Just down the midway from the Zoological Society exhibit Salvador Dali, obviously impressed with the Departments discoveries, created his own deep-sea experience, complete with a giant aquarium inhabited by his version of (scantily clad) chimeras5. Figure 5Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Paintings of deep sea fish by Else Bostelmann. The top panel is Stylophthalmus, larval form of Idiacanthus fasciola (Gleaming-tailed Serpent-dragon) 1930. ©WCS. The bottom panel is Lasiognathus piscatorius described by Beebe, this fish is now known as Lasiognathus beebei. 1930. © WCS. The Department of Tropical Research continued to trawl for animals at various depths and conducted a series of contour dives in the Bathysphere as a means of mapping the sea floor. Advancements were made in taxonomy and ethology of deep-sea animals; Beebe conducted some of the first studies in light spectrum penetration at different depths in the ocean. The scientific results and general narrative of the Department's time in Bermuda can be found in the numerous articles written by Beebe and the staff published in the New York Zoological Society Bulletin, Zoologica, National Geographic Magazine, Nonsuch: Land of Water and Half-Mile Down. Beebe decided not to use the bathysphere after the 1934 season, likely due to funding concerns. The rest of the 1930s were spent helmet diving in the West Indies on the yacht Antares and trawling in the Gulf of California onboard the Zaca. Beebe returned to Nonsuch in 1941 and found the landscape so permanently altered by logging and industrial activities that he donated his research station to the Bermudan military. At age 64, working with Jocelyn Crane, he planned a return to the jungle. The Department of Tropical Research had initially setup camp near Caripito, Venezuela, but war activities interrupted their work. Beebe and the Department were not able to return to their field research until 1945, when they established Rancho Grande biological station in Aragua, Venezuela. Simla, located in the lower Arima valley of northern Trinidad was the final iteration of the Department. The station is still functional today and is known as the William Beebe Tropical Research Station. Beebe and the Department of Tropical Research staff diligently maneuvered around the limitations of technology to conduct innovative experiments and construct visualizations of natural environments that were frequently difficult or previously impossible to access. Beebe facilitated Rachel Carson's first helmet dives in the Florida Keys in 1949. He recognized Carson's talent early in her career and included her essay Odyssey of the Eel in his 1944 compilation of nature writing, The Book of Naturalists, placing Carson alongside Darwin, John Muir and Aristotle (Beebe 1944). Sylvia Earle read Beebe's books as a child and credits him as a strong influence in her decision to become an explorer. Beebe lectured routinely at the American Museum of Natural History, the Explorer's Club, and schools around the United States and Europe, and he supplemented his ­lectures with reels of cartoons that synthesized his discoveries in conservation biology with the nascent technology of animation. He mingled humor with pioneering science, personal reflection with species descriptions and empirical science with interpretive art. Driven by his persistence to communicate his findings beyond the confines of the laboratory, Beebe's research succeeded, and continues to resonate throughout the scientific community today, because of his innovative and unconventional methods. Acknowlegments Many thanks to Madeleine Thompson, archivist for the Wildlife Conservation Society. The drawings and paintings of the Department of Tropical Research will be on display in New York City at the Drawing Center in 2016. Biography Katherine McLeod is a New York-based writer and researcher. She is currently co-curating, along with Madeleine Thompson and Mark Dion, an exhibition about the art of the Department of Tropical Research. An interview of her in conversation with a contemporary deep-sea explorer will be published in the September 2015 issue of Intercourse Magazine. She can be contacted at katherinefmcleod@gmail.com References Anonymous. 1938. Undersea paintings go on exhibit here. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8 May. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1901. Success of the indoor flying cage. New York Zoological Society Annual Report 6: 128– 136. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1903. The keeping of ducks for pleasure. New York Zoological Society Bulletin 1. 10: 102– 105. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1916a Exploring a Tree and Yard of Jungle. New York Zoological Society Bulletin 19: 1307– 1316. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1916b The establishment of a tropical research station. New York Zoological Society Bulletin 19: 1369– 1372. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1925. The return of the arcturus. New York Zoological Society Bulletin 28: 120. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1932. Nonsuch: Land of water. New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1934. Half-Mile Down, p. 196– 197. Harcourt, Brace and Company. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1930. The Bermuda oceanographic expedition. New York Zoological Society Bulletin 33: 39. Google Scholar Beebe, W. 1944. The book of naturalists, p. 478– 495. Knopf. Google Scholar Beebe, W., and G. Hollister. 1932. Bermuda log book, 1932. Wildlife Conservation Society Library and Archives. Google Scholar Beebe, W., and R. Rose. 1926. The Arcturus adventure: An account of the New York Zoological Society's first oceanographic expedition. Putnam. Google Scholar Cooper, I. 1924. Wild-animal painting in the jungle. The Atlantic Monthly 133: 732– 743. Google Scholar Citing Literature Volume24, Issue2May 2015Pages 26-31 FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation