A CENTURY OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA; IN SEARCH OF THE LEGACY OF JOHN D. F. GILCHRIST

Abstract

SUMMARY Investigations on the physical behaviour of the oceans bordering South Africa have gone through a number of distinct historical phases, starting with exploratory work on the Agulhas Current as early as 1778. The first work of a physical nature that derived from South Africa itself was done by John Gilchrist in support of his fisheries investigations. In the period following, before the Second World War, physical research near South Africa was dominated by German endeavours. That work was terminated by the war and not resumed afterwards. The greatest stimulus for South African oceanology came from the International Geophysical Year and the International Indian Ocean Expedition in the 1950s and 1960s. It led to the formation of the South African National Committee for Oceanographic Research, the construction of state-of-the-art research vessels and to a whole new vision on South Africa's ocean environment. The golden years of South African oceanography were the 1970s and early 1980s, with the establishment of the National Research Institute for Oceanology by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the blossoming of research at the Sea Fisheries Research Institute, strong national research programmes, including the Benguela Ecology Programme, and a vigorous Antarctic Research Programme. Growth in knowledge and understanding of South African waters increased rapidly, partially as a result of a simultaneous growth in international interest in the region. In the 1980s came the commercialization of the CSIR, the rapid shrinkage in South Africa's research fleet, and restructured funding mechanisms that did not directly encourage participation in international research programmes. This was followed by a new political dispensation in 1994 that has brought about substantially reduced funding for oceanography and also elements of social engineering that have still to show their future effect on oceanographic science in South Africa. The research philosophy of John Gilchrist seems to have been one of basic research of the highest quality, directed at problems that were deemed to be of economic importance. In an attempt to trace his legacy by studying the history of physical oceanography during the past century in South Africa, we find that the influence of his work in the field did not last long, but that the institutions he helped establish have maintained a standing in physical oceanography to this day.

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