Creation of the Marine Resource Center at MBL

Abstract

The creation of the Station Biologique de Roscoff In France in 1859 heralded a century of study of marine animals. In the US, Congress created the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871 to investigate declining fish stocks. With the formation of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in 1888, a wooden Supply Department building was constructed in 1924 to supply animals for research and educational programs. By 1939 this building was thought to be inadequate. Beginning in the 1970's efforts started to address the need for a new facility for marine animals under the directorship of Jim Ebert, Keith Porter and Paul Gross. Unfortunately efforts to fund the facility were unsuccessful.

This article reviews the need for a new facility, the strategy developed by the MBL Board of Trustees, including the establishment of the laboratory for marine animal Health, the establishment of the National Association of Marine laboratories (NAML), and a National Academy of Science report that NIH encourage interest in non-mammalian systems for biomedical research. In 1988 MBL received the first phases of funding for a Marine Resource Center (MRC) on the Eel Pond as part of a Marine Biomedical Institute for Advanced Studies (MBIAS). Construction of the MRC began in January 1991 and the building was occupied in August 1992.