Abstract:
When the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, in cooperation with the Museum of Comparative
Zoology, commenced the oceanographic survey of the Gulf of Maine in the summer of
1912 (Bigelow, 1925-1927), it was in the hope that this might later be extended to the
coastal waters thence southward; eventually even as far as the Gulf of Mexico.
Cruises carried out in connection with investigations of the biology of the mackerel,
by the Fisheries' steamer "Albatross II" from 1927 to 1932, supplemented by those of the
research ship "Atlantis" of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, have made it
possible to extend the detailed examination of the physical oceanography of the continental
shelf as far as the offing of Chesapeake Bay, and to the offing of Cape Hatteras
for some of the months.
The present account of the temperature of the region will, it is hoped, be followed
shortly by corresponding accounts of salinity, of circulation and of the dominant planktonic communities.
