Spencer Fullerton Baird and the foundation of American marine science

Marine Fisheries Review, Fall, 1988 by Dean C. Allard

In 1863, Spencer Fullerton Baird blazed a path that would be followed by thousands of future biologists when he came to Woods Hole, Mass., to undertake summer research. Until his death in 1887, Baird returned again and again to this delightful New England village. In the process, he established institutional foundations which deeply influenced the future of American marine science.

Spencer Baird was one of America's preeminent systematic zoologists in the mid-19th century. His bibliography included hundreds of contributions on reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and especially on manunals and birds. In a period prior to the establishment of the nation's great graduate schools or most of the other learned institutions that lent support to American scientists, Baird was fortunate to have an appointment as assistant secretary of the Smithsonian institution, which then was directed by the physicist Joseph Henry. At that institution, Baird was especially active in developing the National Museum largely through his skill in obtaining generous Congressional appropriations. That museum would reach its full fruition after 1978 when Baird succeeded Henry as the Smithsonian's secretary.

In addition to this major effort, Baird became increasingly interested in marine biology during the decade of the 1860's as he combined vacations at various points along the eastern seashore with the collection and study of oceanic organisms. By 1870, when he returned to Woods Hole for a second summer, Baird was well aware that European biologists were turning to the mysteries of the oceans with increasing fascination. At that time, Anton Dohrn was laying the foundations for his famed research station at Naples, Italy, and within 2 years the HMS Challenger would embark C. Wyville Thomson and his scientific team upon an historic oceanographic cruise throughout the world's major oceans. In a more general sense, biological activity in the marine environment was promoted by Darwin's "Origin of Species," which had been published in 1859. For evolutionists, the study of the oceans had special significance since the sea was believed to be the ancestral home of all life. Further, the flora and fauna of the oceans were remarkably diverse, abundant, and relatively simple compared with terrestrial forms. For all of these reasons, marine biology had special appeal to Baird, as it did to many other naturalists of his time (Schlee, 1973).

It was typical of the Smithsonian's assistant secretary that he could depend upon the assistance of the Federal government in undertaking his scientific enterprises. During the summer of 1870, probably because of the intercession of Baird's close friend, Senator George Edmunds of Vermont, who was vacationing at Woods Hole, a U.S. Revenue Service craft was loaned to Baird to assist in collecting marine specimens, including a number of species not previously reported as part of the fauna of Massachusetts. During that summer, Baird also became aware of a longstanding dispute in the Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay area, and for that matter along much of the rest of the northeast coast, which seemed to invite solution by cool scientific reason. Baird seized upon that controversy to establish a Federal agency that would be dedicated to the solution of practical problems, but also promised to support fundamental research in American waters.

The issue which was reaching a crisis in that summer of 1870 involved a classic conflict between competing groups seeking to use the nation's natural resources. On one side of the dispute were relatively well capitalized groups of men who erected fixed coastal nets and barriers, known as traps or pounds and a variety of other names, which made enormous catches of fish. On the other side were small-scale fishermen who typically fished by line from small boats, often for their personal subsistence, and the growing number of sport fishermen who came to the seashore for recreation. The latter groups were increasingly alarmed by the decline of such coastal species as the scup, sea bass, tautog, and striped bass, and soon concluded that their problem stemmed from the massive catches taken by fixed nets and barriers. The solution, in the opinion of the boat and sport fishermen, was simple. Fish traps and pounds should simply be outlawed by state law.

As the politicians in southern New England contended with these demands and the vigorous counter arguments of the owners of the traps and pounds, Spencer Baird volunteered to undertake a scientific study of the coastal fisheries provided that Congress would appropriate the necessary funds. Baird's skill as a lobbyist and the influence of his many friends in Congress led in 1871 to an act authorizing the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. That body was charged with determining whether American fish stocks had, in fact, declined. If such a decline were established, the Commission was to determine its cause and to propose corrective measures. An initial appropriation of $5,000 was allocated for these purposes and Spencer Baird agreed to serve as the director of the new agency for no additional salary beyond that received in his capacity as a Smithsonian official.