#marinestation

“Repeupler les eaux de la France” !

If the very first European marine station is the temporary station installed on the Belgian coast at Ostend, then Concarneau is the first purpose-built marine station. And also the first French marine station.

Sixteen years after Prof. van Beneden, Prof. Victor Coste (1807 − 1873; Collège de France) inaugurated his own station in Concarneau, but under completely different circumstances. Coste was not in search of a convenient, comfortable place to make zoological studies. Coste was a man with a mission: convert fishing into an economic miracle by applying farming techniques to control, stabilize and augment production.

A means to collect and fertilize fish eggs was invented in Germany (Westphalia) in the mid 18th century. This method was used in both Germany and Scotland, and was also known to Lacepède and Buffon. But these techniques were not adopted in France until the early 1840s. Then, two French fishermen began experimenting with means to re-populate streams in the Vosges with trout. Their successes came to the attention of the Académie des Sciences in Paris by the late 1840s and at about the same time de Quatrefages published his own report on artificial fertilization, the reproduction of fish and some ideas about acclimation of new varieties (1848).

Quite quickly, between 1848 and 1850, “une ère toute nouvelle pour l’économie des eaux” began. The Minister of Agriculture showed official interest in how these techniques could be exploited to build a new national industry to help rural communities.

Soon after this announcement, Prof. Coste began a very visible, very political campaign promising incredible future economic benefits of these and other new aquaculture practices. His more academic colleagues (like de Quatrefages) had been more neutral about the possibilities. Coste promised he could assure his miracle for not only trout, but oysters and a myriad of other animals. Eventually he attracted the attention of Napoléon III, who created a government post for him (Inspecteur général des pêches maritimes) to preach from in 1862.

In consequence, Coste launched the creation of the first marine station in France from a politically powerful position connected with agricultural and economic interests. But, this strong beginning did not assure the long-term success of the enterprise. The reason for the existence of the station was too closely tied with a particular personality and his personal goals. Thus, it’s not  surprising that the importance of Concarneau was already in decline when Coste died, and Concarneau became just one more station among dozens founded between 1870 and 1900. 

It is a story which repeats over and over for nearly all the French marine stations and many of the other European stations.

PJ van Beneden’s marine station eventually grew to become today’s VLIZ, the central hub for 21st century European marine stations. 

Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden (1809 − 1894) founded the first marine station on the Belgian coast at Ostend. For him, Ostend was a perfectly logical place for a marine station. There was a train station, so getting there was easy. He had relatives living there with an oyster farm, so he had a place to work next to the water. Initially, his laboratory wasn’t anything more than a small converted space at a relative’s oyster farm. Yet this unassuming environment - really just a space to work indoors where seawater could be had easily and animals could be kept alive - established Ostend among marine zoologists as the place to work.

As a an established professor of zoology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he was well-placed enough that news of his “marine station” spread. Soon other colleagues and students started joining him work there. Other zoologists understood right away why this was such a good idea. Having a place dedicated to doing dissections and making observations at the coast where specimens were collected changed their practice.  

Convenience, better conditions to accomplish studies, and prestige are what inspired a wave of new stations on European coasts. Everyone wanted to have their own little laboratory at the sea. Village politicians were happy because marine stations brought business to small, isolated communities. Zoologists wishing to convince local politicians often promised to invent new “scientific” methods to improve local aquaculture and fisheries. At the universities, zoologists gained power and prestige among colleagues. By the 1860s, zoologists were well-positioned to take advantage of the Victorian-era thirst for news of scientific discoveries. Marine stations began to add public aquariums and host lectures to encourage public interest.

EMBRC is supposed to federate marine stations at the European level. But hegemonic language makes this group sound like they will be taking charge of all research in Europe over the next 18 months. Their website gives the impression that people in marine stations never worked with each other, never published together, never even picked up the telephone or sent an email ...

“Fragmentation has made it difficult to exploit this potential to its fullest – for example research services that operate in isolation, barriers (practical and cultural) between academic and commercial R&D, and a lack of harmony in regional innovation policies. EMBRIC seeks to overcome these barriers by linking biological and social science research infrastructures throughout Europe, and by joining up aligned efforts in science, industry and regions.”

Dozens and dozens of marine stations have come into existence and disappeared on the coasts of Europe. So many in fact, that precise numbers are hard to come by. 

And then, there is the problem of deciding what exactly to count as a marine station: laboratories with real buildings? temporary sites? rented rooms? a barge anchored out on a bay? 

Surprising really, that so many of these small laboratories should have been created. After all putting together a laboratory is time-consuming and costly ... don’t we think that most scientists would rather spend time pursuing their own research instead of keeping the lights on?