The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-23
Yale To Explore
 Bahaman Waters
Oceanographic Expedition to Explore Deep Sea Life in
 Vicinity of Bahamas Now Under Way

scum as the Bingham Oceano- graphic collection.
 The waters around the Bahamas ar, remarkable for the very inter- esting configuration and relative po- sitions of the two deep sea troughs or valleys, the Tongue of the Ocean and E.xuma Sound, extending in be- tween the Bahama Islands. Running nearly parallel and very close to- gether for almost their entire lengths. these two troughs open to- wards the outer ocean at opposite ends far apart from each other.
 "It seems natural to expect that the forces governing the movement and thereby the character of the deep sea waters must have entire- ly different effects in each trough" Professor Parr said to-day in telling of the purposes of the expedition.
 That this is probably the case is already indicated in the biological results obtained by the 'Pawnee' ex- petition. which show that certain deep sea forms which were com- monly caught in the Tongue of the Ocean were rare or absent in Ex- una Sound, and vice versa. Due to the great uniformity of conditions in the depths of the open ocean. it is only very rarely and under special conditions such as those obtained in these Bahaman waters, that the in- vestigator has opportunity to. study the effect of the various environ mental factors upon deep sea life by comparison between closely apDroximated regions in which these factors differ in their distribution.
 Ut is. therefore. one of the aims of the expedition to establish that these two deep sea troughs in the Bahamas have been arranged by nature itself as a gratuitous expe- riment by the study of which we may be able to learn something about the laws governing the dis tribution and manifestation of life in the great depths. as revealed by the effects of physical differences in the deep sea waters in two localities placed so closely together"
 Another. and more general pur- pose of the expedition, was described by Professor Parr.
 From any current treatise on Atlantic oceanography one may learn how the north equatorial cur rent in approaching the Windward Islands splits into two branches. one flowing along the eastern side of the Antilles and the Bahamas as the Antilles current. and the other progressing as the Brazilian current through the Caribbean sea to the Gulf of Mexico. from which it emerges as the Gulf Stream and is again joined to the north of the Bamahas by the Antilles current" he said.
 While the information upon which this conception is based is in itself scanty enough. it is virtually nil when it comes to the question of the oceanography of that quite extensive ocean area which occu- pies the region between the Bra zilion current and the Antilles cur rent. It is quite obvious, however, that dynamic processes of the great est importance and scientific inter- est must be going on in region which inserts itself in this manner between the two most active ocean currents of the entire Atlantic. "It is, therefore, also our hope that the 'Abenaki expedition may bring us the first step forward to- wards a knowledge and understand ing of what actually takes place be- tween the Antilles and Brazilian currents. In this manner the expe-