A CENTURY OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA; IN SEARCH OF THE LEGACY OF JOHN D. F. GILCHRIST

SUMMARY Investigations on the physical behaviour of the oceans bordering South Africa have gone through a number of distinct historical phases, starting with exploratory work on the Agulhas Current as early as 1778. The first work of a physical nature that derived from South Africa itself was done by John Gilchrist in support of his fisheries investigations. In the period following, before the Second World War, physical research near South Africa was dominated by German endeavours. That work was terminated by the war and not resumed afterwards. The greatest stimulus for South African oceanology came from the International Geophysical Year and the International Indian Ocean Expedition in the 1950s and 1960s. It led to the formation of the South African National Committee for Oceanographic Research, the construction of state-of-the-art research vessels and to a whole new vision on South Africa's ocean environment. The golden years of South African oceanography were the 1970s and early 1980s, with the establ...