Chapter 6 REGIONAL STUDIES 6 . 1 Gulf of Trieste

A survey of past oceanographic activities in and around the Gulf of Trieste was compiled by Malacic (1993, 1995). The earliest hydrographic observation in the Gulf of Trieste probably dates back to 1703, when Edmund Halley, the famous astronomer who was also a navigator, geophysicist and oceanographer, was appointed to survey the state of the Adriatic ports in the Holy Roman Empire (Hook, 1984). His task was to sound the depths of the ports and to provide security in the event that an English fleet be sent to pass the winter in the northern Adriatic Sea in order to help push the Spanish troops out of the Italian peninsula. Hook (1984) describes Halley's activities in detail, including a bathymetric chart of the Port of Trieste created with the help of Count Strasoldi. Eventually, because the opening of the Gulf was deemed too wide (Figure 6-1), the Port of Bakar (now in Croatia) was recommended to shelter the British fleet. The political situation changed, and the English troops did not invade Italy until 1943. Although records show that meteorological observations in Trieste were taken as early as 1779 (Pucnik, 1980) and were integrated into the network of meteorological observations by the Societas Meteorologica Palatina (1780), oceanographic observations did not begin until much later, when tidal observations started in the second half of the nineteenth century during the time of the Austro-Hungarian government. Alfred Merz (1911) undertook hydrographic surveys of the Gulf between 1904 and 1908. Merz had very impressive survey plans composed of different groups of stations, including one survey of 84 stations. He conducted surveys with a 9-m long open boat, on board