Jerry Schubel received his Ph.D. in Oceanography from Johns Hopkins University and an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He went on to serve as associate director of the Johns Hopkins Chesapeake Bay Institute and from 1974-1994 served as the dean of Stony Brook University's Marine Science Research Center. He is the President and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific. He has written extensively on science-management policy for ocean issues and sits on several boards, including National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Science Advisory Board, the Science Advisory Panel for California's Ocean Protection Council, and the Board of Governors of the Savannah Ocean Exchange. In this oral history, he discusses the Chesapeake Bay Institute and his career in oceanography. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.

Lynn Poole discusses some of the reasons for underwater research: studying alewife fish in Lake Hopatcong, NJ; researching predator fishes; harvesting agar from seaweed for iodine, ice cream gelling agents, and other uses; and obtaining magnesium from the sea. Cartoons illustrate historical diving gear and models show current masks, snorkels, and fins. Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan developed the regulator and diving suit, which became synonymous with SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Divers from Johns Hopkins's Chesapeake Bay Institute model both warm and cold weather diving gear, and Dr. Carritt, researcher at the institute, explains how an oceanographer uses SCUBA to investigate such underwater activities as the health of oyster beds. In a film clip, scientist-divers explore the Gulf of Mexico's bright oily crescent for Saucony-Vacuum and Magnolia Oil Companies. A diagram shows the anticline, fault, and stratigraphic oil traps of this region.

Mr. Miller-Jones introduces this program on the dangers of radioactive fallout, the third in a series of exchanges between Baltimore, Maryland's station WAAM and Great Britain's BBC. Dr. Kruse explains that current incineration of radioactive waste could be detrimental to people's health if safe gas and ash levels are exceeded. Dr. Geyer and Mr. Talboys discuss the effectiveness of laundering of radium-tainted clothing. To improve removal of radioactive materials from clothing, combinations of several variables must be considered: isotopes, fabrics (fiber, weave, treatment), detergents, concentrations, water temperatures, agitation degree, and time. Dr. Renn then examines the problems of releasing radioactive waste into sewage treatment plants. Some waste, such as radiophosphorous, is easily absorbed by bacteria in the system; others could be captured by experimental trickling filters or the aerated sludge process, but the sludge must then be disposed.

This program, hosted by Leo Geier, takes place aboard the "Maury", a laboratory ship belonging to the Johns Hopkins' Chesapeake Bay Institute. Assistant director Dayton Carritt explains that the Institute was founded in 1948 to study the physical and chemical oceanography of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and to conduct the academic program in oceanography at Johns Hopkins University. The Bay is 200 miles long, 20 miles wide, and a great natural resource for commercial and recreational users. Dr. Donald Pritchard, director of the Institute, shows viewers such below deck equipment as the pyrheliometer, which measures and records the intensity of solar radiation; and thetri-filter hydrophotometer, which measures the amount of red, green, and blue light that penetrates the various depths of the Bay and indicates the amount of energy in the water available for underwater plant growth. Using a schematic illustration, Dr. Carritt describes the environmental factors affecting plants and organisms in the Bay, such as water currents, temperature, and salinity as well as availability of plant food, oxygen, and animal life. Dick Whaley demonstrates a microscope mounted with a camera to study and record species of organisms such as diatoms. Other instruments read the salinity and temperature of the water, measure the angle of the current, and analyze the amount of dissolved oxygen in water for plant use. Scuba divers Tom Hopkins and Jim Carpenter discuss their apparatus and their Bell and Howell movie camera with underwater lens before going overboard to study the oyster and clam beds for predators and general condition. These are all examples of pure research on the Chesapeake Bay.

The program opens with drawings of early, primitive underwater vessels and segues into a film of swimmers with aqualungs. A photo of Charles William Beebe is shown as oceanographer Dayton Carritt discusses Beebe's 1930s bathysphere. In 1953, Auguste Piccard built the first bathyscaphe, the "Trieste," a 50-foot untethered underwater vehicle, after many years of successfully using balloons to study the atmosphere. The "Trieste" operates on the Archimedes principle of water displacement, demonstrated by Dr. Carritt by dropping a tennis ball and a golf ball into water. Dr. Carritt explains in detail a schematic diagram of the "Trieste," showing how the ballast mechanism works with a small experiment and film clip of the procedure. In 1958, the Office of Naval Research bought the "Trieste" from Piccard for $185,000 to study the physical, chemical, biological, and geological characteristics of the ocean. Dr. Carritt interviews Dr. Robert Dietz of the U.S. Navy, who recounts his dive in "Trieste" with Piccard, describing what he saw and how he felt. Dr. Dietz also explains the "false bottom" or "deep scattering layer" and shows a graph of it. He discusses the drawbacks and the uses of bathyscaphes, such as deep sea salvage, mineral mining, and cable monitoring.

Seven Johns Hopkins scholars predict what the audience might expect in 1968 in various fields of science. Dr. Dayton Carritt, assistant director of the Chesapeake Bay Institute, considers the future of earth sciences: rockets will orbit the earth and send back weather information, nuclear power will be developed, and ocean circulation will be studied for possible food production. In the area of life sciences, biology professor William McElroy discusses nutritional requirements to relieve diseases, trapping solar energy, the physiology of space travel, insights on aging, and other possibilities in a "golden age of medicine." Professor of microbiology Thomas B. Turner predicts space medicine, electronic equipment for the handicapped, public protection against radioactivity, better surgical methods for transplants, and the reduction or elimination of heart disease, polio, and cancer. Professor Charles Singleton maintains that the humanities will continue to survive as long as we ask "What is a man?" and "What does it mean to be where we are?" In communications, chemistry professor Donald Hatch predicts the extension of television networks as well as 3-D television programs and programs on demand. Professor of physics Theodore Berlin lists future energy issues such as control of thermonuclear fusion reactions, problems with radioactive wastes, application of atomic energy (but not in homes or vehicles), transformation of devices to control energy, and development of solid fuels and solar energy. According to Francis Clauser, professor of aeronautics, in the realm of space travel, commercial airlines will fly at supersonic speeds; guided missiles and anti-missile devices will be the backbone of defense; the U.S. will enjoy peaceful space travel with the Russians; and a rocket will go to the moon. To reinforce this view, Wernher von Braun, in a taped segment, predicts that the U.S. will launch a man into outer space, he will orbit and return to earth. He says an unmanned rocket will also land on Mars. Milton S. Eisenhower, the president of Johns Hopkins University, sums up their findings by pointing out the importance of education in all these endeavors.