The Oceanography Society: The Jerlov Award

Awarded in Recognition of Contribution Made to the Advancement
of Our Knowledge of the Nature and Consequences of Light in the Ocean



Presentation of the Jerlov Award to Talbot Waterman. Left to right: Rick Spinrad, Talbot Waterman, Steve Ackleson, and Paula Bontempi. Photo by Foto Pastrengo

The 2008 Jerlov Award

Presented to Talbot Waterman
October 9, 2008
Ocean Optics XIX Conference

Professor Talbot Waterman (Yale University) was presented with the Jerlov Award for achievements in the field of Ocean Optics in a ceremony October 9, 2008. During the award ceremony, Dr. Steven G. Ackleson (U.S. Office of Naval Research) stated that Professor Waterman’s “pioneering contributions to the body of knowledge regarding underwater polarization and polarotaxis and phototaxis in aquatic animals forms the foundation of our understanding of these phenomena and his work continues to inspire new generations of researchers.”

The certificate presented to Professor Waterman includes the following citation: “Awarded in Recognition of Contributions made in Reporting and Measuring the Substantial Sun's-Bearing-Related Underwater Polarization Patterns that extend at least to 200 m in clear water as well as their Relevance to Many Pelagic Animal's Navigation.”

Introduction by Dr. Steven G. Ackleson, Office of Naval Research

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is my privilege and honor to summarize the achievements of Dr. Talbot Waterman, selected to receive the Jerlov Award tonight.

When Dr. Waterman began his journey into fields of comparative physiology and optical oceanography, the U.S. was in the midst of an environmental crisis and financial institutions were in disarray. The year was 1931, the mid-west was engulfed in the Dust Bowl, the economy was suffering through the Great Depression, and Talbot Waterman was a freshman at Harvard University. In that year, the young Mr. Waterman, inspired by the lectures of G. H. Parker on the compound eye structure of crustaceans, developed a fascination with the eyes and light sensing organs of pelagic marine animals, and soon began his own investigations on photoreceptor structure. Tal’s undergraduate tutor in those days was George Clarke, who was making pioneer measurements of light penetration into the sea correlated with diurnal vertical zooplankton migrations. Tal’s first publication in 1937, as a Harvard graduate student, addressed the spectral response of photokinesis in water mites.

Tal’s interest in the biological significance of natural polarization was sparked during a lecture by Karl von Frisch on how honey bee’s use sky polarization as a compass. Tal began testing the effects of e-vector orientation on the electrical response of crayfish eyes and, in a 1950 Science paper, presented the results of polarization sensitivity in the horseshoe crab. The positive results of those studies caused him to wonder whether other aquatic animals, even in the deep sea, were exposed to naturally polarized light and, if so, whether they too could sense and utilize such information for spatial orientation.

He became involved in summer research projects at the Bermuda Biological Station and began investigating the details of underwater polarization while snorkeling and SCUBA diving. His first in situ observations incorporated a polarizing ring sight developed during World War II. Though a crude device compared to modern day standards, it allowed him to establish for the first time reasonable estimates of the degree of underwater polarization.

Tal collaborated with two European optical oceanographers — Alexandre Ivanoff and Nils Jerlov, to further characterize underwater polarization. Using a submersible scanning polarimeter designed by Ivanoff, he found that even at the cable limit of 115 m, the degree of polarization can exceed 30%.

Although oriented responses to polarized light had been reported for a number of freshwater aquatic animals, the question had been raised whether such selective orientation was due to direct e-vector sensing or to the distribution of light intensity resulting from the combined effects of absorption and scatter. Tal and colleagues reported that Daphnia, one of several aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas preferentially swim in directions relative to the e-vector orientation. Similar results were reported for other aquatic crustaceans.

In the mid-sixties, Tal began establishing the physiological explanations for polarization sensitivity. He was able to show that spider crabs possessed two populations of light receptor cells — one sensitive to horizontal and the other to vertical e-vector orientation, and hypothesized that it was the precisely oriented microvilli and visual pigment molecules that were responsible for dichroism and the resulting signal response. This hypothesis was later confirmed based on microspectrophotometric studies and microelectrode recordings made inside single retinular cells in the crayfish eye. The next question to be addressed was whether fish were able to sense underwater polarization. Tal and collaborators demonstrated polarization sensitivity in goldfish, a result that was recently confirmed in studies by other researchers.

I met first Dr. Waterman 12 years ago during the Ocean Optics Conference in Halifax, where he presented an invited lecture about life in the ocean twilight zone. His discussion about counter-illumination and predator/prey relationships thoroughly captivated the audience, demonstrating that the discipline that we call “ocean optics” is rich beyond the traditional pursuits of radiative transfer theory, ocean color, and the relationship between IOPs and AOPs. Tal’s pioneering contributions to the body of knowledge regarding underwater polarization and polarotaxis and phototaxis in aquatic animals forms the foundation of our understanding of these phenomena and his work continues to inspire new generations of researchers.

It is fitting, therefore, that Dr. Waterman receive the Jerlov Award in recognition for his many distinguished contributions to the field of ocean optics.

Acceptance by Dr. Talbot Waterman, Yale University

All of us experience substantial ups and downs in our personal and professional lives. My receipt of this 2008 Jerlov Award is really a peak for me both as a welcome personal honor and professional recognition. This euphoric state is lifted even higher by the fact that Nils Jerlov and I collaborated oceanographically on three main projects. Also, we became good friends over the course of more than 30 years beginning in the mid-1950s. For your interest, I would like to recount briefly how I became enamored of underwater polarized light and the results of that strong attraction.

To begin with, I was born, auspiciously, a Waterman. Much later, after a long interruption of my graduate career by World War II, I was taken on in 1946 as an Instructor in Zoology at Yale. Soon after, Karl von Frisch gave a department seminar on the honey bee dance language and how it depended on the polarized light patterns of the clear blue sky for short-range navigation. Somehow, this stimulus merged with my wartime experiences with radar navigation as well as a number of relevant earlier research projects in the laboratory and on board ship. In turn, this raised a big question in my mind. Why wasn’t underwater polarization an important element in aquatic visual behavior?

To explore this question, a convenient polarimeter and a suitable marine lab at which to use it were necessary. Because I had as a graduate student become familiar with its oceanic islands environment, I chose the Bermuda Biological Station (recently rechristened as the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Science) as the place to look for polarization. In the first underwater observations, a hand-held “Waterman” interference polarimeter was used to see the patterns. Excitingly, the data showed that substantial partial linear polarization occurred everywhere in sunlit water at least to 20-m depth. The polarization patterns produced in situ depended on the underwater position of the sun’s water-surface refracted direction and the observer’s line of sight. The e-vector orientation and apparently the degree of polarization vary accordingly. To extend the depth of visual observations, photographs of such interference polarization images were made at 200-m depth off Barbados. They showed that considerable sun-influenced polarization was still present. Hence, these light patterns are not weak, superficial, or mostly fixed over time.

These early data proved that underwater polarization deserved an optically more sophisticated investigation in collaboration with underwater optics experts. In particular, these experts were needed for the design and effective use of appropriate polarimeters. During the second summer in Bermuda, SCUBA divers used an instrument designed and built by Bruce Billings to measure both the degree of polarization and e-vector orientation in horizontal lines of sight. The results revealed that at modest depths, the optical patterns were those expected of Rayleigh-type light scattering. In 1957, still another polarimeter designed and built by Alexandre Ivanoff provided horizontal scanning polarization data of several kinds. Importantly, in measurements in clear, deep ocean water, the patterns of polarization changed rather rapidly at about 50 m. Yet, sun-related differences persisted at our cable limit of about 120 m. During the summer of 1958, Nils Jerlov joined us for new measurements. Most interesting were those taken with a new beam polarimeter (provided by Ivanoff). The data indicated that the degree of inherent polarization was high (about 80%) and nearly the same from near-surface levels to nearly 240 m, another cable limit. Hence, path length through the water must be important in sunlight deep penetration.

The next year, Jerlov designed and built a more versatile polarimeter for a joint optics and zooplankton study down to 1200 m in the eastern Atlantic near Madeira. But, the polarimeter was accidentally lost at sea on its first lowering and personnel problems blocked proper analysis of the plankton catches. The only subsequent substantial in situ polarization measurements were made about a decade later by Bo Lundgren.

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Nils Gunnar Jerlov was an early leader in the area of ocean optics research. His name is recognized widely within the entire international oceanographic research community. Jerlov’s theoretical and experimental work on ocean optical and related processes helped form the foundation of modern ocean optical research. He proposed the concept of an optical ocean water mass classification and the Jerlov water types are familiar to many outside of the ocean optics community. His book, Marine Optics, published in 1976, remains widely referenced and is considered required reading for all students of ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) commemorates Dr. Jerlov and his many contributions to the study of light in the ocean with an international award, established in his name, to recognize outstanding achievements in ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing research.

TOS is responsible for setting award policy, garnering nominations from the international research community, and selecting a recipient from those nominated. To be eligible for nomination, the recipient’s work must deal directly with the processes governing the interaction of light with the ocean and/or the consequences of such interactions. The award may be issued in recognition of research (theoretical or applied, field-based or laboratory-based, a landmark paper or lifetime achievement), a pattern of excellence in education, a history of service to the international ocean optics research community, or contributions to all of the above. In the end, the nominated individual must have significantly advanced our knowledge of how light interacts with the ocean.

The award consists of a bronze medallion designed by Judith Munk, a lapel pin, travel support to attend the Ocean Optics Conference, and a cash award. The deadline for nominations for the 2010 presentation of the award is June 1, 2010. Submit all nomination materials and direct all questions to: info@tos.org.

The master nominator serves as the point of contact. Submission of materials in electronic format is required. Submit all nomination materials and direct all questions to: info@tos.org.