The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, which was formed in 1918. They were intended to provide the scientific background to stock management of the commercial Antarctic whale fishery. Discovery Investigations contributed greatly to knowledge of the whales, the krill they fed on and their habitat's oceanography, while charting the local topography, including Atherton Peak. They continued until 1951, with the final report published in 1980. Collected specimens are in the Discovery Collections.Skinner, L. (2020)
The Mini Monsters
National Maritime Museum Cornwall, 12 February 2020.

Laboratory

Shore-based work on

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

took place in the marine laboratory, Discovery House, built in 1925 at King Edward Point and occupied until 1931. The scientists lived and worked in the building, travelling half a mile or so across King Edward Cove to the whaling station at

Grytviken Grytviken ( ) is a Hamlet (place), hamlet on South Georgia in the South Atlantic. Formerly a whaling station, it was the largest settlement on the island. Grytviken is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, ...

to work on whales as they were brought ashore by commercial whaling ships.

Ships

Vessels used were: * RRS ''Discovery'' from 1924 to 1931 * RRS ''William Scoresby'' from 1927 to 1945 or later * RRS ''Discovery II'' from 1929 to 1951

Reports

Results of the investigations were printed in the Discovery Reports. This was a series of many small reports, published in 38 volumes by the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, and latterly the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences. Many were printed as individual reports rather than in large volumes.

List

Books

The Discovery Investigations are described in the following books, all of which were out of print in 2008: * * * *

References

External links

Scanned copies
of many of the reports are available at the

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working ...

. {{Antarctica History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands History of Earth science Biological oceanography Antarctic expeditions 1918 establishments in the United Kingdom Defunct organisations based in London