's
The Seaside Book The first marine biology dredge was designed by
Otto Friedrich Müller and in 1830 the results of two dredging expeditions undertaken by
Henri Milne-Edwards and his friend
Jean Victoire Audouin during 1826 and 1828 in the neighbourhood of
Granville were published. This was remarkable for clearly distinguishing the
marine fauna of that portion of the French coast into four zones. Müller's design was modified by the Dublin naturalist
Robert Ball in 1838. At the Birmingham meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1839, a committee was appointed for dredging research, with a view to the investigation of the
marine zoology of
Great Britain, the illustration of the geographical distribution of marine animals, and the more accurate determination of the fossils of the
Pliocene period. The committee was led by
Edward Forbes. Later annual reports of the association contained communications from the
English,
Scottish and
Irish branches of the committee, and in 1850 Forbes submitted its first general report on British marine zoology. Ball's dredge was still in use in 1910. In the 20th century the
anchor-dredge was developed to sample deep burrowing animals. It is not towed but digs in, and is released, in the manner of an
anchor. The wide variety of dredges and other benthic sampling equipment makes site comparison difficult. ==Gallery==