After the Venezuelan Association for the Advancement of Science (in
Spanish:
Asociación Venezolana para el Avance de la Ciencia, AsoVAC) was founded in 1950 under the direction of the distinguished physician and academic
Francisco De Venanzi, the concern for creating an oceanographic research center in
Venezuela arose. The Oceanographic Institute of Venezuela was created as a branch of the
Universidad de Oriente by means of the Executive Order 459 of President
Edgar Sanabria signed on November 21, 1958. The institute began its work in 1959 at the Marine Biology Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture in Caigüire,
Sucre, and moved to its definitive headquarters at the
Universidad de Oriente main campus in the city of
Cumana, in 1963. It is one of the oldest and most important centers for oceanographic and marine science research and teaching in the
Caribbean and
Latin America regions. The oceanographic vessel Guaiquerí II was the IOV research platform. Equipped with all the necessary adaptations of a maritime laboratory, it was the means of transportation for the researchers and technical personnel to take samples of the marine flora and fauna on the Venezuelan coasts The first director of the institute was Dr. Pedro Roa Morales (1926-1995), a
Sorbonne-graduate in
marine geology and
sedimentology. == Directors of the Oceanographic Institute of Venezuela ==