Belgian marine scientists
during WWI
Ruth Pirlet
When the German forces occupied the
Flemish coastal strip in October 1914, they
w ent about it vigorously. In view o f the
exceptional strategic im portance o f this
region as a base o f operations for the battle
on and over the North Sea, they installed
a vast netw ork o f naval ports, a rtille ry
batteries, bunkers and airfields between the
Yser front and the Dutch border. In addition,
the area between the Yser and the border
w ith France was the theatre of the Great
War fo r four years. This situa tion not only
disrupted the everyday lives o f the local
population greatly, but also resulted in the
unem ploym ent o f the Belgian coastal and
m arine scientists. Prior to the war these
scientists regularly set up camp on the
Belgian coast, for example to examine the
m arine fauna and flora. The arrival o f the
German forces put a tem porary stop to this
activity and forced the scientists to reach
out to new horizons. Flowever, this forced
exile did not halt all Belgian m arine research.
In spite o f the d ifficu lt conditions, some
researchers tried to continue th e ir research
in one way or another. This chapter does not
only discuss m arine research in tim es o f war,
but also life and w ork in occupied Belgium.
These individuals were not only scientists,
but also civilians in an occupied country
w ho did not close th e ir eyes to the events
happening around them.
Belgian marine research
on the eve of the Great War
M arine sciences were a largely unexplored
scientific area in Belgium un til halfway the
19th century. W ithout in te nd ing to discredit
the w ork o f some im p ortan t predecessors,
we dare say th a t Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden
(1809-1894) heralded the real start o f this
type o f research. Van Beneden was a zoology
professor at the Catholic University of
Leuven and showed interest in the sea and
its residents already at an early stage in his
career. For example, he was the first scientist
to study marine fauna in the North Sea in a
system atic manner. W ithin this scope he even
established his own m odest research lab in
Ostend in 1843: the “ Laboratoire des Dunes”
(Dune Laboratory). This first marine research
station in the w orld (!) was an ideal base o f
VLIZ
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A -V
Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden's 'Laboratoire des D unes' was set up in the b u ildings o f the Valcke
- De Knuyt oyster farm , the c o m p a n y o f his parents-in-law, situated to the east o f Ostend's h a rb o u r
channel. The p ro x im ity o f the sea a n d the constant s u p p ly o f living research m ate ria l ensured that
the oyster farm was a p e rfe ct lo cation fo r m arine b io lo g ic a l research (Bibliothèque N a tio n a l de
Francej
operations for Van Beneden’s expeditions at
sea. Edouard Van Beneden (1846-1910), son
o f Pierre-Joseph and zoology professor at
the University o f Liège, also frequented his
fa th e r’s private research station. From this
location he in itiate d numerous students into
the research o f underw ater life.
The m arine research field gained
m om entum in the 1870s. Marine research
stations emerged at countless locations
along the European coastline, w hile
pioneering scientific ocean expeditions
produced a w ealth o f new data. The era of
modern m arine research had begun.
Flowever, the Belgian authorities refused to
invest in this new discipline. The foundation
o f a m arine laboratory financed by the State
appeared to be a m ajor obstacle. Only years
after the First W orld War w ould such a public
body come in to existence w ith the
establishm ent o f the Zeew etenschappelijk
In s titu u t/ In s titu t d ’ Etudes M aritim es
(Institute for M arine Sciences - ZWI). The
unw illingness o f the Belgian authorities to
invest in adequate research infrastructure
and to provide appropriate funding
contrasted sharply w ith the enthusiasm of
the Belgian scientific w orld towards these
marine studies. Researchers soon went to
foreign m arine laboratories to gain
experience and assisted w ith several
inte rna tiona l oceanographic expeditions.
When the ‘ In tern ation al Council fo r the
E xploration o f the Sea’ , a cross-border
cooperation aimed at gaining be tte r insights
into the decreasing fish stocks and the
marine environm ent, was launched in 1902,
the Belgian scientists were among the first
who expressed th e ir w illingness to
participate.
This means tha t at the turn o f the
century, Belgium boasted a m eritorious
and respected team o f m arine and coastal
researchers who explored both the Belgian
waters and the seas and ocean fu rth e r away.
A large part o f them furtherm ore owed a
great deal to fathe r and son Van Beneden,
who had managed to turn marine studies
into an essential com ponent o f scientific life
in Belgium. Zoologists Paul Pelseneer (18631945), Auguste Lameere (1864-1942) and
61
at the start o f the conflict: he was fired
as a botany and chem istry teacher at the
Teachers’ College o f Ghent and had a hard
tim e g e ttin g used to the occupation, partly
because he was unable to continue his
usual trip s to the North Sea. He therefore
looked fo r solace in his scientific w ork, which
Pelsenaar said served to ‘ relieve the m ental
pain, bitterness and helplessness’ caused by
the war. Using stacks o f earlier notes, rough
drafts and m aterials from his own collections,
Pelseneer continued his studies on the
anatom y and living environm ent o f m olluscs
from his residence in Ghent. He w rote down
the results in ‘ Les variations e t le u r hérédité
chez tes M o llu sq u e s’ (1920), a 826-page
tome which discusses over 400 species of
molluscs in great detail.
The war nevertheless left marks in the
publication, as Pelseneer dedicated his
book to all “com patriots, victim s o f German
aggression [ . . . ] and to those who fe ll w hile
defending the thin gs I care m ost about: m y
country, m y ideas, m y h o p e .”
The entire Van Beneden fa m ily a ro u n d 18 6 8 , w ith Pierre-Joseph on the fa r left a n d Edouard
on the right. Both p la y e d a c ru cia l role in the developm ent o f m arin e studies into a fu lly fle d g e d
research d iscip lin e in Belgium (De Bont, E vo lu tio n a ry m o rp h o lo g y in Belgium : The fortunes o f the
"Van Beneden School", 2 0 0 8 )
Gustave Gilson (1859-1944), biolo gists Julius
Mac Leod (1857-1919) and Alphonse M eunier
(1857-1918), oceanographer Desire Damas
(1877-1959), geologist Alphonse Renard
(1842-1903), doctors Charles Van Bambeke
(1829-1918) and Louis Stappers (1883-1916)
and botanist Jean M assart (1865-1925) fe ll in
w ith this research tradition . The Belgian part
o f the North Sea was therefore the settin g
o f numerous and diverse scientific activities
on the eve of the First W orld War. A ll these
activities came to a halt when the Germans
invaded.
behind the trenches soon affected his health.
Stappers died on 30 December 1916 in the
m ilita ry hospital o f Calais.
Refuge in work
O ther m arine scientists were more
fortun ate in this regard: they survived the
war and even managed to continue the ir
marine research in some cases. In spite
of the many restrictions, Belgian marine
research did not come to a fu ll stop. Several
scientists looked for som ething to hold on
to in th e ir research durin g the war. Paul
Pelseneer, who focused on the study of
m olluscs, lost a lot o f certainties in his life
Belgian marine scientists
during WWI
The unfortunates
The research po ssib ilities for Belgian
scientists in general were severely restricted
from 1914 onwards. The universities closed
th e ir doors and numerous research labs,
facilities and libraries were occupied,
destroyed or plundered. M arine biologists
were furtherm ore cut o ff from th e ir main
research environm ent, as w o rkin g at
sea had become overly dangerous. The
German occupation even heralded the final
departure o f a num ber o f scientists from the
Belgian coast: Charles Van Bambeke and
Alphonse Meunier, both passionate marine
researchers, died w ith o u t experiencing the
liberation o f th e ir homeland. The war also
ended disastrously for Louis Stappers, a
m arine scientist employed by the Royal
Museum o f Natural History in Brussels. This
zoologist also had a degree in medicine and
decided to use his m edical knowledge at
the front. However, the unhealthy conditions
62
Left: Charles Van Bam beke (1 8 2 9 - 1 9 18), top: A lp h o n se M e u n ie r (1 8 5 7 - 1 9 18) a n d rig ht: Louis
Stappers (1 8 8 3 -1 9 1 6 ) w ere p a rt o f the g ro u p o f unfortunates w h o d id not live to see the e nd o f
the hostilities. G ustave G ilson d e scrib e d the prem ature death o f Stappers a t b a re ly 3 3 years o f
a g e as a h e a vy b lo w to Belgian m arine research (left: U gent M em oires, top: Hegh, E. (1 9 2 0 ).
N e c ro lo g ie : M . l'a b b é A lp h o n se M e u n ie r Revue G énérale A g ro n o m iq u e , rig ht: Hassek M u n ic ip a l
Archives).
VLIZ
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M »
V lÎU T Iffi H LEFR lllBdIITB
lIO M .U S lfU K S
h illi,
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Pelseneer d e d ic a te d his w o rk 'Les va ria ti­
ons et leur hérédité ch e z les M ollu squ e s' fo a li
com patriots w h o h a d n o t survived the battle
a g a in s t the G erm an aggressor. (Pelseneer, P.
(1 9 2 0 ). Les variations et leur hérédité ch e z les
mollusques M ém . de l'A c a d . Roy. de Belg.)
Gilson and his silent resistance
It may not come as a surprise that people
like Pelsenseer to o k refuge in th e ir research.
A fter all, scientists already had a reputation
for being unw orldly and livin g in an ivory
tower. Yet this is not entirely true in the case
o f the Belgian m arine scientists. Although
several o f them were try in g to continue th e ir
studies, they did not turn a blind eye to the
problem s to rm e n tin g the country. Gustave
Gilson is perhaps the best example o f this.
Before the war broke out, he was one of
the m ost active researchers of the Belgian
m arine area. In 1894 Gilson to o k the chair in
zoology at the Catholic University o f Leuven,
and fou r years later he also went to w ork as
a researcher at the Royal Museum o f Natural
History. In this period he began extensive
studies o f the relationship between marine
animals and plants, and the environm ent of
th e M e r Flamande (the Southern Bight o f the
North Sea). When Gilson became head o f the
Royal Museum o f Natural History in 1909, he
im m ediately shifted this research in a higher
gear. He bought a sm all boat for marine
research and established a sm all marine
laboratory in Ostend w ith o u t any support
from the government.
When the w ar put an end to all this, he
needed to direct his focus som ewhere else
as o f 1914. He spent most o f the next four
years in the research rooms o f the Royal
Museum o f Natural History. Together w ith
his colleagues, he engaged in preparing,
cleaning, so rtin g and stud ying collections
th a t had been brought back during
previous explorations and were kept in the
warehouses.
VLIZ
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2 0 1 3 • 36
Top: G ustave G ilson (second from left) a t w o rk a t sea. Bottom: S h o rtly before the o utbreak o f
W o rld W a r I, G ilson set up a la b o ra to ry in a b u ild in g n e a r the oyster farm 'Stichert-Stracke &
C ie ' to further e xam ine the samples taken on his sea expeditions. (G ilson, G . (1 9 1 4 ). Le M usée
Royal d 'H isto ire N aturelle, sa mission, son o rg a n iza tio n , ses droits. M em oires du M usée Royal
d 'H isto ire N a tu re lle de Belgique)
As curator o f the Royal Museum o f
Natural History, Gilson not only perform ed
scientific w ork but also had to address the
adm inistrative challenges brought by the
war. Like alm ost all museums in Belgium, the
in stitu tio n was under German control as from
the end of 1914. Although curators usually
adopted a very reluctant attitu d e towards
the German demands, they were forced to
tolerate the German interference fo r fear of
reprisals. Moreover, many o f them remained
at th e ir post on moral considerations:
someone had to take care o f the national
heritage. This consideration led Gilson to
figh t a silent ba ttle w ith the occupying forces
as from 1915. A particular expression o f this
figh t was the so-called ‘dinosaur issue’ (see
box).
63
PATRIE!
m
I
1
I .L
w .
4
H
. - * PrJ | r
/Vlassarf's anti-G erm an w ritings confro n te d the enem y in tw o ways. In the first p la ce he w a n te d to dem onstrate the b ru ta lity o f the o ccupying
forces on the basis o f their o w n posters a n d p ro p a g a n d a products. For exam ple, the a b o ve p ictu re o f A a rsch o t was p a rt o f a series o f trium phant
G erm an postcards d is p la y in g several Belgian cities that h a d been b urnt to the g round. C ontrasting w ith this ba rb a rity, M a ssa rt h ig h lig h te d the
brave a n d unrelenting attitude o f the Belgian p e o ple. H e d id so b y d isp la yin g the w o rk o f various clandestine newspapers. A b o v e : the front p a g e
o f ‘Patrie', 'jo u rn a l non censuré p a ra issa n t comme, où e t q u a n d il peut. ' (left: M assart, J. (1 9 1 6 ). C om m ent les belges résistent à la d o m in a tio n alle­
m ande: contribution au livre des douleurs de la Belgique, rig h t: M assart, J. (1 9 1 7 ). La presse clandestine dans la Belgique occupé)
Exile to France
W hile Gilson fought the German
interference w ith in the lim its of his
professional activities, botanist Jean M assart
opted for a more fro n ta l approach. S hortly
before the war, M assart had engaged in
m apping the different plant com m unities
in Belgium. W ithin th is scope, he had also
explored the landscape of the coastal
plain. During this activity, he was not only
interested in system atically listin g all
species. He also made a careful analysis
o f the environm ental conditions to which
the coastal and alluvial flora had to adapt.
A few m onths after the start o f hostilitie s,
M assart suspended all his botanical studies
because he believed “ there was no tim e
to lose y o u rs e lf in speculations o f pure
science when the entire w o rld ’s p o litic a l
ge og raph y was a t ris k .” In the subsequent
tim e, M assart especially devoted him self
to w ritin g and d istrib u tin g all kinds o f antiGerman propaganda. He started from a
scientific attitu d e : he wanted to dem onstrate
the b ru ta lity o f the occupying forces on the
one hand and the m oral sup eriority o f the
Belgian people on the other as objectively
as possible. In practice this meant that
M assart secretly assembled a collection
o f photographs o f German posters and
announcem ents lin in g the w alls o f the
Belgian capital. He also collected books
and newspapers from Germany as w e ll as
Belgian newspapers that were censored
by the German occupying forces. Massart
furtherm ore obtained inform ation about
64
the Belgian resistance through active
correspondence w ith the front and w ith the
clandestine press. In this way, he amassed
more than enough proof to give a precise
im pression of the “state o f m in d o f a Belgian
who lived un de r German d o m in a tio n ” .
However, his illeg al activities did not pass
unnoticed by the German forces, who kept an
increasingly close eye on M assart’s family. In
early 1915 the situa tion became too risky, so
M assart was forced to flee the country. His
children had been able to leave the country
for the Netherlands under the pretext of
health problem s, but things were not so
easy fo r M assart and his wife. A fter several
failed attem pts they eventually succeeded
in crossing the border w ith the Netherlands
near Bree in the province o f Lim burg on
15 August under disguise and w ith the
cooperation o f an o b lig in g customs officer.
They then moved on to Am sterdam , where
they were reunited w ith th e ir children. The
valuable collection o f inform ation was also
sm uggled in to the Netherlands by means of
a suitcase w ith clothes for Belgian refugees.
The w hole fam ily soon moved on to England
and eventually ended up in the coastal
m un icip ality of Antibes in the south o f France
in autum n 1915.
Once he had settled down in this new
location, M assart im m ediately started
e d itin g various pam phlets to boost the
m orale of the Belgian people and the
troops. He also form ulated an answer to the
notorious ‘M anifesto o f the Ninety-Three’ ,
a proclam ation issued in 1914 in which 93
renowned German scientists and artists
legitim ised the German invasion in Belgium
in the name of spreading the superior
German culture. The docum ent met w ith
a storm o f indignation in foreign scientific
and cultural circles. M assart was also
furious, but he assumed tha t the German
intellectuals were sim ply carried away by
the wave of chauvinism th a t accompanied
the beginning o f the war. He therefore
invited them , together w ith Swiss botanist
Robert Chodat, to meet in Geneva to discuss
the whole issue in a neutral atmosphere.
Unfortunately, the in itia tive met w ith little
success: only 2 o f the 93 German scholars
responded to the in vitatio n, and both
o f them negatively. In ‘ Les intellectuels
allem ands e t la recherche de la v é rité ’
(1918), M assart m ercilessly condemned the
lack o f critical sense o f these figures. The
proceeds from the sale o f all anti-German
printed m atter were used to finance several
in itiative s on be ha lf of the Belgian people,
such as the ‘A siles des solda ts invalides
b e ig es’ . This organisation collected funds
for the establishm ent o f homes fo r disabled
Belgian soldiers. Interesting d etail: M assart
donated the m anuscript o f his w ar diary to
the War Archives Committee after the war. It
can be found in the General State Archives
nowadays.
VLIZ
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2 0 1 3 • 36
Jean M assart also spent his days giving
English lessons at a French gramm ar school
and teaching a num ber o f courses at the
Paris-based Muséum national d ’ Histoire
naturelle. And even though he had argued
at the beginning o f the war tha t the tim e
was not right to engage in science, he soon
appeared in a laboratory again. He had found
accom m odation in Antibes in the v icin ity
o f ‘V illa T huret’ , a research in stitu tio n w ith
a fam ous botanical garden. It is here that
M assart was able to devote him self to a
thorough study o f M editerranean coastal
flora and other topics. He was especially
interested in how the specific clim atic
conditions in this sunny region influenced
the growth o f plants which also occurred at
the Belgian coast.
M assart was not the only Belgian coastal
and m arine scientist who spent the war in
France. August Lameere and Mare de Selys
Longchamps also awaited the end o f the
conflict in this country. In the sum m er o f 1914
both biologists embarked on a sho rt w orking
trip to the S tation B iologique de R oscoff ia
B rittany tog ether w ith th e ir fam ilies. The
outbreak o f m ilita ry operations in Europe
prevented them from return in g to Belgium,
as a result o f which this holiday resulted in a
‘four-year exile’ , to put it in th e ir own words.
The dinosaur issue
In 1 8 7 8 a co a l mine in Bernissart (H ainaut) w a s the setting o f one o f the most spectacular
finds o f d in o sa ur skeletons in the w h o le o f Europe. A t a depth o f 3 2 2 metres, mine w orkers
found the pe trifie d bones o f an Igu an o d o n , a plant-eating d in o sa ur species that w a lk e d the
earth over 1 2 5 m illion years a g o . A team o f mine w orkers, technicians and specialists of
the Royal M useum o f N a tu ra l H istory m anaged to b rin g some 3 0 Iguanodons to the surface,
in clu d in g a la rge num ber o f com plete skeletons. W h e n the e xcavations w e re te m p o ra rily
suspended in 1 8 8 3 due to p ra ctica l a n d fin a n cia l reasons, it w a s cle a r that m any more
treasures rem ained b u ried under the g ro u n d . For a long tim e there w e re no specific plans for
n e w exca va tion works. This ch anged w hen the G erm ans invaded Belgium in 1 9 1 4 . A g ro u p
o f G erm an p alaeontologists, led b y O tto Jaekel from the U niversity o f G re ifs w a ld , sa w the
o ccu p atio n as a g re a t o p p o rtu n ity to g e t hold o f these treasures. The G erm an scientists also
m anaged to convince Berlin o f the im portance o f the fossils, a n d in July 1 9 1 5 the G erm an
governm ent d e cid e d to resume the excavations.
Theresearchers o f the Royal M useum o f
N a tu ra l H isto ry w e re a p p o in te d as e xperienced experts to su p p ort the entire op e ra tio n .
G ilso n , w h o w a s little inclined to enter into a n y form o f co o p era tio n w ith the G erm ans,
tried to prevent this 'detestable theft' o f v a lu a b le Belgian a rc h a e o lo g ic a l heritage from the
v e ry b e g in n in g . He d id nevertheless realise it w a s unwise to refuse cate go rica lly. G ilson
e xp la in e d his strategy in a post-w ar report: instead o f refusing a ll c o o p e ra tio n , he decid e d
to hinder the excavations "through in e rtia a n d slowness o f actio n . [ . . . ] Wfe started to behave
in a co m p le te ly passive w a y b y a v o id in g a n y co n tact w ith the G erm ans a n d re fra in in g from
d o in g a n y w o rk ." This a p p ro a ch in itia lly
seemed to w o rk, as the p ro je ct rem ained
in a p u re ly hypothetical stage for quite a
long time. In M a y 1 9 1 6 Jaekel w a s fed up
w ith it a n d o rd e re d the construction o f a first
access tunnel w h ich w a s supposed to lead
to the din o sa ur skeletons. The w o rks on this
tunnel started tw o months later. G ilson and
AN D I E
KULTURWFLTt
his em ployees had to a b a n d o n their strategy
o f g e neral passivity, but this d id not mean
they gave up just like that. The new plan
w a s a subtle co m b in a tio n o f pum p system
sa b o ta g e , controlled collapses a nd smallscale staff strikes. This ena bled them to put
the e xcavations on a b a ck burner. So little
progress had been m ade b y 1 9 1 8 that the
G e rm a n governm ent felt com pelled to strike
o u t hard: the place w h e re the Iguanodons
had been found had to be accessible w ith in
six months. The end o f the w a r eventually
cam e rig h t in time. The proposed six-month
p e rio d had not ye t e xp ire d w hen the G erm ans
w e re eventually forced to sound the retreat.
Prior to their retreat they flo o d e d the tunnels
that had a lre a d y been d ug so as to strongly
ham per possible future excavations. A fte r the
w a r G ilson arg u e d in favour o f co n tin uing the
excavations to ensure that "th e fig h t a g a in st
the lo o tin g o f the treasures o f Bernissart h a d
n o t been in v a in ." H ow ever, resum ing the
p ro je ct a p p e a re d to be to o expensive a nd not
much o f a p riority, as a result o f w h ich G ilson
had to g ive up on the plan w ith a heavy heart.
The notorious 'M a n ife sto o f the N inetyThree', o rig in a lly entitled 'A u fru f an d ie
K ulturw elt', was p u b lish e d on 4 O cto b e r 1 9 1 4
in G erm any. The docum ent was sig n e d b y 9 3
famous G erm an N o b e l p riz e laureates, artists,
doctors, physicists, chemists, theologians,
philosophers, poets a n d architects. The
m anifesto extenuates, am o n g oth er things, the
w a r crimes com m itted b y G e rm a n y in Belgium,
w hich p ro v o k e d a storm o f in d ig n a tio n
a b ro a d [A rc h iv d e r Berlin-Brandenburgischen
A k a d e m ie d e r W issenschaften)
VUZ
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M The im pressive skeleton o f an Iguanodon
found in Bernissart, as currently on d is p la y in
the museum o f the Royal Belgian Institute o f
N a tu ra l Sciences (Paul Hermans)
65
A p ictu re o f 'V illa Thuret' a ro u n d 1 9 2 4 . The famous b o ta n ic a l g a rd e n was la id out in 1 8 5 7
b y French botanist Gustave Thuret a n d p ro v id e d M a ssa rt w ith a m p le research m aterials d u ring
his exile in France ('H istoire des ja rd in s des A lpes-M aritim es: du ja rd in e xotique au ja rd in m édi­
terranéen'}.
I• I
Lameere h a d settled in this 'Station B io lo g iq u e de Roscoff' in the summer o f 1 9 1 4 to observe
D icyem ida w hen the outbreak o f W o rld W a r I prevented a possible return to Belgium. In the fol­
lo w in g years Lameere w as a b le to continue his research in Roscoff, a t the 'Laboratoire d'Evolution
des Etres', w h ich is a ffilia te d w ith the Sorbonne, a n d in 'V illa Thuret' in A ntibes. His w o rk on
these parasites e a rn e d him the 'D ecennial A w a rd fo r Z o o lo g ic a l S ciences' in 1 9 2 2 (Guesnier, V.}.
Both Lameere and de Selys Longchamps
continued th e ir research at various French
in stitu tio n s d u rin g th is period. In the w inter
m onths they regularly visited Antibes,
where they joined th e ir colleague and friend
M assart in ‘V illa T huret’. The Arm istice o f n
November 1918 ensured that these Belgian
fam ilies could at last return home.
66
After WWI
The war had not been a com plete waste
o f tim e fo r the Belgian m arine researchers.
Pelseneer w rote an impressive w ork on
m olluscs, M assart performed a comparative
study on coastal flora in various clim atic
regions and de Selys Longchamps continued
his research on tunicates and plankton.
Lameere in turn used his tim e in France to
tho ro ug hly study Dicyemida, tin y w o rm ­
like parasites that live in the organs of
cephalopods. His publication on the
subject even won the ‘ Decennial Award for
Zoological Sciences’ , the highest Belgian
award w ith in his area o f expertise, in 1922.
The predom inant feeling am ong the marine
scientists was nevertheless th a t they had
been lim ited in th e ir research possibilities
for fou r years. Furthermore, not all marine
scientists had had the o p p o rtu n ity to
continue th e ir studies du rin g the war, so they
were very eager to get back to w ork in and
around the Belgian part o f the North Sea in
to ta l freedom after 1918.
Flowever, the coastal region they found
after 1918 was no longer the same as the
one they had known before the outbreak of
the w orldw ide conflict. Jean M assart was
for example confronted w ith significant
environm ental damage caused by the
strategic flo o d in g o f the Yser plain around
Nieuwpoort. The brackish seawater had
brought about a sig nifica nt increase in the
salt content o f the soil, which obviously
had repercussions on the vegetation in this
landscape. M assart had extensively mapped
the Belgian coastal flora before the war,
and now he could return to observe and
describe the transform ations. To conduct
this investigation in a thorough matter,
he tem porarily installed an im provised
laboratory in Nieuw poort, from which he
studied soil reclam ation in the form er front
zone.
The m aterial damage inflicted on the
Belgian coast by the Great War also slowed
down the resum ption of marine research
activities. The only Belgian m arine station,
installed by Gilson in Ostend sh o rtly before
WWI, was severely damaged durin g the war.
The vessel which Gilson had used for his
explorations at sea had been destroyed. As
there were no funds available to repair the
research station, Gilson and his colleagues
were strongly lim ited in th e ir research
capabilities. In addition, the ‘ International
Council for the Exploration o f the Sea’ (ICES)
decided to resume w ork in March 1920.
Partly because o f a lack o f appropriate
research infrastructure, Belgium was unable
to participate in this intergovernm ental
science organisation.
This was reason enough for Gilson to
resume his pre-war campaign to have a
publicly financed modern research station set
up in Belgium. “ O nly the esta blishm en t o f a
pe rm anent organisation b y the sea can m eet
the needs th a t re su lt from the continuous
s tu d y o f the m arine environm ent,” said
Gilson. Flowever, it appeared quite d ifficu lt
to establish such an in stitu te in a country
recently ravaged by war. The Belgian state
was not im m ediately able to donate large
amounts o f m oney to science. A fter years of
diplom atic m anoeuvring, Gilson eventually
succeeded in convincing the governm ent:
1927 saw the establishm ent o f the Institute
o f M arine Sciences (ZWI) in Ostend.
VLIZ
IDE GROTE REDEI
2 0 1 3 • 36
The inundation o f the Yser p la in n e a r N ie u w p o o rt d id not o n ly a ffe ct the flo o d e d farm land, but also the na tura l vegetation in the are a . The
a b o v e picture o f the flo o d in g between N ie u w p o o rt a n d Ram skapelle shows trees that have fallen victim to the salty sea w ater. Upon term ination
o f the hostilities, o n ly a fe w green branches rem a in e d in the a re a a c c o rd in g to M assart. The results o f his post-w ar study into the effect o f the
increased salt content o f the soil on the lo ca l flo ra were p u b lish e d in 'La B io lo g ie des Inondations de TYser' (1 9 2 2 j (Massart, J. (1 9 1 9 ). Ce q u 'il
faut v o ir sur les cham ps de b a ta ille e t dans les villes détruites d e Belgique: II. Le fron t d e Flandre)
The in stitu te only had lim ited means and
Gilson was its first director. The organisation
focused on offshore fishing research,
inventory of fauna and flora in the Belgian
coastal waters and statistica l offshore
fishing inspections. ZWI’s m odest facilities
represented the only marine research site
at the Belgian coast for many years. The
bu ild in g was razed to the ground during
the Second W orld War, after which a new
reconstruction process began. Only in the
1970s did a new generation of m arine and
coastal scientists succeed in launching
marine research in Belgium.
fi ilii r r r s
- JJ- .11_ ! ■ ■
Sources
JOURNAL DE LA COTE
M T P M
U* Ü N > *
U u iM d
U I< D
—
■LÎ7 1 T Î
LEnStttut Mârft-lmc d’Ostendo
A n article from the 'Journal de la C ô te ' o f 19 N o ve m b e r 1 9 2 7 discusses the n e w institute fo r
M a rin e Sciences in O stend (Journal d e la Côte)
VLIZ
DE GROTE REDEI
2 0 1 3 • 36
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67