Samuel Gutestrand Mandarić, Marine Research and Fisheries Management: Swedish Hydrographic Commission 1893–1901, Umeå University: Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious studies, Master thesis in History of Science and Ideas, 15 credits, Spring semester 2020.The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of the Swedish marine research from a scientific and institutional perspective. The time period studied begins with the establish-ment of the Swedish Hydrographic Commission in 1893 and ends with the government decision to develop the Swedish Hydrographic-Biologic Commission in 1901. The first motive with the thesis is to increase the understanding for the development of the Swedish hydrography as a field of knowledge and science. Additionaly, with the purpose of gaining insight as to how the hydrographic research was organized, to highlight scientific ideas and theories, as well as to account for the questions that aimed to be answered through the conducting of marine research. The second motive with the thesis is, from a societal perspective, to increase the knowledge in for the existing relations between hydrographic research and fisheries management. The purpose of this being to show the significance and influence given to the survey of fish stocks within the field of marine research, as well as to describe the role of scientific knowledge and rationality in the fisheries management.The empirical and theoretical approach of this thesis is based on scientific development being a result of the cooperation between parties both producing and using gained knowledge. Three analytical concepts have been used to unlock the principles of using and producing knowledge; co-production, boundary work and networking. These concepts bring forth different aspects of the studied relation and they are used heuristically, with focus mainly on specific historical events within the field of marine research.The results show that the Scandinavian marine research was developed in the inter-section between establishment of managing an enterprise, the transformation of the hydrographical and biological research, and increasing national and international research cooperations. Societal applications were the prime motive for government approved and financed marine research and its institutional internationalization. The scientific marine and fish stock surveys were part of a commercial and political program with aim to bring reformation to the fisheries. The marine surveys were considered necessary in order for rational fishing to be carried out and they were also important in the development of the fishing industry. The official decision to introduce fisheries management, together with the international council, enabled the establishment of marine research as a branch of know-ledge and research within the field of natural science.

When the effects of wind and air pressure combine with a high tide to give unusually high water levels this can lead to severe coastal flooding. This happened in England in early 1953 when 307 people died in the East Coast Flood. In Britain today such events, now called storm surges, are forecast daily using computer models from the National Oceanographic Centre in Liverpool, formerly the Liverpool Tidal Institute (TI). In 1919, when TI was established, such events were considered unpredictable. TI's researchers, Joseph Proudman (1888-1975), Arthur Doodson (1890-1968), Robert Henry Corkan (1906-1952) and Jack Rossiter (1919-1972), did much mathematical work to attempt to change this. In 1959 Rossiter published a set of statistical formulae to forecast storm surges on the East Coast and a national warning system was predicting such events using these formulae. At this point TI believed they had made surges at least as predictable as they could with their existing methods. This thesis provides a narrative of how this perceived rise in the predictability of surges happened, analysing how TI worked to achieve it between 1919 and 1959 by following two interwoven, contingent and contested threads: practices of calculation and patronage. A key aspect of this thesis is the attention I pay to material practices of calculation: the methods, technologies and management practices TI's researchers used in their mathematical work on storm surge forecasting. This is the first study by historians of oceanography or meteorology that pays this detailed level of attention to such practices in the construction of forecasting formulae. As well as using published accounts, I analyse statistical research in the making, through notes, calculations, graphs and tables produced by TI's researchers. They used particular practices of calculation to construct storm surges as calculable and predictable scientific objects of a specific kind. First they defined storm surges as the residuals derived from subtracting tidal predictions from observations. They then decided to use multiple regression, correlating their residuals with pressure gradients, to make surges predictable. By considering TI's practices of calculation the thesis adds to the literature on mathematical research as embodied and material, showing how particular practices were used to make a specific phenomenon predictable. I combine this attention to mathematical practice with analysis of why TI's researchers did this work. US historians have emphasised naval patronage of physical oceanography in this period but there is very little secondary literature for the British case. The thesis provides a British case study of patronage of physical oceanography, emphasising the influence on TI's work not only of naval patronage but also of local government, civil state and industrial patronage. Before TI's establishment Proudman argued that it should research storm surges to improve the Laplacian theory of tides. However, when the new Institute received patronage from the local shipping industry this changed and the work on forecasting surges was initially done as part of a project to improve the accuracy of tidal predictions, earning TI further patronage from the local shipping industry. After a flooding event in 1928 the reasons for the work and the patronage again shifted. Between then and 1959 TI did this work on commission from various patrons, including local government, civil state and military actors, which connected their patronage to national debates about state involvement in flood defence. To understand why TI's researchers worked on forecasting surges I analyse this complex mix of patrons and motivations. I argue that such complex patronage patterns could be fruitfully explored by other historians to further existing debates on the patronage of oceanography.