Naissance de l'océanographie en Belgique. Un précurseur: le Professeur Gustave Gilson (1859-1944) = The birth of oceanography in Belgium. A forerunner: Professor Gustave Gilson (1859-1944)

About ten years after independence was achieved, Belgium created a marine laboratory in Ostend. Among the pioneers of oceanography in Belgium, the zoologist P.J. Van Beneden, the civil engineer M. De Mey, and the Abbé Renard are worthy of mention. Particular mention should be made of Professor Gustave Gilson, who, at the end of the XIXth and beginning of the XXth century, studied oceanographic problems with eagerness, competence, and a remarkably comprehensive view; and also undertook a systematic investigation of the shores of Belgium