Photographic observations of the brittle starOphiura sarsiwere conducted at a depth of approximately 280 m in the Pacific Ocean off Otsuchi, northeastern Japan. Bottom photographs showed that this ophiuroid occurred in high densities, uniformly covering the sea floor and that other megafauna was rare. The mean density and biomass of ophiuroids in the dense bed were estimated to be 373m^-2and 124gm^-2, respectively. Ophiuroids comprised 99% of all megabenthic organisms in terms of number of individuals, and megafauna assemblage of the dense bed showed very low species diversity.O. sarsiexhibited a regular spatial pattern avoiding contact with conspecific neighbors. This regular spatial pattern was disrupted by certain other organisms, around which halo-like, bare areas were observed. The size and shape of these halo-like areas varied and were apparently related to the body size and/or motility of the organisms. In the present observation areaO. sarsicovered 96% of the sea bottom, and the remaining 4% was occupied by other organisms and their halo-like bare areas.

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Phytoplankton distribution in a frontal region of Tokyo Bay was investigated in relation to hydrography in November 1985. The frontal region was observed from the central to the mouth area of the bay and consisted of a series of fine scale discontinuities of salinity and temperature. Among them the Kenzaki offshore front (KOF) and the Yokosuka inshore front (YIF) were most prominent in terms of the duration and the magnitudes of the hydrographic gaps. Three major phytoplankton assemblages were observed:(A) neritic and offshore diatoms in the mouth area of Tokyo Bay, (B) a diatomLeptocylindrus danicusand dinoflagellates in the central area, and (C) bloom forming cryptophyceans, dinoflagellates and L. danicus from the inner Tokyo Bay. The KOF was an approximate boundary of the outside assemblage (A) and the intermediate population (B), and the YIF was that of (B) and the inner bay population (C). Species changes across the fronts were rather gradual in the KOF making a strong contrast to distinct jumps in temperature, salinity, in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence and nitrate plus nitrite. An outward surface flow of the inside population along the western coast off Yokosuka was detected.

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In order to study the characteristics of the surface circulation in Sagami Bay, long-term current measurements were carried out at five moored stations during the period from October 1982 to January 1984. The majority of current patterns show the existence of a cyclonic eddy in the bay, while at times the direction of the circulation is reversed. When the Kuroshio current flows over the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge and approaches Sagami Bay, the current that passes through the Oshima-West Channel north of Oshima Island (COWC), has a strong clockwise flow, while the counterclockwise circulation in the bay becomes intensified. When the Kuroshio shifts southward off the shore, the COWC and the flow in the bay are weak or at times reverse their directions.

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Transmission and reflection coefficients are calculated for Rossby waves incident on a bottom topography with constant slope in a continuously stratified ocean. The characteristics of the coefficients are interpreted in terms of the quasigeostrophic waves on the slope. In the parameter range where only the barotropic Rossby waves can propagate in the region outside the slope, the bottom trapped wave plays the same role as the topographic Rossby wave in a homogeneous ocean, and hence the transmission is weak unless phase matching takes place. When both of the barotropic and baroclinic Rossby waves can propagate outside the slope, the total transmission can be strong. The bottom trapped wave affects the transmission and reflection, and it leads to the possibility that the Rossby wave is transmitted as a mode different from the incident mode. When the number of the wavy modeson the slope is smaller than that of the Rossby wave modes outside the slope, strong reflection occurs.
The results for an ocean with linear distribution of the squared Brunt-Väisälä frequency are compared to those in a uniformly stratified ocean. The weakening of the stratification near the bottom is almost equivalent to reducing the effect of the slope.

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Directional wave spectra measured by a cloverleaf buoy in the East China Sea during AMTEX '75 have been compared with those calculated with the operational numerical MRI wave model developed at the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency (J.M.A.). It is shown that the numerical wave model MRI can predict rather well, not only the frequency spectrum, but also the angular distribution function of the spectrum.The frequency dependence of the calculated angular distribution function is quite similar to that observed; the angular distribution is narrower for the spectral components near the peak spectral frequency but widens toward high frequencies and approaches the cos²θ-distribution.

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I feel greatly honoured to be awarded the Oceanographical Society of Japan Prize for 1989, and to be given this opportunity to look back at my past activities in research and education, and to present them as an example for younger members of our Society. Taking this opportunity, I acknowledge with sincere thanks many persons who guided me or who have collaborated with me since I was a young student up to the present.
My past academic history may be divided into three periods. In the first period (1955-71) at Kyoto University which included and eighteen month visit to the University of Chicago, I studied the production of air bubbles and droplets at the sea surface by wind-wave breaking, and the supply and distribution of the sea-salt particles from the sea to the atmosphere. The first nondimensional formulation of the form of single air bubbles floating at liquid surfaces was also presented. In the second period (1971-1981) I pursued, at the new Physical Oceanography Laboratory of Tohoku University, the concept of wind waves which are coupled with the wind. I proposed the 3/2-power law of wind waves and the high frequency part of the wind-wave spectral form which is proportional to the friction velocity of air and to the -4th power of frequency. Detailed investigations of wind-wave phenomena were also performed in wind-wave tunnels by introducing quantitative flow visualization techniques and together with my students, we elucidated ordered motions in the flows below and above wind waves.The Tohoku Wave Model was also developed in which the similarity laws of wind waves, which are strongly coupled with the air flow, were explicitly used.In the third period (1982-present), my area of interest has become broader and, togerther with my students and my overseas collaboratos, we are studying the connection of local physical processes at the air-sea boundary with studies of larger scale ocean-atmosphere interactions. One aspect of this has led to the organization of the Ocean Mixed Layer Experiment (OMLET, 1987-91), as part of the Japanese national programmes of the World Climate Research Programme. Another interest is the ongoing fundamental study of the use of satellite data for the estimation of air-sea fluxes over a broad area. Pursuit of the roots of the similarity laws of the windsea remains one of my present tasks.

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