From early beginnings as centers of descriptive zoology, their focus shifted to physiology-development biology and oceanography. Today many marine stations have evolved into multi-disciplinary centers encompassing everything from genomics to remote sensing. However, other than the fun of a stroll down memory lane, re-tracing Kofoid's trail may help identify common traits of the survivors among the independents and this may be of some interest for those concerned with the future of marine institutions. Here then I conduct a short visit to three of the "independent" institutes described by Kofoid.