The papers include correspondence, memoranda, subject files, reports, data, typescripts of publications and reports, photographs, films, and other papers documenting the life and career of oceanographer John Dove Isaacs. The collection includes files documenting Isaacs' work as a consultant on several of the postwar Pacific atomic tests. The collection also includes documentation of the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, the North Pacific Study, the University of California Institute of Marine Resources, and the Marine Life Research Program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The collection includes a substantial number of slides, still photographs and films depicting oceanic life that were taken or collected by Isaacs during the course of his research grant work.