Canadian-born U.S. oceanographer who conducted wide-ranging studies in the areas of chemical and biochemical oceanography, ocean currents (particularly those off the Pacific coast of Central America), and naval uses of oceanography.

Fleming joined the Scripps Institution in La Jolla, Calif., in 1931 and served as assistant director from 1946 to 1950, when he left to become professor of oceanography at the University of Washington.

Fleming measured the amounts of chemical elements in sea water and in marine life. His work on ocean currents included measurement of tidal-current velocities, description of upwelling of seawater, and observations of seasonal variations in currents. He also explored sedimentation in moving and stagnant bodies of water. With H.U. Sverdrup and Martin W. Johnson, Fleming wrote The Oceans (1942).