Multimedia Items

In 1963, WHOI’s research ship Atlantis II stopped over in Monaco on its way to the Suez Canal and a research cruise in the Indian Ocean. The second of three…

A lounging elephant seal casts a wary, but sleepy, eye on a group of researchers on Torgersen Island, Antarctica. The scientific team, which included WHOI scientist emeritus Peter Wiebe and…

In the fall of 2011, the WHOI-operated research vessel Knorr sailed past the Faroe Islands east of Iceland, an ideal home for Beowolf’s nemesis. The team on board, led by…

“High” noon in the Arctic in winter looks a lot like sunset or sunrise. In November 2011, WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian led colleagues on the first-ever winter research cruise to…

Karin Lemkau searches for oil—but not in the usual places. In 2007, a container ship, the M/V Cosco Busan, struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled tens of thousands…

Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879-1967) helped establish the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was WHOI’s first director, from 1930 to 1940. One of the giants of U.S. oceanography, Bigelow’s interests spanned…

Why study lifeless krill, copepods, and other tiny Arctic organisms under a microscope when you can see them live and in action in their native environment? During an early winter…

Chris Morgan, chief engineer on the research vessel Atlantis, manipulated the remotely operated vehicle Jason at the bottom of the western Caribbean Sea recently while being  guided by members of the…

In February 1966, Alvin was loaded onto a transport plane at Otis Air Force Base in Falmouth, Mass., for a flight to Spain. On January 17 of that year, a…

It’s rare to see WHOI’s two Global Class research vessels, R/V Knorr and Atlantis, in port at the same time. Rarer still to see them leave together on the same…

Ice-covered stairs makes for a tricky ascent—and a necessary detour—aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy on a 2011 cruise to the Western Arctic Shelfbreak. The temperature this far north can…

In 2011, scientists employed the services of a professional harpoonist, Capt. Bill Chaprales, aboard the fishing vessel Ezyduzit out of Sandwich, Mass., to tag basking sharks with a device that…

Communication is critical at sea. Here, a crew member from the U.S. Coast Guard iceabreaker Healy signals a winch operator to stop lowering at CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) rosette to…

During long research cruises, particularly when bad weather keeps people indoors for periods, ship and science crews organize “morale events” to raise spirits and help keep the group working as…

Two whale sharks feeding with jacks in the Red Sea in May 2010. Whale sharks (Rincodon typus) are rare but widely distributed throughout the world’s tropical oceans. Despite their distribution,…