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Night Watch

Night Watch

Third mate Amy Biddle updates the ship’s log during her night watch on the bridge of the research vessel Atlantis. In addition to her duties standing regular watch on the…

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Blue Hued

Blue Hued

This image of a blue iceberg, calved off a glacier, was captured on a research trip to waters off Greenland. Its striking color indicates that the ice in it is…

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Sharp Eyes

Sharp Eyes

Shipboard Scientific Services Group (SSSG) technician Emily Shimada (left) signals a winch operator on board the research vessel Atlantis while Rika Anderson from Carleton College keeps tension on a tag…

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Hide Out

Hide Out

An anemone fish finds refuge in its namesake location—an anemone. This pair were photographed in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), a place that has drawn attention from scientists for…

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Featured Creature

Featured Creature

This alien from outer space is actually a common inhabitant of the world’s oceans. The creature, an amphipod (a relative of beach hoppers) that feeds on other zooplankton called salps,…

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Elevating Exploration

Elevating Exploration

A deep-sea “elevator” carrying samples from hydrothermal vents is hoisted from the water as members of the science team aboard the research vessel Atlantis watch from the rail of the…

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Storm Tossed

Storm Tossed

Oceanographers working in the North Atlantic always face the prospect stormy weather, but those on a 2010 expedition on the research vessel Atlantis got more than their share. First, they…

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Reading Rocks

Reading Rocks

A member of the science team on a recent expedition aboard the research vessel Atlantis carefully documented the freshly cut surface of a piece of seafloor basalt. The rock formed…

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Translucent Beauty

Translucent Beauty

In this image captured by WHOI biologist Larry Madin, a shell-less mollusk (genus Cardiapoda) resembles the head of a translucent ocean elephant. Madin photographed numerous gelatinous ocean animals over the…

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Academic Excellence

Academic Excellence

James Yoder speaks from the podium during commencement celebrations at WHOI in 2010. Yoder, who served as the Vice President of Academic Programs and Dean from 2005 to 2016, retired…

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How to Hold a Penguin

How to Hold a Penguin

Researchers sometimes have to handle wild animals as part of their work. When handling penguins, they use what’s known as a “rugby hold,” so-called because the penguin’s torpedo-shaped body looks…

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Making Plastics Micro

Making Plastics Micro

WHOI scientists are using this fragmentation chamber to simulate how waves, sunlight, and sand degrade plastics into tiny fragments in the ocean over time. The chamber provides a motorized platform…

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By the Book

By the Book

On days that the human-occupied submersible Alvin dives, the operations team begins early in the morning with the first of many checklists. Their process covers each of the sub’s major…

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Climbing High

Climbing High

WHOI physical oceanographer Anthony Kirincich climbs a ladder up the Air-Sea Interaction Tower at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MCVO). WHOI operates the MCVO, which collects and provides real-time coastal…

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Encouraging Diversity in Ocean Science

Encouraging Diversity in Ocean Science

WHOI researcher Cindy Sellers (right) shows undergraduate students how to analyze seawater they had just sampled aboard WHOI’s research vessel Tioga in 2017. The students were part of the Summer…

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Awarding Achievement

Awarding Achievement

Groundbreaking oceanographer Henry Stommel first came to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the 1944, less than 15 years after the Oceanographic’s founding. He remained affiliated with WHOI for much of…

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Along for the Ride

Along for the Ride

A CTD instrument is a standard workhorse of oceanography, measuring conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth as it descends through the water. But this CTD has a special “passenger” attached to…

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Special Guest

Special Guest

A very special guest visited the research vessel Atlantis during a port call in San Diego in December. Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist Walter Munk (seated) received a personal tour…

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Castle Walls

Castle Walls

Through a microscope, this corrugated coral looks like a castle wall. Rather than repel invaders, the coral will catch and eat any of the little arrowhead-shaped crustaceans that get caught…

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A Cacophony of Sound

A Cacophony of Sound

Sound waves, like these generated by a whale’s calls, propagate far within the ocean. But in shallow waters, sound is confined into a narrower channel between the sea surface and…

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Reefscapes

Reefscapes

WHOI coral reef ecologist Amy Apprill tends to a hydrophone setup used as part of an experiment in the U.S. Virgin Islands to study how free-swimming coral larvae pick the…

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Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface

A CTD—a device that measure the conductivity, temperature and depth of seawater—descends through the water of glacial fjord in Greenland. Data from the instrument will help a team led by…

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Imperial Honor

Imperial Honor

Emperor Hirohito of Japan (seated, center) prepared to view samples through a microscope in the laboratory of WHOI geochemist and current scientist emeritus Susumu Honjo (standing, left) during a visit…

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Asa of All Trades

Asa of All Trades

In 1972, research technician Asa Wing sewed yards of fine-mesh material into a giant, conical sampling net for WHOI biologist Richard Backus, The Falmouth Armory building provided the only smooth,…

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