Multimedia Items
Listening for home: How corals use sound to build reefs
What does home sound like to you? Scientists investigate how corals use sound to settle and build new reefs
Read MoreOcean Encounters: Antarctica!
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean make up the most remote part of our planet—one that few people have experienced.
Read MoreOcean Encounters: Seaweed Solutions
How scientists, ocean farmers, and policymakers are looking to kelp as a sustainable solution to some of the toughest issues facing our world today.
Read MoreeDNA in the Twilight Zone
A new tool called environmental DNA, or “eDNA” is helping scientists understand the ocean twilight zone, a dimly-lit region of the ocean roughly 100-1000 meters deep. The twilight zone covers a vast area of the globe, and is chock-full of marine life. Despite its massive size, though, scientists are still trying to figure out what species live down there. By analyzing eDNA in samples of seawater, researchers are starting to identify which organisms live in the zone, even if they never actually lay eyes on them. In this video, learn more about how eDNA works, and discover what it can reveal about this huge marine ecosystem.
Read MoreLife on an Ocean World: Can we find life using chemistry?
Humans have not yet ventured to an ocean world. But that hasn’t stopped scientists from asking themselves what Earth’s ocean can tell us about far away planets we could visit
Read More2021 Year in Review
Re-live the best of 2021 with this montage showcasing just some of WHOI’s ocean science, technology, and engineering highlights. WHOI researchers are active in upwards of 800 projects around the world at any time, providing critical information about some of the most urgent challenges facing humanity and the planet we call home. As part of the WHOI community, we thank you for your dedication to our ocean, our future, and our planet. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2022!
Read MoreOcean Encounters: From the Sea to the Stars
Join us to hear from four engineers who explore extreme places in the ocean and outer space. Learn about hostile environments that demand special tools and special people with the “right stuff” to test their own limits and push the boundaries of knowledge deeper into the unknown.
Read MoreLive from the seafloor in the Gulf of California
Join a team of scientists LIVE from the research vessel Roger Revelle in the Gulf of California. Learn about their work to study hydrothermal vents in the Guaymas Basin with the remotely operated vehicle Jason and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry.
Read MoreWe are all Whalers: a reading and conversation
Join us for a virtual conversation and book reading with author and WHOI veterinarian and marine scientist, Dr. Michael Moore, to celebrate the publishing of his book, “We Are All Whalers.” Moore shares his experiences caring for endangered whales and how we can all aid in the salvation of these imperiled animals.
Read MoreUnlocking the Mysteries of the Deep Ocean: AUV Orpheus
Introducing AUV Orpheus the next evolution of underwater technology to unlock the mysteries of the ocean and the hadal zone. Orpheus is a new class of autonomous underwater vehicle. It is capable of reaching any part of the ocean and of operating without human intervention during complex missions.
Read MoreIlluminating the Abyss
Join four leading ocean explorers and advocates for a live conversation about pushing boundaries and seeking solutions to the Earth’s most pressing problems—deep in the ocean’s twilight zone.
Read MoreSeaweed Solutions: WHOI leads project to develop new kelp strains
Aquaculture supplies more than half of the world’s seafood consumed by humans, with seaweed totaling 27% of annual global aquaculture tonnage. Now more than ever, seaweed farming is being viewed as a sustainable and efficient way to boost economies, provide nutritious food, and diversify ocean life. Take a look at the work of WHOI’s Scott Lindell, a research specialist in aquaculture technology, leading a research project to develop seaweed strains for commercial uses.
Read MoreWhy are emperor penguins an indicator of climate change?
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced a proposal to list the emperor penguin as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), based on evidence that the animal’s sea ice habitat is shrinking and is likely to continue to do so over the next several decades. Research from penguin scientists is key to informing policy around much-needed protections for the emperor penguin. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s additional collaborative research efforts suggest how conservation actions can help to increase species’ resilience to climate stress, including protecting habitat, increasing habitat connectivity, and reducing non-climate stressors, such as overfishing and ocean pollution.
Read MorePenguins: Canaries in the mine of climate warning.
The Paris Agreement objectives will likely halt future declines of Emperor Penguins
Emperor penguins are uniquely adapted to the harsh conditions of their sea ice home. This video outlines how emperor penguins are indicator species whose population trends can illustrate the consequences of climate changes.
Read MoreUnderwater robot tracks ocean creatures
An innovative underwater robot known as Mesobot is providing researchers with deeper insight into the vast mid-ocean region known as the “twilight zone.” Capable of tracking and recording high-resolution images of slow-moving and fragile zooplankton, gelatinous animals, and particles, Mesobot greatly expands scientists’ ability to observe creatures in their mesopelagic habitat with minimal disturbance. This advance in engineering will enable a greater understanding of the role these creatures play in transporting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the deep sea, as well as how commercial exploitation of twilight zone fisheries might affect the marine ecosystem.
Read MoreOcean Encounters: Weirdly Wonderful Creatures of the twilight zone
Dive with us into the ocean twilight zone—the weirdest place on Earth. This vast, dark, barely explored layer of the ocean is home to countless weirdly wonderful creatures whose uniqueness also gives them superpowers to survive in a world of darkness, extreme pressure, frigid cold, and superpowered predators. The twilight zone is a place of wonder, mystery, and abundance that reminds us our choices mean the difference between a future of loss and sustainability.
Read MoreThree ships, one ocean twilight zone
In May 2021, members of WHOI’s Ocean Twilight Zone project braved the rough seas of the Northeast Atlantic aboard the Spanish research vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa. Their mission: locate the spring phytoplankton bloom and measure how carbon moves through the mysterious mid-ocean “twilight zone.”
The Sarmiento joined two other research vessels funded by NASA’s EXPORTS program to intensively study the area. This remarkable and rare coordination of 150 scientists from several organizations, and crew on three different ships, was years in the making.
Watch as the WHOI research team, led by Ken Buesseler and Heidi Sosik, deploys innovative new imaging technologies and hauls up hundreds of fascinating specimens from the deep sea. Along the way, you’ll gain an endless appreciation for the vast, weird, and wonderful ocean twilight zone – without getting wet.
Read MoreKeep It Weird
Discover the weird and wonderful creatures of the Ocean Twilight Zone and how they keep our planet healthy. Take our quiz to find your weird at keepitweird.org!
Read MoreCollaborating to Save the Right Whale
Fishermen, engineers, and scientists are working together to test and develop fishing gear that has no buoy lines in the water column to save the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. There are less than 400 North Atlantic Right Whales left in the world and many right whale deaths can be attributed to entanglement.
Read MoreRare drone video shows critically endangered North Atlantic right whale surface active group
During a joint research trip on February 28 in Cape Cod Bay, Mass., WHOI whale trauma specialist Michael Moore, National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry, and scientists from New England Aquarium, witnessed a remarkable biological event: North Atlantic right whales in a surface active group, also known as a SAG.
Read MoreOcean Encounters: ALVIN
Hear from a volcanologist, a marine biologist, and Alvin’s senior pilot about how the iconic sub enables scientific discovery in the far reaches of Earth’s ocean.
Read MoreEast Pacific Rise
Captured by the researchers and crew of Atlantis from HOV Alvin with artist Mel O’Callaghan during the 2018 UNOLS cruise.
Read MoreFrom Art to Science: the Anatomy of Glaciers
A visually exciting discussion about Greenland glacial photography and science, featuring WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das and professional aerial photographer Roger Fishman.
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