News Releases
Scientists Discover Additional Healthy Deep-sea Coral Reefs and New Seamounts in the Galápagos
Stunning 800 meter-long coral reef discovered with Schmidt Ocean Institute’s underwater robot off Galápagos Islands
Puerto Ayora, Ecuador– Scientists examining underwater cliff ecosystems onboard research vessel Falkor(too) using the 4,500 meter […]
Read MoreGalapagos Expedition Reveals Unknown Seamounts, New Species
During a three-week expedition in August, an international team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in partnership with the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galápagos Islands and in close collaboration with the Galápagos National Park Directorate, conducted the first scientific expedition to map and characterize the seamounts on the Galápagos platform and the diverse marine life that these underwater mountains support.
Read MoreScientists Explore New England Seamounts for Clues to Climate Change
Scientists are exploring the New England Seamounts, a chain of extinct, undersea volcanoes about 500 miles off the east coast of North America, searching for clues to climate change in deep sea corals. The public can join the expedition via the web at http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu.
Read MoreScientists Aboard R/V Atlantis Discover Deep-Sea Coral Reefs in the Galápagos
Observations using the newly upgraded human-occupied vehicle Alvin are the first of a deep-water coral reef in the Galápagos Marine Reserve.
The reefs are located at depths between 400-600 m, atop previously unmapped seamounts.
Surviving extreme heat
A team led by Anne Cohen, a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, received $1.75M in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how coral reefs survive extreme heat events caused by climate change. The multidisciplinary project taps into expertise across four WHOI departments to uncover the oceanographic and biological processes that enable corals to survive marine heatwaves.
Read MoreInstitute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Honors WHOI Scientist
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) elected Dana Yoerger as a 2021 fellow for the development of autonomous underwater vehicles for deep-ocean exploration and science.
Read MoreNew Deep-Sea Coral Species Discovered in Atlantic Marine Monument
New ‘bubblegum’ corals found in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument during human-occupied submersible dives.
Read MoreSwarming Red Crabs Documented on Video
A research team studying biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank Seamount off the coast of Panama has captured unique video of thousands of red crabs swarming in low-oxygen waters just above the seafloor.
Read MoreDeep Sea Explorations Come to Life in Extraordinary New Book
WHOI scientists Daniel Fornari and Timothy Shank and their colleagues Jeff Karson (Syracuse Univ.), Deborah Kelley (U. Washington) and Michael Perfit (U. Florida) bring their deep-sea explorations to the public […]
Read MoreGenetic Patterns of Deep-Sea Coral Provide Insights into Evolution of Marine Life
The ability of deep-sea corals to harbor a broad array of marine life, including commercially important fish species, make these habitat-forming organisms of immediate interest to conservationists, managers, and scientists. […]
Read MoreWHOI Researchers, Collaborators Receive $1.4 Million to Study Life in Ocean’s Greatest Depths
Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), University of Hawaii, Whitman College and international colleagues will conduct the first systematic study of life in the deepest marine habitat on […]
Read MoreScientists Find Part of New Zealand’s Submerged “Pink Terraces”
They were called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Until the late 19th century, New Zealand’s Pink and White Terraces along Lake Rotomahana on the North Island, attracted tourists from […]
Read MoreWhat Lives in the Sea?
The Census of Marine Life, a ten-year project to catalog all life in the sea, discovered more than 6,000 new species during its “decade of discovery,” scientists reported as they […]
Read MorePioneering Deep-Sea Robot Lost at Sea
A pioneering deep-sea exploration robot—one of the first successful submersible vehicles that was both unmanned and untethered to surface ships—was lost at sea Friday, March 5, on a research expedition […]
Read MoreWHOI contributes to special seamount issue of Oceanography magazine
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Timothy M. Shank is among five guest editors of a newly published special edition of the research journal Oceanography on the oceans? seamounts, submerged isolated mountains in the sea. Shank is also a contributor to the special Oceanography edition.
Read MoreTrawling Leaves Lasting Scars on Deep Ocean Coral Habitat
More than a decade after fishing stopped near the Corner Rise Seamounts in the North Atlantic, researchers have found that the seafloor still has patches that are almost completely devoid […]
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