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Independent Panel Recommends Strong, Clear Guidelines for Development of Marine Aquaculture in the United States

Independent Panel Recommends Strong, Clear Guidelines for Development of Marine Aquaculture in the United States

Congress should enact legislation to ensure that strong environmental standards are in place to regulate the siting and conduct of offshore marine aquaculture, according to an independent panel of leaders from scientific, policymaking, business, and conservation institutions. Organized by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Aquaculture Task Force was charged with examining the risks and benefits of marine aquaculture and developing a set of national policy recommendations to guide future development in our oceans.

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Scientists “See” New Ocean Floor Just Before and After It Is Created

A multidisciplinary research team from six institutions has for the first time successfully anticipated and then chronicled a seafloor eruption along the global mid-ocean ridge, the most active volcanic system on Earth. The event along the East Pacific Rise has provided researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) with a rare opportunity to observe what happens in the immediate aftermath of an eruption.

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Mercury and Fish

WHOI scientists and colleagues at the University of Connecticut have found the first connection between mercury levels in freshwater fish and atmospheric mercury pollution, most of which is derived from…

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Picture Perfect Plankton

The Large Area Plankton Imaging System, or LAPIS, is providing biologists with a new tool to study plankton to depths of 500 meters (1,640 feet). Until now, fragile gelatinous animals…

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Colossal Corer

A 50-meter (165-foot) long coring system nearing completion at WHOI will enable paleoceanographers to reconstruct past climates back tens of millions of years and expand the coring capabilities of the…

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Beaked Whales Perform Extreme Dives to Hunt Deepwater Prey

A study of ten beaked whales of two poorly understood species shows they dive much deeper and longer than reported for any other air-breathing species, a finding of particular interest since beaked whales stranded during naval sonar exercises have been reported to have symptoms of decompression sickness.

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ABE Joins Alvin and Jason at Sea

The Autonomous Benthic Explorer, ABE, one of the first autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to routinely work in the deep ocean, has joined the U.S. National Deep Submergence Facility, providing ocean…

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Tracking Killer Whales with Technology

WHOI researchers will use a small, non-invasive piece of technology, the digital archival tag or D-tag, in November to tag free-ranging killer whales in northern Norway. The researchers will record…

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