Skip to content

Press Room

WHOI to Host Public Forum on Seafood Security

May 20, 2011

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will host a public forum on May 25 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Redfield Auditorium on the theme “The Seafood Dilemma: Does it Matter Where We Get Our Seafood? The Balance of US Production, Imports, Wild Capture, and Aquaculture in US Seafood Supply.”

Kakani Katija

Emerging Explorers Award to WHOI’s Kakani Katija

May 19, 2011

Kakani Katija, a postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has been selected as one of 14 National Geographic Emerging Explorers for 2011 for her investigation into the role swimming animals might play in mixing and moving the oceans and other large bodies of water.

WHOI Unveils Website on its Role in Gulf Oil Spill Research

May 2, 2011

One year after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is unveiling a new multimedia website, Science in a Time of Crisis.

Eddies Found to be Deep, Powerful Modes of Ocean Transport

April 28, 2011

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues have discovered that massive, swirling ocean eddies—known to be up to 500 kilometers across at the surface—can reach all the way to the ocean bottom at mid-ocean ridges, some 2,500 meters deep, transporting tiny sea creatures, chemicals, and heat from hydrothermal vents over large distances.

Prey-tell: Why Right Whales Linger in the Gulf of Maine

April 26, 2011

WHOI’s Mark Baumgartner finds that the location, the length of stay, and perhaps the very abundance of the whales may be dependent on an interesting vertical migration pattern by the copepods on which the whales feed. It seems to be a case, he said, of “how the behavior of the prey influences the behavior of the whales.”

Researchers Report Potential for a Moderate New England ‘Red Tide’ in 2011

April 8, 2011

Scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a moderate regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause ‘red tides’ in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New England…

WHOI-led Team Locates Air France Wreckage

April 4, 2011

A search team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has located the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 some 3,900 meters, or nearly 2.5 miles, below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil’s northeastern coast.

Study Sheds Light on How Heat is Transported to Greenland Glaciers

March 28, 2011

Warmer air is only part of the story when it comes to Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet. New research by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) highlights the role ocean circulation plays in transporting heat to glaciers. Greenland’s ice…

WHOI Conducts Latest Search for Air France Flight 447

March 25, 2011

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is again teaming with French authorities to renew the international search for the deep-sea wreck site of Air France Flight 447 and to retrieve the flight recorders from the Airbus A 330.

WHOI-Led Report Links Sonar to Whale Strandings

March 16, 2011

An international team of researchers reports in a paper led by WHOI’s Peter Tyack the first data on how beaked whales respond to naval sonar exercises. Their results suggest that sonar indeed affects the behavior and movement of whales.

On the Sizeable Wings of Albatrosses

March 16, 2011

An oceanographer may be offering the best explanation yet of one of the great mysteries of flight—how albatrosses fly such vast distances, even around the world, almost without flapping their wings. The answer, says Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), lies in a concept called dynamic soaring, in which the large bird utilizes the power of above-ocean wind shear while tacking like an airborne sailboat.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Announces Selection of Teledyne Webb Research to Provide Coastal Gliders for Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)

March 15, 2011

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (OL) announced Teledyne Webb Research, of East Falmouth, Mass., will provide coastal gliders supporting the Pioneer and Endurance Arrays of the Coastal and Global Scale Nodes (CGSN) for…

Nauset Marsh Estuary Red Tide Study to Begin

March 14, 2011

A three-year study into the cause of local area red tides is set to begin March 21.  A team of researchers from the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will be examining the cause of…

WHOI Experts Stress Lessons From Japan Earthquake

March 11, 2011

While Japan’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and accompanying tsunami represent a devastating natural disaster for the country’s residents, scientists should also seize upon the massive temblor as an important learning tool for future quakes around the world, including the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States, according to experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Ranks No. 2

WHOI Ranks No. 2 in Top Ten Places for Postdocs to Work

March 1, 2011

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) ranked second of the ten best places to work for postdoctoral researchers, according to a 2011 survey by the magazine The Scientist. The rankings included 76 US institutions.

WHOI Helps Form International Consortium on Iron and the Oceans

February 22, 2011

With a mission of exploring the potential impact of iron fertilization of the oceans to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Senior Scientist Ken Buesseler has helped lead the organization…

First Harmful Algal Bloom Species Genome Sequenced

February 21, 2011

The microscopic phytoplankton Aureococcus anophagefferens, which causes devastating brown tides, may be tiny but it’s a fierce competitor. In the first genome sequencing of a harmful algal bloom species, researchers found that Aureococcus’ unique gene complement allows it to outcompete…

Pollution Triggers Genetic Resistance Mechanism in a Coastal Fish

February 17, 2011

For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New YorkA?s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fishA?the Atlantic tomcodA?has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.

Scientists Find Part of New Zealand’s Submerged “Pink Terraces”

February 2, 2011

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 around the world, interested in seeing the beautiful natural formations…

Hal Caswell

Hal Caswell Wins Humboldt Research Award

February 1, 2011

Hal Caswell, a senior scientist in the Biology Department at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), was awarded a 2010 Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany. The award is given “to internationally renowned scientists and…