WHOI in the News
Douglas Webb: Tinkerer, Engineer And Oceanographer Emeritus
Douglas C. Webb, the founder of Teledyne Webb Research, North Falmouth, has received an honorary appointment to the position of Oceanographer Emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for his role in advancing knowledge of the Earth’s oceans.
Taking the Lab into the Ocean with Autonomous Robotic Fleets
Autonomous robotic fleets enable researchers to observe complex systems in ways that are otherwise impossible with purely ship-based or remote sensing techniques. In a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is reducing opportunities for researchers to go to sea, autonomous fleets offer an effective way to maintain a persistent presence in features of interest.
Tracking the deep chlorophyll maximum with sea-faring robots
The research team was particularly interested in the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) layer. Also known as the subsurface chlorophyll maximum, the DCM exists below the surface of the ocean and holds the maximum concentration of chlorophyll, thus playing an important ecological role in the open ocean.
The Autonomous Saildrone Surveyor Preps for Its Sea Voyage
The robo-vessel will map the ocean floor, and its solar-powered sensors will sample fish DNA and collect climate data.
USNA MIDSHIPMEN SELECTED FOR MIT/WHOI JOINT PROGRAM
The Joint Program offers a deep knowledge of ocean processes, ocean vehicles and instrumentation, acoustics, and signal processing, and seeks to enhance understanding and application of operational oceanography as it pertains to the undersea warfare domain.
The Plan to Build a Global Network of Floating Power Stations
A lot of thermal energy is trapped in the ocean. An ex-NASA researcher has figured out how it might generate unlimited clean power for aquatic robots.
What’s In That Water? ‘Geochemical Santa Claus’ Offers New Data To Climate Modelers
For many years scientists thought that groundwater — which hides in underground aquifers and slowly makes it way out to sea — wasn’t adding much to ocean chemistry.
Right Camera Could Protect Endangered Whales
Scientist hopes his smart system can reduce ship collisions with North Atlantic right whales. A new technology on the horizon may help to reduce one of those threats, however.
United States’ only heavy icebreaker arrives in Dutch Harbor
Coast Guard icebreaker sets U.S. record for northernmost winter approach
The mission is as much to reaffirm presence as to train a new generation of coldwater sailors.
Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to Zero
Warming in the Arctic and Antarctic continues to accelerate faster than the global average, scientists reported this year.
Five Feet Above A Rising Ocean
One building was made to see it all. Adjacent to Water Street in Woods Hole there’s a small edifice that used to be a hangar for water planes in the 1960s. Because of that, it’s still precariously perched less than 5 feet above the water level, atop Dyer’s Dock. Now it’s become WHOI facility director Dave Derosier’s vantage point for risings seas.
New technology expected to play a key role in shark research
In November, Skomal and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy fitted two sharks with new satellite positioning tags developed by a team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that can be fastened to a white shark’s fin without having to capture it and drill mounting holes.
‘This Is Our Time’ – New WHOI President Vows To Help Save The Planet
“The oceans are in trouble, climate is changing rapidly, and the world is in need of solutions,” the new president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Peter B. de Menocal, told some 500 attendees at a virtual town hall meeting in early October.
The Water Below
Drawing on 90 years of leadership in ocean discovery and exploration, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists are engaged in an array of research projects using autonomous systems to advance their understanding of marine environments.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Leader: Scientists Are Excited To Return To A ‘Rational Perspective On The World’ With Biden Administration
Some of the most groundbreaking and interesting marine science research is happening right here in Massachusetts, at Cape Cod’s Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Peter de Menocal, the institution’s new leader, spoke with GBH All Things Considered Host Arun Rath.
Humans Created More Than Half of the Hudson River Tidal Marshes Unintentionally
In new research of tidal marsh resilience to rise in sea level, researchers observed that Hudson River Estuary marshes are developing upward at a rate twice or thrice times quicker than sea level rise, proposing that they need to be resilient to faster sea-level rise in the future.
Researchers tag free-swimming sharks off Cape Cod using minimally invasive device
Researchers and scientists were recently able to use fin-mounted location tracking tags on free-swimming sharks off of Cape Cod while using a device that allowed them to tag the sharks without capturing them.
Shipping-Gate Explained: How The Global Ship Fuel Scandal Came About
So until now (four months later), there has been no detailed oil fingerprinting conducted aside from a ten day old sample that some of the world’s leading oil spill scientists at U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution had conducted.
Shipping-Gate: Why Toxic VLSFO Fuel Is Such A Danger For Global Shipping
This chemical signature also reveals what would happen if that oil was ever leaked into the natural environment or made contact with humans. A process known as Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is what is used, as the U.S. laboratory WHOI is internationally renowned for.
Humpback whale songs provide insight to population changes
Following reports of unusually low whale numbers that began in 2015-16, researchers at the University of Hawaii in collaboration with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Oceanwide Science Institute and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, examined song chorusing recorded through long-term passive acoustic monitoring at six sites off Maui.
In a major effort to protect endangered whales, state officials plan to ban lobster fishing for several months a year
Moving to ropeless fishing would have “a far more lasting impact in reducing mortality, and equally importantly, the health and hence reproductive success of live animals,” said Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI.
US DOE Gives $21 Million for Innovative Offshore Wind Technologies
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution of Massachusetts will collect offshore wind resource data off the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and use it to improve atmosphere-ocean simulation tools and reduce uncertainty in offshore wind resource assessment and forecasting.
Deep ocean drilling: Revealing earth history, geological processes and a deep biosphere
Virginia Edgcomb from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discusses deep ocean drilling, a process that reveals earth history, geological processes and a deep biosphere.