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Piering into the Future

“As research equipment gets larger and more sophisticated, the crowding conditions on the exisitng pier will become intolerable,” wrote WHOI Director Paul Fye in 1963. It would be a few years before permits could be procured, but construction on the expanded Iselin dock was completed in 1968, and the marine services building in 1969. The project was made possible by a $2 million grant from NSF and considered by Fye to be “an essential element in the modernization of the laboratory installation so that Woods Hole can undertake its proper role in the national program.” Today, the pier at the Iselin Marine Facility can accommodate multiple large research vessels.(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)