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Call of the Whales

Call of the Whales

Robotic gliders equipped with acoustic monitoring devices can now eavesdrop on whales, enabling researchers to locate the elusive animals before they surface and to warn ship pilots in the area to slow down to reduce the chances of a deadly collision.

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The Return of the Seals

The Return of the Seals

WHOI biologist Rebecca Gast examines whether the recovered and thriving population of gray seals in Cape Cod waters has affected water quality off the beaches they frequent.

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What Doomed the Stromatolites?

What Doomed the Stromatolites?

About a billion years before the dinosaurs became extinct, stromatolites roamed the Earth until they mysteriously disappeared. Well, not roamed exactly. Stromatolites (“layered rocks”) are rocky structures made by photosynthetic…

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An Oddity about Lyme Disease Bacteria

An Oddity about Lyme Disease Bacteria

The bacterial species that causes Lyme disease avoids a key human defense by not requiring iron. For a WHOI microbial chemist, that raised a big question: What does it use instead of iron?

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An Ocean That’s No Longer Wild

An Ocean That's No Longer Wild

Like most fathers, Simon Thorrold plays tag with his young daughter. But Thorrold, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, also plays tag with 30-foot-long whale sharks, like the one…

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Sassy Scallops

Sassy Scallops

MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Meredith White examined how increasingly acidic ocean waters affect scallop shells in their critical early stages of development.

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A Quest For Resilient Reefs

A Quest For Resilient Reefs

Anne Cohen’s forte is corals. From the skeletons of massive corals, she has extracted long-term records of changing ocean and climate conditions. In lab experiments and expeditions, she is investigating…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Kakani Katija Young

Rebuilding Alvin: Kakani Katija Young

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a thorough overhaul and upgrade to greatly enhance its…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Elder and Fournier

Rebuilding Alvin: Elder and Fournier

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a thorough overhaul and upgrade to greatly enhance its…

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The Harshest Habitats on Earth

The Harshest Habitats on Earth

With help from ROV Jason and a new, high-tech sampling instrument, scientists discover that even in a hyper-saline realm, with no light and no oxygen, under crushing pressure, life still finds a way.

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Why Haven’t the Cod Come Back?

Why Haven't the Cod Come Back?

A WHOI biologist is analyzing fish scales dating back to the 1930s to unravel changes in the ecosystem of Georges Bank, one the world’s most productive fisheries.

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An Ocean Instrument Is Born

An Ocean Instrument Is Born

Every new ocean instrument goes through growing pains. But the Submersible Incubation Device, nicknamed SID, has been a particularly long time coming. It started more than 30 years ago as…

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Seabirds Face Risks from Climate Change

Seabirds Face Risks from Climate Change

The research expedition ended in near-disaster. Stephanie Jenouvrier, aboard the ship Marion Dufresne II, was heading to the Southern Ocean to study seabirds. On Nov. 14, 2012, while making a…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Carroll & McCartney

Rebuilding Alvin: Carroll & McCartney

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a thorough overhaul and upgrade to greatly enhance its…

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A War of Knowledge to Save Sharks

A War of Knowledge to Save Sharks

Derya Akkaynak hails from a town called Urla in Turkey, and like most graduate students who come from foreign lands to study oceanography in Woods Hole, she keeps track of…

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Swimming with Sharks

Swimming with Sharks

Amy Kukulya’s clients often have curious requests, but this was among the oddest. As an engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), she has operated autonomous underwater vehicles beneath Arctic…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Kurt Uetz

Rebuilding Alvin: Kurt Uetz

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a major upgrade and overhaul to greatly enhance its…

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Caller IDs for Whales

Caller IDs for Whales

Imagine extraterrestrials come to Earth, seeking to understand human life. They dangle recording devices beneath the clouds or occasionally tag people with retrievable recorders. They collect thousands of bits of…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Al Suchy

Rebuilding Alvin: Al Suchy

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a thorough overhaul and upgrade to greatly enhance its…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Dutch Wegman

Rebuilding Alvin: Dutch Wegman

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a thorough overhaul and upgrade to greatly enhance its…

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Rebuilding Alvin: Patrick Hennessy

Rebuilding Alvin: Patrick Hennessy

From the beginning of 2011 to May 2013, Alvin, the U.S. science community’s only human-occupied submersible dedicated to deep-sea research, underwent a thorough overhaul and upgrade to greatly enhance its…

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