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A national leader in ocean sciences

As the Institution’s fourth director, from 1958 to 1977, Paul Fye presided over a period of major change. It was a time of great national interest in basic science, including…

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Red beret

Red beret

During the search for a U.S. hydrogen bomb lost in the Mediterranean off Spain in 1966, the Human Occupied Vehicle Alvin operated from a Navy dock landing ship. The red…

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Tracking Greenland’s glacial retreat

Tracking Greenland's glacial retreat

Recent changes in ocean circulation in the North Atlantic are delivering larger amounts of subtropical waters to the high latitudes. A research team led by Fiamma Straneo, a physical oceanographer…

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Still toxic after all these years

Still toxic after all these years

In 1969, the barge Florida ran aground off Cape Cod, spilling 189,000 gallons of fuel. Prevailing winds blew oil from the barge into Wild Harbor in Falmouth, Mass., where decades…

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Leading the way

Leading the way

Physical oceanographer Amy Bower leads a group of students from the Perkins School for the Blind to the WHOI dock for an onboard tour of the R/V Oceanus. Students from…

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Indicators of ocean health

Indicators of ocean health

Tropical coral reefs make up a small part of Earth’s ocean but are among the most diverse, productive ecosystems in the world. The fisheries and tourism that reefs support make…

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Designed for shallow water

Designed for shallow water

Engineering assistant John Kemp stands behind the Multi-Function-Node (MFN) designed for the Ocean Observatory Initiative for use in shallow water applications. Generally moorings have numerous sub-surface components, such as sub-surface…

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Will you be my Naphthalene?

Will you be my Naphthalene?

This image of a single molecule of crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico appears to have an intrinsic sense of romance on Valentine’s Day. WHOI scientists Bob Nelson and…

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Life in the sea

Life in the sea

Biologist Alfred Redfield in his lab, circa 1955. Redfield joined the WHOI staff as senior biologist in 1931 and was Associate Director from 1942 to 1956. His broad marine research…

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Flow of the Hudson Strait

Flow of the Hudson Strait

Aboard the R/V Knorr in the Hudson Strait, engineer John Kemp (left), Knorr Bosun Pete Liarikos (right), and Dara Tebo of the Physical Oceanography department, work to recover a mooring.…

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Stretch it

Stretch it

Senior engineering assistant William Ostrom tests a stretch hose that will be utilized on moorings and buoys for the Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI). The specially designed cable, which stretches like…

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Hands across the water

Hands across the water

The crew aboard the R/V Atlantis extended a helping hand to a fishing vessel in distress off the coast of Peru on Jan. 20, 2010. The vessel, the Peruvian long…

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Sound sources

Sound sources

WHOI senior engineering assistant Brian Guest (top of photo) leads a team to deploy the first of two sound source moorings in the Southeast Pacific as part of a Diapycnal…

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OceanInsight

OceanInsights

Amy Bower, of the WHOI Physical Oceanography department, gives a tour of the R/V Oceanus to a group of students from the Perkins School for the Blind. Bower, who is…

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Tracking warm eddies in a cold sea

Tracking warm eddies in a cold sea

Water in the ocean is always on the move, with big currents flowing like rivers in different directions and at different layers in the sea. These ocean currents help carry…

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A new addition

A new addition

Edward H. Smith (right) WHOI director from 1950 to 1956, greets Crawford master David Casiles upon the ship’s arrival in Woods Hole in 1956. Smith spent 40 years in the…

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Coral climate clues

Coral climate clues

Former MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Nathalie Goodkin and Scott Doney of the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry department pose with a piece of Bermuda brain coral. Corals accrete seasonal and annual…

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Flying high

Flying high

WHOI/MIT Joint Program student Chris Murphy tests a newly-built SeaBED autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) at the WHOI dock in 2009. The AUV, shown here without its outer “skin,” was developed in…

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Pacific plates

Pacific plates

Stacked plastic plates, called “sandwiches” (left), used as artificial substrates for larvae of vent animals. As part of the research project LADDER (Larval Dispersal on the Deep East Pacific Rise),…

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Charting the Aegean

Charting the Aegean

Valletta, Malta, was among the ports Atlantis (right) visited during “the Med cruise,” a six-month, 1948 cruise to the Mediterranean Sea. The cruise was funded by the Hydrographic Office and…

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It’s a buoy for OOI

It's a buoy for OOI

The first buoy designed for the Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI) undergoes testing at the dock. Holding the lines to steady the suspended buoy are senior engineer Tim Scholz, left, and…

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Free-living barnacle?

Free-living barnacle?

The USCG Campbell towing Balanus Circa 1948. Balanus was part of the WHOI fleet from 1946 to 1950. It was a rather uncomfortable craft that biologist Gordon Riley said was…

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Single file line

Single file line

For all its ice, cold, and six months of darkness, the oceans around Antarctica are teeming with life. Penguins, whales, and seals inhabit the area where sea ice meets open…

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Piecing together the past

Piecing together the past

Deep-sea archaeologist Brendan Foley and Matt Grund, of the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering department, ready a SeaBED Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for testing off the R/V Tioga in 2005.…

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