Oceanus Articles
The Oceans Are Filled with Microbes. Some Are Nasty
Every time you swim at the beach, you are surrounded by zillions of bacteria. There is no escaping them: One…
Read MoreLegions of Legionella Bacteria
Salty ocean water can be a nuisance. It’s undrinkable and it corrodes nearly everything it touches. But salt water’s inhospitality…
Read MoreNew ‘Eyes’ Size Up Scallop Populations
Part of the fun of fishing is never knowing exactly what might be swimming around beneath you. But that mystery…
Read MoreLullaby for Larvae
Like many babies, these tiny offspring arrived this spring amid much fanfare and a little trepidation. Never before had scientists…
Read MoreA Journey to the Ocean’s Twilight Zone
You are about to enter another dimension. You’re moving into a place of both shadow and substance, of things and…
Read MoreSwimming in the Rain
Twilight zones, witch hunts, and crossbows usually don’t find their way into tales about new oceanographic instruments. This story isn’t…
Read MoreGone Fish Assessing
Scientists at WHOI are applying new technologies to help the National Marine Fisheries Services assess fish stocks and maintain critical habitats
Read MoreJason Versus the Volcano
Through the camera eyes of the undersea vehicle Jason, scientists were investigating a quietly bubbling pit on the side of…
Read MoreChilly Scenes of Winter off Cape Cod
When winter winds began rattling the storm windows last autumn, Andrey Shcherbina and Glen Gawarkiewicz shook the mothballs out of…
Read MoreOcean Microscope Reveals Surprising Abundance of Life
Towing an underwater video microscope across the Atlantic Ocean, two scientists found unexpected abundances of colonial cyanobacteria that fertilize the…
Read MoreScientists Gear Up to Launch Ocean Observing Networks
Oceanography is on the verge of a revolution. Scientists and engineers have been dreaming up networks of permanent observing outposts that could probe from the sea surface to the seafloor from many different locations in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. And that dream may take a big step toward reality if Congress agrees to the National Science Foundation’s six-year Ocean Observatories Initiative.
Read MoreVoyage Takes a Census of Life in the Sea
Scientists collected more than 1,000 shrimplike creatures, swimming snails and worms, and gelatinous animals, including many species never seen before,…
Read MoreA Modest Proposal to Sustain Lobsters and Lobstermen
A new study by a WHOI scientist and a former lobsterman suggests a provocative lobster management strategy that offers economic benefits to the lobster fishermen, while invigorating lobster stocks.
Read MoreTransparent Animal May Play Overlooked Role in the Ocean
Salps don’t get much respect. They’ve been around for millions of years, but hardly anyone even knows they exist. Even…
Read MoreNew Hybrid Deep-sea Vehicle Is Christened Nereus
Nereus—a mythical god with a fish tail and a man’s torso—was chosen Sunday (June 25) in a nationwide contest as…
Read MoreNew WHOI Class Helps Students Communicate with Public
There’s a lot of giggling outside room 304 at Mullen-Hall Elementary School in Falmouth. Mass., as 24 fourth-graders wait for…
Read MorePeople Around WHOI
WHOI President and Director Robert Gagosian Steps Down
Robert B. Gagosian announced June 5 that he plans to step down as president and director of Woods Hole Oceanographic…
Read MoreA Laser Light in the Ocean Depths
Graduate student Anna Michel is adapting laser technology to the murky fluid environment and crushing pressures at depths of 11,000 feet. The goal is to develop an instrument that can directly measure the many elements spewing from hydrothermal vents just as they emerge from Earth?s crust.
Read MoreThe Chicken and the Tern
WHOI scientists find that the dramatic difference comes down to three amino acids on a single protein.
Read MoreInto the ‘Mouth of Hell’
Ken Sims peers over the rim of Masaya Volcano and looks 2,000 feet (600 meters) down into the smoking crater…
Read MoreAbandoned Walrus Calves Reported in the Arctic
Researchers on an oceanographic voyage in the Arctic Ocean report, for the first time, baby walruses unaccompanied by mothers in areas far from shore and over deep water, where they likely could not survive. The phenomenon was coincident with movement of warm water into Arctic basins and subsequent melting of the sea ice that walruses normally utilize as resting platforms.
Read MoreBuilding a Computer Model to Forecast Red Tides
The algae Alexandrium fundyense are notorious for producing a toxin that accumulates in shellfish such as clams, mussels, and oysters,…
Read MoreDo Fishing Regulations Lead to More Accidents?
Fishermen have argued that regulations about when and where they can catch fish have caused more sinkings and fatal accidents at sea. But a new statistical analysis by Woods Hole researchers has found no hard evidence to support that argument.
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