Skip to content

Oceanus Online Archive


Search by Keyword

Refine by:

Date

1996 — 2025

Topic

Ocean Life(402) [+]
Ecosystems(110)
Marine Mammals(78)
Marine Microbes(77)
Corals(49)
Ocean Plants(41)
Sharks & Other Fish(38)
Shellfish(29)
Jellyfish & Other Zooplankton(22)
Sea Birds(13)
eDNA(8)
How the Ocean Works(385) [+]
Seafloor & Below(98)
Ocean Chemistry(88)
Ocean Circulation(70)
Cycles(53)
Coastal Ocean(49)
Frozen Ocean(45)
Ocean Zones(22)
Ocean-Atmosphere Connection(1)
Ocean Tech(318) [+]
Underwater Vehicles(165)
Moorings & Buoys(39)
Ocean Observatories(38)
Acoustics(35)
Imaging(30)
Ships(29)
Ocean Modeling(4)
Data Mules(1)
Networked Ocean(1)
Ocean & Human Lives(196) [+]
Pollution(82)
Natural Disasters(41)
Ocean Culture & History(26)
Harmful Algae & Red Tides(20)
Underwater Archaeology(17)
Climate & Weather(149) [+]
Climate Change(66)
Paleoclimatology(40)
Ocean-Based Climate Solutions(13)
Sea Level Rise(10)
Abrupt Climate Change(8)
Ocean Warming(7)
Sustainable Ocean(42) [+]
Aquaculture(12)
Marine Protected Areas(11)
Fisheries(10)
Offshore Wind(3)
Blue Economy(1)
Seafloor Mining(1)

Featured Researcher

Article Type

Feature(1052)
Video(34)
Slideshow(16)
Interactive(6)
Top Story(6)

Special Series

MIT-WHOI JP Students at Work(143)
Around WHOI(64)
Rebuilding Alvin(35)
A Summer of Science by the Sea(21)
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill(19)
Ocean Twilight Zone(10)
Fukushima and the Ocean(9)
Ocean Observatories Initiative(8)
Microplastics in the Ocean(7)
Building HROV NEREUS(6)
See 5 moreSee less

Author

A.D. Colburn(1)
Alan D. Chave(4)
Alec Bogdanoff(1)
Alice Alpert(1)
Alison Pearce Stevens(10)
Allie Gage(9)
Amalia Aruda Almada(1)
Amanda Kowalski(5)
Amelia Macapia(1)
Amy E. Nevala(73)
Andrea Baird(2)
Andrea Carter(3)
Andreas Teske(1)
Andrew R. Solow(1)
Ann E. Mulligan(1)
Anne Cohen(2)
Annette Hynes(1)
Ari Daniel(17)
Ashley Junger(1)
Benjamin Linhoff(1)
Bennett McIntosh(1)
Bob Dickson(1)
Brian E. Tucholke(1)
Britt Raubenheimer(2)
Britta Voss(2)
Bryan James(1)
Bryce Corlett(1)
Caitlin Frame(1)
Carin Ashjian(1)
Carl Wirsen(1)
Carly Buchwald(1)
Carter Esch(1)
Catriona Munro(1)
Chawalit Charoenpong(1)
Cherie Winner(61)
Cheryl Dybas(1)
Chris Reddy(5)
Christine Mingione(1)
Christopher J. von Alt(1)
Christopher Linder(6)
Christopher M. Reddy(5)
Christopher Piecuch(1)
Clara Deser(1)
Claudia Geib(1)
Colin O'Brien(1)
Collin Ward(2)
Dake Chen(1)
Dallas Murphy(3)
Daniel Cojanu(13)
Daniel E. Frye(1)
Daniel Hentz(39)
Daniel Hentz Art by Janine Wong(1)
Daniel Hentz Illustrated by Charin Park(1)
Daniel J. Fornari(1)
Daniel McCorkle(1)
Darlene Ketten(1)
Dave Lawrence(1)
David Anderson(1)
David Garczynski(1)
David Griffith(1)
David L. Valentine(2)
David Levin(11)
David Pacchioli(10)
Deborah K. Smith(2)
Dennis Normile(1)
Derya Akkaynak(1)
Donal Manahan(1)
Donald M. Anderson(2)
Donald W. Forsyth(1)
Dorinda R. Ostermann(1)
Earl E. Davis(1)
Eils Lotozo(1)
Elise Hugus(39)
Elizabeth Halliday(5)
Emily Estes(1)
Eric Taylor(5)
Erika Fitzpatrick(2)
Erin Bertrand(1)
Erin Koenig(10)
Esther Shyu(1)
Evan Lubofsky(73)
Fern Gibbons(1)
Fiamma Straneo(1)
Francesco Ventura(1)
Frank Taylor(1)
Fred K. Duennebier(1)
Geoffrey Eglinton(1)
George Tupper(1)
Gerald H. Haug(1)
Graham Lane(1)
Greg Hirth(1)
Greg O'Neil(2)
Gualtiero Spiro Jaeger(1)
Gwendolyn Schanker(7)
Hannah Mark(1)
Hannah Piecuch(23)
Hanny Rivera(1)
Hauke Kite-Powell(2)
Heather Beem(1)
Heidi M. Sosik(2)
Henry J. B. Dick(2)
Hugh Powell(14)
Hugo F. Bezdek(1)
Illustrated by Natalie Renier(1)
Isabela Le Bras(1)
J. Fredrick Grassle(2)
J. Samuel Arey(2)
James B. Edson(2)
James E. Broda(1)
James F. Price(1)
James M. Kent(2)
James R. Valdes(1)
Jamie Becker(1)
Jason Goodman(1)
Jayne Iafrate(1)
Jean K. Whelan(1)
Jeffrey P. Donnelly(1)
Jeremy Caplan(1)
Jerry F. McManus and Delia W. Oppo(1)
Jesús Pineda(1)
Jian Lin(3)
Jiayan Yang(1)
Jill McDermott(1)
Joan M. Bernhard(1)
Joel Greenberg(4)
John A. Collins(2)
John Farrington(1)
John M. Toole(3)
John R. Delaney(2)
John Trowbridge(1)
John Waterbury(1)
Jordan Stanway(1)
Jordon Hemingway(1)
Judy McDowell(1)
Juli Berwald(2)
Julie Jakoboski(1)
Julie Mirocha(1)
Julien Bonnel(1)
Kalina Grabb(1)
Karin Lemkau(1)
Kate Madin(104)
Katherine Joyce(1)
Kathleen Munson(1)
Kathryn Baltes(1)
Kathryn D. Sullivan(1)
Kathryn Eident(6)
Katie Pitz(1)
Katrina Edwards(2)
Keir Becker(2)
Kelly Rakow(1)
Kelton McMahon(1)
Ken C. Macdonald(1)
Ken Kostel(14)
Ken O. Buesseler(2)
Kenneth H. Brink(1)
Kim Popendorf(1)
Konrad A. Hughen(1)
Kristen Hunter-Cevera(1)
Kristen M. Kusek(10)
Kristen Whalen(1)
Kristin Pangallo(1)
Kristin Thoms(1)
Kylee Denesha(1)
Kyrstin Fornace(2)
Laura Castañón(19)
Laura Hmelo(1)
Laura Robinson(1)
Lauren Kipp(1)
Lauren Mullineaux(2)
Laurence P. Madin(2)
Lee Roscoe(1)
Leslie G. Baehr(4)
Lewis M. Rothstein(1)
Li Ling Hamady(1)
Lisa W. Drew(1)
Lizzie Wallace(2)
llippsett(2)
Lloyd D. Keigwin(3)
Lochie Ferrier(1)
Lonny Lippsett(178)
Madeline Drexler(2)
Mally Anderson(12)
Mara Freilich(1)
Margaret Tivey(2)
Marilena Oltmanns(1)
Mario R. Sengco(1)
Maris Wicks(2)
Mark Hahn(1)
Mark P. Johnson(1)
Martin Burch(2)
Mary-Louise Timmermans(1)
Mathieu Dever(1)
Matt Villano(11)
Matthew A. Charette(1)
Maureen Conte(1)
Maurice A. Tivey(2)
Maya Yamato(1)
Megan May(1)
Michael Carlowicz(47)
Michael J. Fogarty(1)
Michael Moore(1)
Michael Neubert(1)
Michael P. Bacon(1)
Michael S. McCartney(4)
Molly Tsongas(3)
Molly Tsongas/Photos by WHOI Trustee Alan Chung(1)
Morse Pond School 5th grade(1)
Naomi M. Levine(1)
Nelson Hogg(1)
Nicholas Woods(1)
Nobu Shimizu(1)
Oceanus Staff(6)
Olivier Marchal(1)
Peter Clift(1)
Peter H. Wiebe(1)
Peter Kelemen(2)
Peter Tyack(1)
Photos by Henley Spiers Words by Hannah Piecuch(1)
Poonam Narotam(1)
Porter Hoagland(1)
Rachel Horwitz(1)
Ralph A. Stephen(1)
Randy Showstack(10)
Raymond W. Schmitt(1)
Rebecca Gast(1)
rebecca hirsh(1)
Rebecca Jackson(1)
Rebecca Walsh Dell(1)
Rhett Butler(1)
Rhian Waller(1)
Richard A. Kerr(1)
Richard C. Lewis(1)
Richard F. Pittenger(4)
Richard King(1)
Rick Krishfield(1)
Rob L. Evans(2)
Robert A. Sohn(1)
Robert A. Weller(2)
Robert Pickart(2)
Robert S. Detrick(2)
Robert Thunnel(1)
Robertson Dinsmore(1)
Roger Fishman(1)
Roger François(1)
Rui Xin Huang(1)
Ruth G. Curry(2)
Sam Harp(1)
Sam Levang(2)
Sandra Hines(1)
Sara E. Pratt(2)
Sarah Rosengard(1)
Scott C. Doney(2)
Scott Dodd(2)
Scott Gallager(1)
Scott M. Glenn(1)
Shelley Dawicki(4)
Sheri N. White(1)
Simon R. Thorrold(2)
Sönke Johnsen(1)
Stacy W. Kish(1)
Stan Hart(1)
Stan Wilson(1)
Stephanie Murphy(9)
Stephen Dye(1)
Steven A. Murawski(1)
Susan Humphris(2)
Susan Mills(1)
Susumu Honjo(6)
Suzi Clark(1)
Tatiana Schlossberg(5)
Terrence M. Joyce(1)
Thomas C. Austin(1)
Thomas McCollom(1)
Tim Silva(6)
Timothy I. Eglinton(1)
Timothy James Dimacali(1)
Timothy M. Shank(3)
Tom DeCarlo(1)
Trish White(1)
Tristan Honscheid(1)
Tucker Clark(1)
USCRP Contributors(1)
V&eacuteronique LaCapra(5)
Véronique LaCapra(27)
Vicky Cullen(2)
Viviane Menezes(1)
W. Rockwell Geyer(1)
Wade R. McGillis(1)
William B. Curry(1)
William J. Jenkins(1)
William M. Smethie(1)
William Sellers(1)
Winifred Johnson(1)
Written by Daniel Hentz(1)
Yaqin Liu(1)
Run Deep, But Not Silent

Run Deep, But Not Silent

For the first time in history, we can accompany a whale on its dive, hear what it hears, and observe its normal, natural, previously hidden behavior in the depths. Working closely together, scientists and engineers have created an innovative new device—the digital acoustic recording tag, or D-tag. It attaches to a living whale and records nearly everything that happens on its dives, without disturbing the animal.

Read More
Little Things Matter A Lot

Little Things Matter A Lot

One group of bacteria—the cyanobacteria—has completely transformed Earth’s environment through their long history. Three billion years ago, ancestors of cyanobacteria infused Earth’s ancient atmosphere with the byproduct of their photosynthesis—oxygen—changing the chemistry of the planet and setting the stage for entirely new oxygen-breathing life forms to evolve. Without the cyanobacteria, the life we see around us, including humans, simply wouldn’t be here.

Read More
The Deeps of Time in the Depths of the Ocean

The Deeps of Time in the Depths of the Ocean

Wherever we have looked in the oceans, we have found previously unknown microorganisms. We have often found them living in conditions once thought to be incompatible with life, using unfamiliar physiologic and metabolic adaptations. These discoveries have radically changed our thinking about where and how life may have originated and evolved on this planet, and where it might exist on others.

Read More
Tracking Fish to Save Them

Tracking Fish to Save Them

For decades, the Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) was one of the most sought-after fish species in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, from the Bahamas to Central America. These large, delicious fish live among coral reefs and have a breeding behavior that makes them especially vulnerable. They come together in aggregations of thousands to spawn at specific times and places, making them easy to catch—and to overfish.

Read More
Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found that two chemicals accumulating in the tissues of marine animals and suspected to be manmade pollutants actually came from natural sources.

Read More
The Coastal Ocean Institute

The Coastal Ocean Institute

We are all stewards of the coastal ocean. For some of us, the connection to the sea is clear and immediate; for others, it is subtle and distant. But whether you live on waterfront property or in a land-locked hamlet, your everyday activities affect this most sensitive and most threatened portion of the world?s oceans.

Read More
Do Marine Protected Areas Really Work?

Do Marine Protected Areas Really Work?

Today, Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs—areas of the ocean temporarily or permanently closed to harvesting—are being proposed to restrict not only fishing, but also mineral and hydrocarbon extraction, and other activities. Some advocates of MPAs suggest that at least 20 percent of the coastal and open ocean should be set aside and permanently zoned to protect ecosystems, sustain fish stocks, and reduce conflicts between users of the oceans.

Read More
Robo-Sailors

Robo-Sailors

In the mid-1990s, the Navy began funding research for small, robotic vehicles to perform unmanned reconnaissance in coastal waters. At WHOI, that helped spark the development of REMUS (Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS), designed and built by Chris von Alt, Ben Allen, and colleagues in the Oceanographic Systems Laboratory.

Read More
Can We Catch More Fish and Still Preserve the Stock?

Can We Catch More Fish and Still Preserve the Stock?

People have always fished. But the history of fishing is also the history of overfishing. For hundreds of years, the establishment and enforcement of fishery management policies have generated controversy, as competing authorities have searched for a way to balance competing goals—to catch as many fish as possible while conserving the resource. To resolve this dilemma, we have applied mathematics—and we are finding that the ancient solution may still prove effective in modern times.

Read More
A Fatal Attraction for Harmful Algae

A Fatal Attraction for Harmful Algae

Estuaries are the borderlands between salt and freshwater environments, and they are incredibly diverse

both biologically and physically. The diversity and the high

energy of the ecosystem make estuaries remarkably resilient.

With a better understanding of these systems, we can reverse

their decline and restore the ecological richness of these

valuable, albeit muddy, environments.

Read More
Rites of Passage for Juvenile Marine Life

Rites of Passage for Juvenile Marine Life

The childhood of a barnacle is fraught with challenges. It hatches in shallow waters close to shore as a tiny larva, no bigger than a speck of dust. Currents sweep it to deeper, choppy waters, sometimes miles offshore. In these proving grounds each larva floats, at the mercy of hungry fish and swift ocean currents. Billions of larvae?including fish, lobsters, clams, starfish, and sea cucumbers?begin life this way. Only a few survive and return to shore, where they settle on rocks or sandy seafloor to become adults. Why larvae make their offshore journey remains unclear, but we are beginning to uncover the intricacies of their return trip?learning how waves, currents, eddies, tides, and other phenomena bring larvae back toward the shore.

Read More
The New Wave of Coastal Ocean Observing

The New Wave of Coastal Ocean Observing

Estuaries are the borderlands between salt and freshwater environments, and they are incredibly diverse both biologically and physically. The diversity and the high energy of the ecosystem make estuaries remarkably resilient. With a better understanding of these systems, we can reverse

their decline and restore the ecological richness of these valuable, albeit muddy, environments.

Read More
Red Tides and Dead Zones

Red Tides and Dead Zones

The most widespread, chronic environmental problem in the coastal ocean is caused by an excess of chemical nutrients. Over the past century, a wide range of human activities—the intensification of agriculture, waste disposal, coastal development, and fossil fuel use—has substantially increased the discharge of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients into the environment. These nutrients are moved around by streams, rivers, groundwater, sewage outfalls, and the atmosphere and eventually end up in the ocean.

Read More
Water Flowing Underground

Water Flowing Underground

Groundwater discharge appears to be an important factor for determining the chemistry of the coastal ocean. As fresh groundwater flows toward the sea, it rises up over denser, salty water. The fresh and salty water mix along the interface, and the resulting fluid discharges at the shoreline. This interface between underground water masses has recently been described as a “subterranean estuary,” a mixing zone between fresh and salty water analogous to the region where a river meets the ocean.

Read More
Rising Sea Levels and Moving Shorelines

Rising Sea Levels and Moving Shorelines

Changes to the shoreline are inevitable and inescapable. Shoals and sandbars become islands and then sandbars again. Ice sheets grow and shrink, causing sea level to fall and rise as water moves from the oceans to the ice caps and back to the oceans. Barrier islands rise from the seafloor, are chopped by inlets, and retreat toward the mainland. Even the calmest of seas are constantly moving water, sand, and mud toward and away from the shore, and establishing new shorelines.

Read More
The Growing Problem of Harmful Algae

The Growing Problem of Harmful Algae

Harmful algal blooms are natural and they are not new. But ocean scientists are growing concerned that they are now all too common. The unprecedented growth of human activities in coastal watersheds—including agriculture, aquaculture, industry, housing, and recreation—has drastically increased the amount of fertilizer flowing into coastal waters and fueled unwanted algal growth.

Read More