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Exploring Atlantic seeps

AUV Sentry leads the way in mapping and monitoring methane bubbling from the seafloor

lobster trap Ocean life

Is underwater noise from construction affecting the American Lobster?

WHOI’s Sensory Ecology Lab investigates whether an industrialized soundscape impacts the health of a New England icon

Quest was purchased by Shackleton Ocean tech

A once-in-a-generation dive into polar history

40 years after helping reveal the Titanic, Alvin returns to the North Atlantic to document two other legendary shipwrecks

Eyes on the deep submarine background Ocean tech

Eyes on the deep

How ocean imaging is accelerating the pace of deep-sea discovery

Hadal Snailfish Ocean life

Squishy survivor

How the snailfish survives the ocean’s most extreme pressures

Mar de Plata canyon Ocean tech

Answers from the abyss

How new discoveries in the deep could change life at the surface

Bathyopsurus-isopod2 Ocean life

A hadal zone mystery solved

An upside-down swimming isopod shows how tightly we are connected to the deep ocean

illustration of weddell seal mother in the water Ocean life

A mother seal dives

Follow a Weddell seal as her body adapts to foraging in deep, frigid waters

Answers from the Abyss
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Our Ocean. Our Planet. Our Future.

Titanic sinking with mummy's tomb
Ocean & human lives

A mummy, a myth, and the Titanic

A 1986 handwritten letter to Bob Ballard revisits one of the Titanic disaster’s strangest myths

wave in the ocean
Ocean tech

Turning motion into power: Wave energy converters for sustainable ocean monitoring

In the rapidly evolving world of ocean technology, wave energy is emerging as a promising pathway toward…

Ocean life

The world’s most abundant fish once thrived in an extreme climate

Fossilized teeth show bristlemouth fish evolved during one of the ocean’s hottest periods

Oleander through two rocks Ocean life

How a cargo ship is tracking hidden ocean life in the Atlantic

With funding support from CMA CGM, ocean observations aboard Bermuda Container Line’s M/V Oleander now include a window into microscopic life

Alvin and the swordfish Ocean tech

Alvin vs. the swordfish

During a 1967 dive off Florida, a startled swordfish rammed the famed submersible Alvin—lodging its sword in the hull and forcing the crew to abort the mission

The entrance to Room 71. (Photo by Daniel Hentz, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Ocean tech

Inside Room 71: WHOI history in seven artifacts

Some of the technology, art, and gifts that tell the story of the institution’s early days

Allan Hills, Antarctica How the ocean works

A scientist’s quest to find Earth’s oldest ice

After recovering ice that dates back 6 million years, Sarah Shackleton hopes to dig deeper into Earth’s history from a remote Antarctic moraine

spilhause projection How the ocean works

It’s the most ocean-friendly map ever created. Why haven’t more people seen it?

Discover the Spilhaus Projection, a radical world map that reveals Earth as one connected ocean—and reshapes how we see the planet.

Climate & weather

Luxury cruises with a side of climate science

A new partnership gives scientists rare access to remote Antarctic glaciers—and a new way to engage the public

Larry Madin and Kelly Sutherland Ocean life

Tiny drifters, massive impact

How salps shuttle carbon to the deep

Ocean & human lives

The unseen toll of war on science

As the changing climate accelerates the spread of toxic algal blooms in the Arctic, the Russia–Ukraine war is cutting off critical international collaboration needed to understand and protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities.

Climate & weather

The human cost of Brazil’s floods

New research maps social vulnerability after the 2024 deluge

medicine bottles Ocean & human lives

Healing on the High Seas

A look back at shipboard medicine on R/V Atlantis

Oceanus-Covers

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Sunset over Cape Cod Bay (photo by Kara Dodge, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Tracking the hidden currents of Cape Cod Bay

Scientists are using drifters and ocean models to better understand how water, nutrients, and pollutants move through the bay

Jane Ruckert, a technical diver
Ocean life

From ruin to reef

What Pacific wrecks are teaching us about coral resilience—and pollution

Ocean life

One researcher, 15,000 whistles: Inside the effort to decode dolphin communication

Scientists at WHOI analyze thousands of dolphin whistles to explore whether some sounds may function like words

Tatiana Schlossberg Climate & weather

Remembering Tatiana Schlossberg, a voice for the ocean

Environmental journalist and author Tatiana Schlossberg passed away after battling leukemia on December 30, 2025….

Juli Berwald Ocean life

As the ocean warms, a science writer looks for coral solutions

Scientist-turned-author Juli Berwald highlights conservation projects to restore coral reefs

A satellite image of Tahaa in French Polynesia Climate & weather

How an MIT-WHOI student used Google Earth to uncover a river–coral reef connection

Google Earth helps researcher decode how rivers sculpt massive breaks in coral reefs

Ocean tech

A new underwater robot could help preserve New England’s historic shipwrecks

WHOI’s ResQ ROV to clean up debris in prominent marine heritage sites

WHOI reef solutions field team Ocean life

Inside the Solomon Islands’ hidden mega coral — a 300-year-old ocean giant

WHOI’s Reef Solutions team journeys to the world’s largest coral colony

Heidi Sosik
Ocean life

The little big picture

WHOI senior biologist Heidi Sosik on the critical need for long-term ocean datasets

Brian Skerry
Ocean life

Lessons from a lifetime of exploration

Award-winning ocean photographer Brian Skerry shares insights from a career spent around ocean life and science

Tracking an Ocean of Ice Atop Greenland How the ocean works

Tracking an Ocean of Ice Atop Greenland

Sarah Das calls herself a “frozen oceanographer.” Most people look at Greenland and see a…

10,000 Earth & Ocean Scientists. Five days. Ocean & human lives

10,000 Earth & Ocean Scientists. Five days.

Over the next week, I will be posting daily reports about what’s happening at the American Geophysical Union fall…

Three Ships and a Sub Ocean tech

Three Ships and a Sub

short stories of ships and vehicles for fall 2005

Action, Camera ... Lights Ocean tech

Action, Camera … Lights

Exploring the sunless seafloor can be like using a flashlight to find something in a dark basement. Now Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists and engineers have built a portable light system to illuminate the depths, essentially transforming areas of the deep sea into a photography studio.

Scientists Find a New Twist in How Squids Swim Ocean life

Scientists Find a New Twist in How Squids Swim

Erik Anderson was vexed by some scientific papers he read during his first year of graduate studies. Engineers had asserted that squids likely propelled themselves through water by creating vortex rings. Anderson begged to differ. Together with Mark Grosenbaugh, he set up a series of experiments to check the theories against some observational evidence.

'Seasonal Pump' Moves Water Between Ocean and Aquifers How the ocean works

‘Seasonal Pump’ Moves Water Between Ocean and Aquifers

Hydrologists Ann Mulligan of WHOI and Holly Michael and Charles Harvey of MIT have cleared up a mystery of why so much salty water emerges from aquifers into the coastal ocean. The researchers discovered a counterintuitive seasonal pumping system at work.

Should Eastern Oysters Be Put on the Endangered List? Sustainable ocean

Should Eastern Oysters Be Put on the Endangered List?

Eastern oysters in Chesapeake Bay were not as happy as clams, and neither was Wolf-Dieter…

Scientific (and Surfing) Safari Ocean life

Scientific (and Surfing) Safari

Eric Montie has a great tan, photos of huge waves taped above his computer, and a…

A Mysterious Disease Is Infecting Northeast Clam Beds Sustainable ocean

A Mysterious Disease Is Infecting Northeast Clam Beds

Scientists follow clues to the mysterious disease that is killing off clams on Cape Cod and along the Eastern Seaboard.

Finding Nemo...and Other Endangered Fish Ocean life

Finding Nemo…and Other Endangered Fish

A novel method to track fish larvae?using tetracycline to tag otoliths, or ear bones?sheds lights on which marine areas to protect

Cold Comfort for Barnacles Ocean life

Cold Comfort for Barnacles

A WHOI research team reports that barnacle larvae can remain frozen up to seven weeks and still revive, settle, and grow to reproduce. The discovery offers a new understanding of barnacle larvae, which are abundant sources of food for larger animals in the coastal ocean. It also provides possible clues to how other intertidal marine invertebrates may settle and survive harsh winters.

Earth Can't Soak Up Excess Fossil Fuel Emissions Indefinitely How the ocean works

Earth Can’t Soak Up Excess Fossil Fuel Emissions Indefinitely

Earth?s land and oceans have been soaking up the excess carbon Earth?s land and oceans have been soaking up the excess carbon dioxide that humans have pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. But there are limits.
A new-generation computer model indicates that the capacity of land and ocean to absorb and store the heat-trapping greenhouse gas will reach its peak by the end of the century?removing a brake that has been tempering the effects of global warming.

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