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Lessons from a lifetime of exploration

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

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

Climate & Weather How an MIT-WHOI student used Google Earth to uncover a…

WHOI reef solutions field team Ocean Life

Hidden giant

An expedition 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

Climate & Weather

The ocean weather nexus, explained

The vital role of ocean observations in extreme weather forecasting

blue straws Ocean & Human Lives

Breaking down plastics together

Through a surprising and successful partnership, WHOI and Eastman scientists are reinventing what we throw away

Carl Hartsfield Ocean Tech

Three questions with Carl Hartsfield

Captain Hartsfield, USN retired, discusses the role ocean science plays in our national defense

WHOI marine ecologist Camrin Braun

Hooked on change

Charting a new course for fisheries in a warming world

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Our Ocean. Our Planet. Our Future.

underwater coral
Ocean Life

Reef RX

Using human health protocols to find and aid ailing reefs

Whale detection camera
Ocean Tech

Whale aware!

New tech and industry partnerships help ships steer clear

from Tuna

Music for the Ocean

Immersive classical performances to spark global concern for the ocean

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Breakthroughs below the surface

How ocean science is reshaping our world

ocean and swimmer How the Ocean Works

The Ocean (Re)Imagined

How expanding our view of the ocean can unlock new possibilities for life

Ocean Life

Body snatchers are on the hunt for mud crabs

WHOI biologist Carolyn Tepolt discusses the biological arms race between a parasite and its host

Ocean Tech

A polar stethoscope

Could the sounds of Antarctica’s ice be a new bellwether for ecosystem health in the South Pole?

blue mud lab Ocean & Human Lives

Secrets from the blue mud

Microbes survive—and thrive—in caustic fluids venting from the seafloor

gwyneth packard

Deep-sea musings

Roboticist Gwyneth Packard on the need for ocean exploration today

Green crab Ocean Life

Top 5 ocean hitchhikers

As humans traveled and traded across the globe, they became unwitting taxis to marine colonizers

Ostrander Climate & Weather

Fires, floods, and forgotten places

Finding home with author Madeline Ostrander

ship Ocean Tech

Following the Polar Code


Crew of R/V Neil Armstrong renew their commitment to Arctic science with advanced polar training


truck Sustainable Ocean

Harnessing the ocean to power transportation

WHOI scientists are part of a team working to turn seaweed into biofuel

Oceanus-Covers

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morning catch
Sustainable Ocean

Casting a wider net

The future of a time-honored fishing tradition in Vietnam, through the eyes of award-winning photographer Thien Nguyen Noc

gold mines

Gold mining’s toxic legacy

Mercury pollution in Colombia’s Amazon threatens the Indigenous way of life

WHOI senior scientist Dennis McGillicuddy holds a jarred Sargassum sample

How do you solve a problem like Sargassum?

An important yet prolific seaweed with massive blooms worries scientists

shells

Ancient seas, future insights

WHOI scientists study the paleo record to understand how the ocean will look in a warmer climate

the landfall Climate & Weather

Rising tides, resilient spirits

As surrounding seas surge, a coastal village prepares for what lies ahead

WHOI biologist Laela Sayigh attaches a suction-cup hydrophone to a dolphin in Sarasota Bay Ocean & Human Lives

Whistle! Chirp! Squeak! What does it mean?

Avatar Alliance Foundation donation helps WHOI researcher decode dolphin communication

We can’t do this alone

For marine chemist Adam Subhas, ocean-climate solutions don’t happen without community

Dickie Edwards in Jaws Ocean Life

Behind the blast

The marine superintendent who blew up Jaws

ID card
Ocean Tech

How WHOI helped win World War II

Key innovations that cemented ocean science’s role in national defense

Ghana
Ocean & Human Lives

Life at the margins

Scientists investigate the connections between Ghana’s land, air, sea and blue economy through the Ocean Margins Initiative

Oceanographic Telecommuting Ocean & Human Lives

Oceanographic Telecommuting

‘Virtual’ chief scientist directs a research cruise without leaving land.

Checking the Forecast for 'Marine Snow' Ocean Life

Checking the Forecast for ‘Marine Snow’

The “rain” of tiny particles from sunlit surface waters to the deep ocean could play a key role in understanding global warming.

Transparent Salps May Play Conspicuous Ecological Role Ocean Life

Transparent Salps May Play Conspicuous Ecological Role

WHOI biologist Larry Madin led an expedition to waters off Antartica to learn about little-known gelatinous animals.

The Great Flood of New York Climate & Weather

The Great Flood of New York

An ice dam forming a large Ice Age lake collapsed 13,350 years ago, sending a flood down the Hudson River Valley and causing dramatic climate changes.

Fathoming the Ocean Without Ever Going to Sea How the Ocean Works

Fathoming the Ocean Without Ever Going to Sea

“The general circulation of the ocean is a massive and majestic phenomenon,” says WHOI physical oceanographer Joe Pedlosky. In 2005, Pedlosky was awarded the prestigious Sverdrup Gold Medal of the American Meteorological Society for his theories explaining the inner workings of the ocean and the atmosphere. Not bad for an oceanographer who has never gone on a research cruise.

Seeing Red in New England Waters Ocean & Human Lives

Seeing Red in New England Waters

Coastal resource managers shut down shellfish beds in three New England states in mid-May—including rare closures of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay—because of an intense bloom of the toxic algae Alexandrium fundyense. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution saw the ‘red tide’ coming before its toxic effects reached the shore.

Sensors to Make Sense of the Sea Ocean Tech

Sensors to Make Sense of the Sea

It is difficult and expensive to go to sea, hard to reach remote oceans and depths, and impossible to stay long. Like scientists in other fields, oceanographers use sensors to project their senses into remote or harsh environments for extended time periods. But the oceans present some unique obstacles: Instruments are limited by available power, beaten by waves, corroded by salt water, and fouled by prolific marine organisms that accumulate rapidly on their surfaces.

Risks and Remedies from the Sea Ocean & Human Lives

Risks and Remedies from the Sea

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have embarked on a novel collaboration to investigate harmful algal blooms, ocean-borne pathogens, and potential pharmaceuticals from marine sources.

Ocean Life Institute Ocean Life

Ocean Life Institute

The oceans cover 70 percent of the planet?s surface and constitute 99 percent of its living space, and every drop of ocean water holds living things. Without its oceans, Earth would be a rock in space, and life may never have appeared on our planet.

Down to the Sea on (Gene) Chips Ocean Life

Down to the Sea on (Gene) Chips

The genomics revolution has reached the oceans. New genomic techniques are being used to find previously unknown life forms in the oceans; to learn how species, and genes themselves, evolved over Earth?s long history; to understand the genetic tools that allow species to adapt to diverse and often harsh environments; and to investigate species? responses to pollutants.

Rambling Atop an Active Volcano to Detect Telltale Rumbling Within It How the Ocean Works

Rambling Atop an Active Volcano to Detect Telltale Rumbling Within It

With machete in hand and 60 pounds of satellite receiver and tripod on his back, Jeff Standish looked up into the lush tropical brush that covered the volcano, up a steep escarpment, and up again to the summit 3,000 feet above sea level. Then he turned to Rhea Workman, a graduate student in the WHOI/MIT Joint Program, and said, “We’re going up where?”

Rapid Response Ocean & Human Lives

Rapid Response

The earthquakes were coming fast and frequent, as many as 50 to 70 an hour. On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 28, undersea hydrophones began detecting the most intense swarm of earthquakes to occur in the last three years along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, about 200 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast.

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