Ocean Life
Caught in the Middle of the Marine Mammal Protection Act
In the past few years, several research projects have been halted because of conflicting interpretations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Energy, shipping, and naval interests claim the MMPA hampers their ability to work in the sea. Environmentalists and animal rights want the act strictly enforced. In between are scientists.
What Brings the Food that Brings the Whales?
Watching the gray, pitching ocean from the beach in Barrow, Alaska, Carin Ashjian, a biologist…
Graduate Student Discovers an Unusual New Species
Sheri Simmons gets into the rugged wilderness as often as she can, backpacking in Newfoundland,…
To Find Whales, Follow Their Food
The average adult right whale consumes about a ton of food a day, eating billions…
Diving into the Right Whale Gene Pool
Like forensic detectives, a multi-institutional team of scientists has followed a thread of DNA from…
Doing the Right Thing for the Right Whale
The situation is urgent: Seventy years after whaling was banned, the North Atlantic right whale…
Scientists Find a New Twist in How Squids Swim
Erik Anderson was vexed by some scientific papers he read during his first year of…
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
Scientists follow clues to the mysterious disease that is killing off clams on Cape Cod…
Finding Nemo…and Other Endangered Fish
A novel method to track fish larvae?using tetracycline to tag otoliths, or ear bones?sheds lights…
Cold Comfort for Barnacles
A WHOI research team reports that barnacle larvae can remain frozen up to seven weeks…
Big Whale, Big Sharks, Big Stink
A shipping tanker first spotted the whale on Sept. 9 about 24 miles southeast of…
Building an Automated Underwater Microscope
A conversation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Heidi Sosik about her work studying phytoplankton…
In and Out of Harm’s Way
Just a few more miles or a few more minutes. That’s what scientists and some…
A Whale Expert is Called in to Decipher Odd Elephant Calls
An article about work done by WHOI postdoctoral investigator Stephanie Watwood to analyze atypical sounds…
Settling on the Seafloor
People may search for a long time, but they know it when they see it—the…
On the Seafloor, a Parade of Roses
Third generation of scientists finds third generation of hydrothermal vent sites.
Checking the Forecast for ‘Marine Snow’
The "rain" of tiny particles from sunlit surface waters to the deep ocean could play…
Transparent Salps May Play Conspicuous Ecological Role
WHOI biologist Larry Madin led an expedition to waters off Antartica to learn about little-known…
Ocean Life Institute
The oceans cover 70 percent of the planet?s surface and constitute 99 percent of its…
Down to the Sea on (Gene) Chips
The genomics revolution has reached the oceans. New genomic techniques are being used to find…
Voyages into the Antarctic Winter
At the extreme ends of the Earth, Antarctica is a vast, rocky continent, mostly ice-covered…
How to See What Whales Hear
On summer nights, if you sit quietly at the edge of a field or watch…
Big Trouble from Little Squirts
Welcome to the online version of Oceanus, the magazine that explores Earth's last frontier. Oceanus…