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News Releases


Stranded Dolphins Exhibit Bubbles, and Ability to Recover

In a study published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team that includes researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has confirmed that bubbles do form in live, stranded dolphins. But in many cases, those animals are able to “manage” those bubbles and can resume relatively normal lives of swimming and diving in the ocean.

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Researchers from WHOI and MBL Receive $1.2 Million Grant for Collaborative Salt-Marsh Study

Researchers from WHOI and MBL Receive $1.2 Million Grant for Collaborative Salt-Marsh Study

Scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) were recently awarded a $1.2 million collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for studies on the role of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria in salt marsh nitrogen and carbon cycling. The fieldwork will be conducted at the Plum Island Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site on the North Shore of Boston.

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WHOI Sponsors Ocean Observatories Event in New Bedford

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is the backdrop for a free community event “Pioneering New Ocean Science Frontiers” on Saturday, September 17, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., co-sponsored by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. The Whaling Museum is located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, Mass.

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WHOI-Led Study Sharpens Picture of How Much Oil and Gas Flowed in Deepwater Horizon Spill

In a detailed assessment of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers led by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have determined that the blown-out Macondo well spewed oil at a rate of about 57,000 barrels a day, totaling nearly 5 million barrels of oil released from the well between April 20 and July 15, 2010, when the leak was capped. In addition, the well released some 100 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas.

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WHOI Hosts Tours of the Research Vessel Knorr

On Sunday, August 7, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will host a free community event featuring a rare opportunity to tour the oceanographic research vessel Knorr. The ship is best known as the one used in the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic and of the first hydrothermal vents. Visitors to the event will also be able to attend talks by one of Knorr’s former captains and scientists who have used it to study the world’s ocean..

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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Advanced Imaging Lab Assists in Location of Thunder Bay Shipwrecks

When a group of five high school students embarked on Project Shiphunt, an expedition in search of lost shipwrecks, in May in Lake Huron, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab (AIVL) was there, surveying and capturing 3D footage of the finds. The work was conducted as part of Project Shiphunt, an initiative developed by Sony and Intel Corp and led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

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Identical Virus, Host Populations Can Prevail for Centuries, WHOI Researcher Reports

A Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist, analyzing ancient plankton DNA signatures in sediments of the Black Sea, has found for the first time that the same genetic populations of a virus and its algal host can persist and coexist for centuries. The findings have implications for the ecological significance of viruses in shaping algae ecosystems in the ocean, and perhaps fresh water as well.

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WHOI Scientists Analyze, Explain the Chemical Makeup of Gulf Plume

Taking another major step in sleuthing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has determined what chemicals were contained in a deep, hydrocarbon-containing plume at least 22 miles long that WHOI scientists mapped and sampled last summer in the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

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WHOI Study Sheds Light on Tunicate Evolution

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers have filled an important gap in the study of tunicate evolution by genetically sequencing 40 new specimens of thaliaceans, a gelatinous type of tunicate. Their study was featured on the cover of the June issue of the Journal of Plankton Research.

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