News Releases
Prey-tell: Why Right Whales Linger in the Gulf of Maine
WHOIÃÂs Mark Baumgartner finds that the location, the length of stay, and perhaps the very abundance of the whales may be dependent on an interesting vertical migration pattern by the copepods on which the whales feed. It seems to be a case, he said, of ÃÂhow the behavior of the prey influences the behavior of the whales.ÃÂ
Read MoreResearchers Report Potential for a Moderate New England ‘Red Tide’ in 2011
Scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a moderate regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause ‘red tides’ in the spring…
Read MoreWHOI-led Team Locates Air France Wreckage
A search team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has located the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 some 3,900 meters, or nearly 2.5 miles, below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil’s northeastern coast.
Read MoreStudy Sheds Light on How Heat is Transported to Greenland Glaciers
Warmer air is only part of the story when it comes to Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet. New research by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) highlights the role…
Read MoreWHOI Conducts Latest Search for Air France Flight 447
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is again teaming with French authorities to renew the international search for the deep-sea wreck site of Air France Flight 447 and to retrieve the flight recorders from the Airbus A 330.
Read MoreWHOI-Led Report Links Sonar to Whale Strandings
An international team of researchers reports in a paper led by WHOI’s Peter Tyack the first data on how beaked whales respond to naval sonar exercises. Their results suggest that sonar indeed affects the behavior and movement of whales.
Read MoreOn the Sizeable Wings of Albatrosses
An oceanographer may be offering the best explanation yet of one of the great mysteries of flighthow albatrosses fly such vast distances, even around the world, almost without flapping their wings. The answer, says Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), lies in a concept called dynamic soaring, in which the large bird utilizes the power of above-ocean wind shear while tacking like an airborne sailboat.
Read MoreWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution Announces Selection of Teledyne Webb Research to Provide Coastal Gliders for Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (OL) announced Teledyne Webb Research, of East Falmouth, Mass., will provide coastal gliders supporting the Pioneer and Endurance…
Read MoreNauset Marsh Estuary Red Tide Study to Begin
A three-year study into the cause of local area red tides is set to begin March 21. A team of researchers from the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and…
Read MoreWHOI Experts Stress Lessons From Japan Earthquake
While JapanÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs 9.0-magnitude earthquake and accompanying tsunami represent a devastating natural disaster for the countryÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs residents, scientists should also seize upon the massive temblor as an important learning tool for future quakes around the world, including the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States, according to experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Read MoreWHOI Ranks No. 2 in Top Ten Places for Postdocs to Work
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) ranked second of the ten best places to work for postdoctoral researchers, according to a 2011 survey by the magazine The Scientist. The rankings included 76 US institutions.
Read MoreWHOI Helps Form International Consortium on Iron and the Oceans
With a mission of exploring the potential impact of iron fertilization of the oceans to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution…
Read MoreFirst Harmful Algal Bloom Species Genome Sequenced
The microscopic phytoplankton Aureococcus anophagefferens, which causes devastating brown tides, may be tiny but it’s a fierce competitor. In the first genome sequencing of a harmful algal bloom species, researchers…
Read MorePollution Triggers Genetic Resistance Mechanism in a Coastal Fish
For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New YorkA?s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fishA?the Atlantic tomcodA?has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.
Read MoreScientists Find Part of New Zealand’s Submerged “Pink Terraces”
They were called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Until the late 19th century, New Zealand’s Pink and White Terraces along Lake Rotomahana on the North Island, attracted tourists from…
Read MoreHal Caswell Wins Humboldt Research Award
Hal Caswell, a senior scientist in the Biology Department at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), was awarded a 2010 Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn,…
Read MoreFirst Study of Dispersants in Gulf Spill Suggests a Prolonged Deepwater Fate
To combat last year?s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, nearly 800,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were injected directly into the oil and gas flow coming out of the wellhead nearly one mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, as scientists begin to assess how well the strategy worked at breaking up oil droplets, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) chemist Elizabeth B. Kujawinski and her colleagues report that a major component of the dispersant itself was contained within an oil-gas-laden plume in the deep ocean and had still not degraded some three months after it was applied.
Read MoreWHOI’s Avery, Doney Selected AAAS Fellows
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) President and Director Susan K. Avery and Senior Scientist Scott C. Doney have been elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Read More“Hot-Bunking” Bacterium Recycles Iron to Boost Ocean Metabolism
In the vast ocean where an essential nutrient?iron?is scarce, a marine bacterium that launches the ocean food web survives by using a remarkable biochemical trick: It recycles iron.
Read MoreWHOI Data Library to House and Preserve Ocean Ecosystem Archives
Alexander Graham Bell once said that when one door closes another one opens, and the open doors of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Data Library and Archives are making it possible to help preserve the voluminous archives of GLOBEC, a study of Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics, which closed at the end of 2009.
Read MoreAlvin Upgrade Project Featured at American Geophysical Union Meeting
The multi-million dollar upgrades to the storied deep-diving research submersible Alvin will be the focus of a press conference on December 15 at the 2010 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, CA. Upgrade Project Principal Investigator Susan Humphris, a WHOI geologist, will provide details of the improvements to the sub’s capabilities and its value to the U.S. scientific community.
Read MoreNational Deep Submergence Facility Vehicles Assist in Response to Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The U.S. National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) has had a growing and important role in the ocean science community’s response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf…
Read MoreTiny Protozoa May Hold Key to World Water Safety
Right now, it looks a little like one of those plastic containers you might fill with gasoline when your car has run dry. But Scott Gallager is not headed to the nearest Mobil station. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist has other, grander plans for his revolutionary Swimming Behavioral Spectrophotometer (SBS), which employs one-celled protozoa to detect toxins in water sources.
Read MoreWHOI Website Will Take Viewers Deep into the Gulf
It may take years before scientists determine the full impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But, utilizing the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry, researchers are about to investigate?and view first-hand?the possible effects of the spill at the bottom of the Gulf. And, from Dec. 6-14, the mission will be relayed to the public as it happens on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution?s (WHOI) Dive and Discover website (http://divediscover.whoi.edu).
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