News Releases

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have joined together to form the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health (COHH). The new Center, with administrative offices at WHOI, will serve as a focal point for research on issues at the intersection of oceanographic, biological and environmental health sciences, such as harmful algal blooms and organisms in coastal waters and estuaries that cause human illness and death.

The release of the preliminary report of the US Commission on Ocean Policy today offers an opportunity to set a new national course in the conservation, management and wise use of the oceans, say scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Dumping iron in the ocean is known to spur the growth of plankton that remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere, but a new study indicates iron fertilization may not be the quick fix to climate problems that some had hoped.

Alvin, the nation’s only deep-diving research submersible capable of carrying humans to great depths to explore the sea floor, reached another milestone in its long career April 12 when the sub made its 4,000th dive.

Senior Scientist Robert Detrick has been appointed Vice President for Marine Facilities and Operations at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), effective July 1, 2004.

Philanthropist and Texas Instruments co-founder Cecil H. Green took special pleasure in giving away more than $200 million during his 102 years, a portion of it to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). His generosity to WHOI continues after his death with the announcement of a $500,000 gift from The Cecil and Ida Green Foundation.

ALVIN, the nation’s only deep-diving human occupied submersible, will mark a number of milestones in 2004. In April, the sub, currently at work in the eastern Pacific, is expected to…

The longest piston coring system in United States will be built at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, allowing scientists to sample ancient sediment on the sea floor that is potentially rich with information about ocean and climate history.

Scientists studying the formation of the sea floor thousands of feet below the surface have a new theory for why there are so many holes and collapsed pits on the ocean bottom. In a recent article in the journal Nature, the researchers say the holes and pits of various sizes are probably formed by lava erupting onto the seafloor so quickly it traps water beneath it, forming bubbles of steam that eventually collapse as the water cools. The hardened crust then breaks, forming pock marks and glassy black plates of ocean crust with stalactites on their underside.

A number of remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles developed and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to explore the world’s oceans are featured in the new television program “Robots of the Deep,” scheduled for national premier on the Science Channel Friday, November 7, at 9 p.m. EST.

Two veteran journalists today received the first Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Science Journalism Award for their contributions to the public understanding of oceanography. The award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize and memento, was presented in two categories, print and broadcast journalism, at ceremonies at the Asia Society and Museum in New York City.

Deep convection, or mixing, of ocean waters in the North Atlantic, widely thought to occur in only the Labrador Sea and the Mediterranean, may occur in a third location first proposed nearly 100 years ago by the explorer and oceanographer Fridtjof Nansen. The findings, reported this week in the journal Nature, may alter thinking about the ocean’s overturning circulation that affects earth’s climate.