WHOI in the News
The Lawless High Seas May Soon Gain Protections Under a Groundbreaking Ocean Treaty
The high seas are legally defined as waters that don’t fall under any single nation’s exclusive economic zone. That means they technically belong to everyone. It also means they’re hard to protect against activities like fishing or mining because they’re beyond any single nation’s jurisdiction, explained Porter Hoagland, a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In the Santa Barbara Channel, an underwater sound system tries to keep whales and ships apart
It has its limits, said Mark Baumgartner, a marine ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who led the design of the system. The technology cannot pinpoint where whales are and can only tell scientists that whales have been heard in its coverage area.
Scientists Team With Fishermen on Tracking Technology
Scientists from the Center for Coastal Studies and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are working with local commercial fishermen to install video monitoring equipment on gillnets.
Everything you need to know about toxic algae blooms
The type of toxin released depends on the species causing the bloom. Some of the most common ones affect the liver or the nervous system, said Donald Anderson, director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms and a senior scientist at WHOI.
Ocean Water Warming on East Coast
Recent trends of ocean temperatures along the U.S. East Coast have scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution concerned.
Saving endangered species: 5 essential reads
Michael Moore and Hannah Myers of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say it’s critical to develop alternative gear for lobster and crab fishermen that will eliminate ropes from the water column, where North Atlantic right whales—critically endangered species—are likely to swim into them.
The UN should protect the ocean’s twilight zone
Op-ed piece written by Mark Abbott, president and director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Chris Scholin, president and chief executive officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Monterey Bay: Following the DNA trail in the Pacific Ocean
As ocean acidification and climate change become the new reality, scientists wonder what will happen to the distribution and well-being of plants and animals. “Monitoring communities and ecosystems is going to be much easier done by DNA methods,” says Elizabeth Andruszkiewicz Allan, an environmental engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic. “You take one water sample and look for everything from microbes to whales.”
Second-Largest Living Sharks Caught On Video In Scottish Waters With SharkCam
“Every time we deploy REMUS SharkCam, we learn something new about the species we are studying,” said Amy Kukulya, WHOI research engineer and SharkCam principal investigator.
The Bizarre Weather Science Behind Greenland’s Record Melting
Sarah Das, a glaciologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who’s used ice core records to reconstruct Greenland’s recent melt history, described the 2012 melt event that enveloped nearly the entire ice sheet’s surface as “unprecedented” in the last few centuries, perhaps within the last several thousand years. This summer, she said, “would be up there with [2012] if not eclipsing it.”
Cracking the secret of green crabs
A feature story on Carolyn Tepolt, an assistant scientist in the WHOI Biology Department, and her research on the invasive green crab.
Infrared Cameras Could Help Ships Avoid Whales
An interview with Dan Zitterbart, a WHOI scientist who is testing a new thermal infrared imaging system to detection whales in busy waterways to prevent ship strikes.
Extreme ice melt in Greenland threatens coastal communities across the world, scientists warn
“We control how much greenhouse gases we put in atmosphere,” said Sarah Das, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “If we can slow down emissions, we can slow down sea level rise.”
This new nanotech could help clean up Earth’s microplastics
“Trying to understand the big picture on plastic and be able to weave a story together is going to take decades,” said Christopher Reddy, an environmental chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who was not involved in the study.
Why do pilot whales strand? We ask experts
To find out what causes these mass strandings of whales, WMNF interviewed Darlene Ketten, a senior research scientist at Boston University and at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Part of her research involves pathologies associated with whale strandings.
The Creepy Anglerfish Comes to Light. (Just Don’t Get Too Close.)
The first undersea video recordings of the creatures were made in 1999, and caught a surprise. Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Mass., had set up an undersea observatory in the North Pacific between California and Hawaii. It lay more than three miles down.
Researchers test ocean robots to make subsea cable surveys faster and cheaper
WHOI researchers deployed a REMUS 600 AUV to survey a subsea cable system in Buzzards Bay, Mass. The vehicle uses a propeller and fins for steering and diving, and relies on an internal navigation system to independently survey swaths of the ocean.
What are algae blooms and why are they bad?
“The problem has expanded dramatically,” says Don Anderson, director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms and a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Part of that expansion is due to advances in our understanding of toxic algal species, as well as our grasp on their ecological and economic cost; today, we know a diversity of harmful algae blooms occur in every state and across all seasons.
Summertime, And Toxic Algae Is Blooming: Here’s What You Need To Know
On the upside, it’s generally safe to swim in the ocean during red tide outbreaks “because you just can’t swallow enough of the algae to be dangerous,” says Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist and algae expert Don Anderson.
Film Director James Cameron on the Ocean Twilight Zone
Today, the U.S. is a powerhouse of ocean science research and marine engineering, led by organizations such as Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, among others. These are the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ames Research Center, and Goddard Space Flight Center of ocean exploration.
Tuna are Spawning in Marine Protected Areas
Researchers at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found evidence that tuna are spawning in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, covering an area of the central Pacific as large as Argentina.
40 Years Ago, Scientists at WHOI Predicted Climate Change
Forty years ago, a group of climate scientists sat down at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts for the first meeting of the “Ad Hoc Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate.” It led to the preparation of what became known as the Charney Report – the first comprehensive assessment of global climate change due to carbon dioxide.
WHOI Forum Attracts Worldwide Audience
Entrepreneurs from around the world gathered at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution last week to hear about and discuss marine robotics and autonomous underwater vehicles.
Today in History: WHOI Releases First Images of Titanic Discovery
In 1986, the world got its first look at the wreckage of the RMS Titanic resting on the ocean floor as videotape of the British luxury liner, which sank in 1912, was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.