WHOI in the News
Icebergs Drifting from Canada to Southern Florida
Using high resolution seafloor mapping, radiocarbon dating and a new iceberg model, the team analyzed about 700 iceberg scours (“plow marks” on the seafloor left behind by the bottom parts of icebergs dragging through marine sediment) from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to the Florida Keys.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Appoints New Chief Scientist for National Deep Submergence Facility
Dr. Anna Michel, an associate scientist in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, will be the first woman to serve in this high-profile role effective July 1, 2021.
Whales don’t spray water from their blowholes and other myths, debunked
We’re dispelling the most common misconceptions about these marine mammals—which is essential to keeping them safe and healthy.
Massive icebergs from Hudson Bay used to travel all the way to Florida, research suggests
“What our model suggests is that these icebergs get caught up in the currents created by glacial meltwater, and basically surf their way along the coast,” Condron said.
A Clever Robot Spies on Creatures in the Ocean’s ‘Twilight Zone’
Mesobot looks like a giant yellow-and-black AirPods case, only it’s rather more waterproof and weighs 550 pounds. It can operate with a fiber-optic tether attached to a research vessel at the surface, or it can swim around freely.
To Understand How Warming is Driving Harmful Algal Blooms, Look to Regional Patterns, Not Global Trends
Accounts of harmful algal growths have increased over time. So has monitoring, however, making it difficult to tell whether the rise in observations is simply because there is greater awareness of their occurence or if it truly represents a growing ocean threat.
Maine’s having a lobster boom. A bust may be coming.
Mystery of rubber bales that washed up on Palm Beach may be solved
rubber bales were found last summer by the nonprofit Friends of Palm Beach, which does daily beach cleanings, but also tries to locate the origin of some of the more insidious garbage such as medical waste and fish-aggregating devices.
Massive plankton blooms with very different ecosystem impacts
“The big mystery about plankton is what controls its distribution and abundance, and what conditions lead to big plankton blooms,” said Dennis McGillicuddy, Senior Scientist and Department Chair in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Biden administration moves to bring back endangered species protections undone under Trump
Commerce Secretary Raimondo visits Woods Hole
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited Massachusetts on Friday to tour the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center. The former Rhode Island governor, who left state government midterm to join the Biden administration in March, said her work with NOAA started in the Ocean State, as the University of Rhode Island has long collaborated with the federal agency.
On the Verge of Extinction, These Whales Are Also Shrinking
Most of the 360 or so North Atlantic right whales alive today bear scars from entanglements in fishing gear and collisions with speeding ships and, according to new study, they are much smaller than they should be. According to the authors of the new study, the best way to ensure the continued survival of the species is to pressure fishery managers in the United States and Canada to significantly reduce the amount of rope-based fishing gear and implement ship speed limits in the North Atlantic. “We all consume goods moved by the sea, and many eat lobsters,” said Michael Moore, a senior scientist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and co-author of the study. “If we all were to demand these management changes of our elected officials the situation would change drastically.”
Dangerous ‘Clinging Jellyfish’ Found Again in Barnegat Bay
They are found naturally throughout coastal regions of the northern hemisphere and have, in recent times, invaded the Mediterranean Sea and even the Pacific coast of the Russian far east.
Say hello to a vast underground ecosystem
The research team — led by Karen Lloyd, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, and Donato Giovannelli, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy — found that this microbial ecosystem sequesters a huge amount of carbon dioxide.
Sargassum now World’s Largest Harmful Algal Bloom Due to Nitrogen
NASA’s S-MODE Takes to the Air and Sea to Study Ocean Eddies
The S-MODE team hopes to learn more about small-scale movements of ocean water such as eddies. These whirlpools span about 6.2 miles or ten kilometers, slowly moving ocean water in a swirling pattern.
A Robot Like This Could Swim At Jupiter’s Water-Spewing Moon
A NASA mission called Europa Clipper may, if funding and development timelines hold, launch in 2024 to do an orbital survey with the latest instruments and potentially, to pick some landing spots for a future spacecraft. And unlike the rovers we are used to on Mars, this futuristic robot is going to have to swim.
Robotic Navigation Tech – That Helped NASA’s Perseverance Rover Land on Mars – Will Explore the Deep Ocean
Developed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, an evolution of the vision-based navigation that has been used on Mars will now undergo a trial run a little closer to home: off the U.S. East Coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
NASA Teams up with Deep-Sea Explorers to prep for Europa Missions and Beyond
Weighing about 550 pounds, the six-foot-long Orpheus drone cost nearly $2 million to build and was named for the Greek poet and prophet. The main goal for this next-generation mini-submarine that was engineered and constructed by WHOI in Massachusetts, will be to increase our knowledge of the deepest areas of our planet’s oceans known as the hadal zone.
Drone Footage Captures Rare Moment of Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ‘Hugging’
Researchers spotted the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales on a recent trip to Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts.
A Rusting Oil Tanker Off the Coast of Yemen Is an Environmental Catastrophe Waiting to Happen. Can Anyone Prevent It?
Viviane Menezes, a marine scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, has described the Red Sea as being like a “big lagoon” with “everything connected.” An oil spill at any time of year would be disastrous, she says, but seasonally variable weather and tidal patterns make contingency planning difficult. In the summer, Red Sea currents would drag an oil slick south, threatening Eritrea and Djibouti, and potentially entering the Gulf of Aden. In winter, circular currents would swirl more of the oil north.
Whale of a hug: Drone video shows endangered mammals in apparent embrace
One of the few things rarer than North Atlantic right whales? Capturing a whale ‘hug’ on video. Scientists have done that for what might have been the first time from the air.
Study finds six degrees celsius cooling on land during the last ice age
The study bolsters the method of analyzing noble gases to reconstruct paleo temperatures and provides more confidence in climate models, according to the authors.
WHOI to Launch New Center for Ocean and Climate Research
“This extraordinary gift,” said WHOI President and Director, Peter de Menocal, “will propel critical work that is needed to understand and elucidate the interplay between the global ocean, Earth’s climate, and human societies.”