WHOI in the News
Endangered right whale population down to 360 as they begin migration toward Florida coast
As the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales begin their southward migration from New England and Canada toward the coast of Florida, including Volusia and Flagler counties, researchers are marking the beginning of calving season with uncertainty and urgency.
Sea Ahead
The game-changing technologies that will transform our ability to understand and manage Earth’s last great frontier. Monitoring instruments—and ocean technologies in general—have come a long way. We now have Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled robots that not only allow researchers to access the most remote spots in the ocean, but can decide where to explore once they get there.
Environmental groups will do their own tests of radioactive wastewater from San Onofre
The Surfrider Foundation and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Our Radioactive Ocean initiative will do independent water quality testing at San Onofre State Beach after radioactive wastewater releases from the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
Woods Hole Organizations Consider Impact Of Sea Level Rise
WHOI, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and National Marine Fisheries Services presented the Woods Hole village climate change vulnerability assessment and action plan to the Falmouth Select Board on Monday, November 23.
Fishing gear confirmed as major cause of right whale deaths
A major study looking into the deaths of North Atlantic right whales has found that entanglement in fishing gear has become a leading cause of mortality.
Film explores path to right whale’s extinction
In May 2019, the United Nations released a report that said 1 million species on Earth were facing extinction, and that the rate of extinction was accelerating. Boston Globe reporter David Abel said it led him to make the film “Entangled” about the path to extinction for one species people on the Cape know well.
Scientists call for decade of concerted effort to enhance understanding of the deep seas
An international team of scientists, spanning 45 institutions in 17 countries, has called for a dedicated decade-long program of research to greatly advance discovery in these remote regions.
Ocean research group says right whale entanglements hurt animals’ reproductive health
A research group says the rise in the number of fishing-gear entanglements of North American right whales is hurting the animals’ ability to reproduce and care for their young.
Breaking the ice on melting and freezing
“Ice deforms as it melts,” said WHOI physical oceanographer Claudia Cenedese, who has worked with Hester on the project. “It makes these very weird shapes, especially on the bottom, like the way the wind shapes a mountain on a longer time scale.”
The Battle Below
In late September, President Trump declared the U.S. dependence on China for so-called ‘rare earth’ minerals a ‘national emergency’. Those minerals are essential to technology from our phones to our top-level defense weapons. In today’s cover story, Lisa Fletcher takes us on a deep dive, literally, beneath the earth’s surface into the ocean for ‘the battle below.’
Massachusetts Organizations Honored for Efforts to Expand Adoption of Electric Vehicles in the Commonwealth
A diverse group of companies and higher education institutions from across Massachusetts have been recognized for steps they have taken to expand the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in their communities and across the state.
Long-running plankton study to resume off of Maine
A long-running study of tiny organisms off New England is set to resume due to an agreement between scientific organizations. The survey, which originally ran from 1961 to 2017, will resume because of an agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England.
Ancient storms could help predict future shifts in tropical cyclone hotspots
To get a better sense of how climate change might alter the patterns of major ocean storms, shifting the parameters of tropical cyclone hotspots, scientists reconstructed 3,000-years of storm history in the Marshall Islands.
Remembering one of history’s greatest whale explosions
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the infamous Florence whale explosion. While methods for dealing with dead whales have improved since the ’70s, the giant mammals do explode from time to time—no pyrotechnics needed. “The risk of a spontaneous explosion is always there with a decomposing whale,” says Michael Moore, a senior scientist at WHOI.
Citizen science vital to cyanobacteria bloom research
“We have many parts of the country with huge coastlines like Maine and California and we’re finding it really difficult to monitor for multiple toxins threatening people and ecosystems,” said Don Anderson, a senior scientist at WHOI and a principal investigator at the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.
Acoustics of the deep sea tell us about biodiversity
Some researchers are working to improve current listening technology. At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Ying-Tsong Lin is building a starfish-shaped contraption of hydrophones that can tune into certain sounds hundreds of miles away, like a telescope for sound.
Could Listening to the Deep Help Save it?
Some researchers are working to improve listening technology. At WHOI, Ying-Tsong Lin is building a starfish-shaped contraption of hydrophones that can tune into certain sounds hundreds of miles away, like a telescope for sound.
Mauritius oil spill: fears for island’s marine life after initial tests fail to resolve fuel mystery
Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) said the first ultra-high-resolution analysis of an oil sample from the Mauritius spill revealed the substance to be “a complex and unusual mix of hydrocarbons.”
Scientists are tracking down deep sea creatures with free-floating DNA
Traditional methods, which include trawling and baited cameras, can only offer snapshots of the complex deep-ocean world, says Elizabeth Allan, a postdoctoral investigator at WHOI who works on the Institute’s ocean twilight zone project.
Pandemic Quiet Is Helping Humans Eavesdrop on Rare Dolphins
According to WHOI’s Laela Sayigh, who was not involved in the Burrunan research, identifying which dolphin in a pod is vocalizing at a particular time is key to deciphering their communication systems.
Why Science Labs Love Older Scientists
Sallie Chisholm, a 72-year-old biologist, has been enthralled by a tiny aquatic microbe that she and a team from WHOI discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in 1985.
As their population plummets, right whales verge on extinction
It’s unknown how many right whales are alive today, but Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI, said there are likely to be fewer than 366.
United States Contributions to Global Ocean Plastic Waste
MPC Research Specialist, Hauke Kite-Powell, has recently been appointed to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee to study U.S. contributions to global ocean plastic waste.
How the waters off Catalina became a DDT dumping ground …
A scientist involved in the discovery of the Titanic happened to be on board, so he helped them program the robots on where to go and how to search for the barrels. A marine geochemistry lab at WHOI ran the samples.