WHOI in the News
As ice melts, emperor penguins march toward extinction
‘A risk for the future’: How warming oceans are disrupting America’s seafood supply
Recorded temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are increasing at an “alarming” rate, according to one scientist, and forcing fisherman to confront a seafood industry primed for disruption.
Conserving the Nature of the Northeast
Aquaculturists have not yet figured out how to breed adult eels in captivity. That means most of the eels we consume, about 95 percent, were actually born in the wild and intercepted as juvenile “glass eels” at the mouths of rivers during their migration inland in the spring.
Study shows wetter climate is likely to intensify global warming
Killifish Hint at Genetic Basis for Human Toxicant Susceptibility
Killifish populations have adapted to survive and reproduce in polluted waters. Researchers have studied the evolutionary and genetic basis for this adaptation, discovering that it comes with a cost.
Caldera Chronicles: Yellowstone helps scientists’ understanding of nitrogen
In the air we breathe, oxygen plays an obvious and important role, but it is not the most abundant gas in the atmosphere. That honor belongs to nitrogen. But where did this nitrogen come from?
Shark Attack Kills Surfer in Northern California
Another casualty of the coronavirus: scientific research
With much of the world still shut down, the coronavirus has hampered the painstaking work of many scientists whose findings rely on regularly collected data and seasonal experiments.
NASA Scientists train in Nevada Desert to remotely control Mars Perseverance Rover
Wetter climate to trigger global warming feedback loop in the tropics
As the tropics get wetter, as many climate models predict, soils are likely to experience greater rates of respiration and decomposition, limiting the carbon storage abilities of tropical soils and intensifying global warming.
Covid-19 Forces Spring Science Field Work to Go Fallow
Carin Ashjian, a senior scientist at WHOI, was one of 97 scientists and crew members aboard a German oceanographic research vessel that has been deliberately stranded in Arctic Sea ice as part of the year-long MOSAIC experiment.
Endangered North Atlantic right whales return to Canadian waters
For North Atlantic right whales as individuals, and as a species, things are going terribly wrong,” said Michael Moore from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In another significant ruling for right whales, a federal judge rules that Massachusetts is violating the Endangered Species Act
Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI, lauded the ruling, saying the “judge understands the simple truth that if there is rope in the water column, and whales come and go in the region, entanglement risk is real, and significant in terms of mortality and morbidity, especially for reproductive success.”
The Deepwater Horizon Disaster Fueled a Gulf Science Bonanza
Chris Reddy is an expert in oil spill science who in 2010 helped determine the size, heading, and chemical composition of the underwater plume from an oceanographic research vessel and underwater robot near the Macondo well site, about 80 miles south of New Orleans.
We study shipwrecks to find overlooked history. With COVID-19, we see it right now.
Op ed coauthored by Calvin Mires, a maritime archaeologist and Research Associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachussetts.
Our Radioactive Ocean: Ken Buesseler
Upper Cape Perspectives On Earth Day Shift Amid A Silent Spring
“I think Earth Day has always been an opportunity to celebrate the environment around us and how we can take action,” said Judith McDowell, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole. “To me Rachel Carson is the epitome of what we choose to celebrate on Earth Day.”
Katharine, the Great White Shark Who Ghosted Her Trackers, Resurfaces
Simon R. Thorrold, a senior scientist in the biology department at WHOI in Falmouth, Mass., said it was “not crazy surprising” that a signal was picked up.
Earth’s oceans may hold the key to finding life beyond our planet
The second vehicle is our Orpheus vehicle, and this is a partnership between JPL and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Ocean’s ‘biological pump’ absorbs more carbon than previously estimated
New research suggests the ocean’s “biological carbon pump” is more efficient at absorbing carbon than scientists previously estimated.
Former Falmouth students credited in new study
Rebecca Cox and Sarah Lott were interns at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution when they became a part of the breakthrough study, which found microorganisms living hundreds of meters beneath the seafloor.
Bacteria as Living Microrobots to Fight Cancer
This was first discovered in the 1970s by Richard Blakemore of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
Pop-up pots and the search for ‘whale-safe’ gear
Mark Baumgartner, associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, has talked about the entanglement issue with Porter and believes ropeless fishing can work, and that it may be the best option for enabling fishermen and whales to share the same waters.
WHOI Constructing New Innovation Hub
WHOI is planning to build a new, state-of-the-art building on its campus.