Woods Hole village owes its unique character to the actual Woods Hole, a natural deep-water passage just off the peninsula, and to the harbor, generally ice-free in winter, sheltered in summer, and deep. Its history began, like so many other peninsula tips, as a fishing village, beginning with the Native Americans who were fishing from its shores when the Europeans arrived in the early 1600s. From the founding of Falmouth (then called Succanesset) in the 1660s to the present, the Woods Hole village has provided an economic base for the town. Access to the sea has meant a source of food, a method of transportation, and the basis of manufacturing. In the early days, sea breezes powered both a grist mill and many saltworks along the shores of Buzzards Bay. In the early 1800s, whaling ships were constructed in Woods Hole village, and whalers left the port for the far Pacific. The US Coast Guard, established in 1789 as the Light House Service, arrived in the 1820s with the construction of Tarpaulin Cove and Nobska light houses. In the mid 1800s, the construction of one of the world's first commercial fertilizer plants, the Pacific Guano Company, brought the railroad to the Woods Hole village. (For more information about Woods Hole's history, read "Woods Hole Reflections," a collection of essays edited by Mary Lou Smith.) Even though the Pacific Guano Company failed in the late 1800s, Woods Hole continued to flourish as it was, even then, on its way to becoming the scientific center it is today. In the mid 1800s, amateur and professional naturalists began spending their summers in the Woods Hole area, studying the many fish species in local waters. Over the next 80 years, two other government agencies would establish branches in Woods Hole to conduct research and two nationally recognized, large research institutions would be founded with private funds. The National Marine Fisheries Service
Baird's personal interests were those of basic research, but his knowledge of fish and their spawning patterns was applied to developing solutions to the problem of declining fish stocks. A permanent laboratory was opened in 1875 with the support of the government and private citizens. Today the Commission (the world’s oldest fisheries research program) has become the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US Department of Commerce. The Center includes seven laboratories scattered from Massachusetts to Virginia and conducts research in support of commercial fisheries in US waters off the northeastern United States. The Center’s Woods Hole facility (located on the old Commission lab site) includes NMFS’s only public aquarium, which is open to the public year-round. The NMFS employs about 180 people at the Woods Hole lab, and has an annual budget of approximately $13 million.
The Marine Biological Laboratory
Agassiz passed his mandate: “Study nature, not books,” on to his students, one of whom, Alpheus Hyatt, was curator of the Boston Society of Natural History. Hyatt joined with the Women’s Education Association of Boston and other interested groups to raise $10,000 to found a permanent laboratory for the study of marine science. By March 1888, the group had incorporated the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and selected Woods Hole as its site. This new laboratory would be governed by scientists, and its focus would be basic research and education with economic interests having a much lower priority. The acquisition of land and construction of buildings was supported primarily by private citizens, most notably another Woods Hole summer resident, Joseph S. Fay. During its history, the MBL has attracted a number of Nobel prize-winning biologists and other notable scientists to its facilities. Here they study basic biological processes, using the relatively simple biological systems that exist in sea creatures as models for other animals. Until the 1970s, the MBL was primarily a summer institution; it now includes several year-round programs in a variety of biological disciplines. The Marine Biological Laboratory now employs about 200 people year-round with another 800 scientists and students coming to the Village each summer for research and study. Its annual budget is approximately $15 million.
The U.S. Geological Survey
The USGS conducts a wide range of geological and geophysical research and mapping investigations of the submerged continental margins of the United States and worldwide. Its scientific programs focus on the geology and processes along coastal areas; the bottom and shallow sub-bottom geology of the US Exclusive Economic Zone; and Earth’s crustal structure beneath the continental margins. These programs provide an understanding of the nation’s energy and mineral resources, assess the geologic hazards within offshore areas, and document problems that bear on the proper management of coastal areas. In 1974 the field office in Woods Hole became the headquarters for the Coastal and Marine Geology Field Center. It employs approximately 100 people and has an annual budget of approximately $10 million.
The Sea Education Association
The Woods Hole Research Center
Climate change and the warming of the earth are at the core of the Center's Science Program, and the Center specializes in global forests because of their controlling influence on climate. The Center maintains continuing research projects in the tropical rainforest of Brazil, in the boreal forest of Siberia -- the largest forested region on earth -- and in the forests of our own New England. The Center's Public Affairs Program works in the international arena to foster agreement on ways to safeguard the health of the planet. The treaty on climate change, now ratified by over 160 nations, was drafted by Center staff. The Center is also involved in the implementation of the treaty on biodiversity. The World Commission on Forests, established in 1995 through the Center's initiative, is defining ways of defending global forests as a public trust. The Center's Education Program involves training the coming leaders of environmental science in Brazil and Russia, and post-doctoral research by American scholars. 
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