Ocean Life
Study Sheds Light on Critically Endangered Beluga Whale Population
A team of scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and NOAA Fisheries are collaborating to help stem the decline of a critically endangered population of beluga whales in the Cook Inlet, Alaska.
Read MoreNOAA Live! Webinar: Oysters: Nature’s Vacuum Cleaner
Harriet Booth, Woods Hole Sea Grant and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Sponsored by: NOAA and Woods Hole Sea Grant This…
Read MorePandemic 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.
The Earth-Shaping Animal Migration No One Ever Sees
“All the vehicles on the road in the United States produce around 1.5 PgC per year,” says Kevin Archibald, a biological oceanographer at WHOI and lead author of that study. DVM could be understood as offsetting about two-thirds of all U.S. automobile emissions.
Ropeless Fishing Systems Hold Promise for Fishermen—and Whales
To help advance the effort to find a feasible and cost-effective gear-marking solution, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, The Pew Charitable Trusts and others are engaged in conversations with industry, enforcement, and regulators in the U.S. and Canada—which will culminate in a virtual workshop on gear marking in the coming months.
Biology Department Virtual Seminar: The Impact of Phagotrophic Protists at Hot Spots of Primary Production in the Deep Sea
Sarah Hu, WHOI Sponsored by: Biology Department This will be held virtually. Information will be posted when available
Read MoreAOP&E Department Virtual Seminar: Beluga Whales as Sentinels of Environmental Change in the Beaufort Sea Ecosystem
Emily Choy, McGill University Sponsored by: AOP&E Department This will be held virtually. Please Join: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94850236990?pwd=akJrTDFBeDJYakhOdVc2c1hDWVdYQT09 Meeting ID: 948 5023…
Read MoreMove Over, Mars: The Search for Life on Saturn’s Largest Moon
“The great thing about hydrothermal vents is that they provide a lot of energy sources for microbial life that doesn’t include sunlight,” says Julie Huber, a marine chemist at WHOI. Organisms living at hydrothermal vents on Earth’s seafloors, she explains, “can use chemical energy, so that means things like sulphur, iron, hydrogen and methane and they create a base of the food chain.”
Move Over, Mars: The Search for Life on Saturn’s Largest Moon
Alien microbes could be flourishing in the underground seas of Titan and the solar system’s other ocean worlds. “The great thing about hydrothermal vents is that they provide a lot of energy sources for microbial life that doesn’t include sunlight,” says Julie Huber, a marine chemist at WHOI.
MC&G Department Virtual Seminar: Hydrothermal Trace Metal Release and Microbial Metabolism in the Northeast Lau Basin
Natalie Cohen, WHOI Sponsored by: MC&G Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/92731319251 Meeting ID: 927 3131…
Read MorePandemic Quiet Means We Can Eavesdrop on Rare Australian Dolphins
According to Laela Sayigh, from WHOI, who is 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.
Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: Distribution, Growth, and Transport of Larval Fish and Implications for Population Dynamics
Christina M. Hernández, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs This will be held virtually. Click here to register or…
Read MoreNOAA Live! Webinar: Dolphin Tales – Stories and Facts about Dolphins and Marine Mammal Strandings in the Southeast US
Blair Mase, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center Sponsored by: NOAA and Woods Hole Sea Grant This will be held…
Read MoreNOAA Live! Webinar: The Crab-Tivating Life of Crustaceans: Diving into Alaskan Snow Crab and Red King Crab Biology
Erin Fedewa and Leah Zachar, NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Laboratory Sponsored by: NOAA and Woods Hole Sea…
Read MoreNew Technology Can Save the Whales from Ship Collisions
In a bid to reduce the number of whale deaths, researchers Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and collaborators worked together to develop Whale Safe, a new detection system provides mariners with up to date information about whales present in shipping lanes.
Listening to fish with passive acoustics
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NOAA Fisheries combine forces to adapt technologies used to detect marine mammals for fisheries management.
Read MoreTECHNOLOGY Whale ‘roadkill’ is on the rise off California. A new detection system could help
Launched on September 16, Whale Safe is the result of a collaboration between the Benioff Ocean Initiative and several U.S. universities and oceanographic organizations, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of California Santa Barbara, and the Unive
Whale watching and learning
Whales aren’t the only large creature in the ocean; there’s also cargo ships. When the two collide, it’s fatal to whales and barely noticeable to large ships cruising through the Santa Barbara Channel.
‘The Blob’: Low-oxygen water killing lobsters, fish in Cape Cod Bay.
While it was valuable data for the team of marine fisheries scientists, the Center for Coastal Studies and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that were trying to solve the mystery of The Blob, it also told fishermen when oxygen levels were low and it was time to move to another spot.
Biology Department Virtual Seminar: Return of the Age of Dinoflagellates in the Monterey Bay
Alexis Fischer, WHOI Sponsored by: Biology Department This event will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/91036740641?pwd=eFJtMjdVK1VLbGF3QjY1a21iWVpEQT09 Meeting ID: 910…
Read MoreMeet the new wash-ashore: Portuguese man-of-war
“They most likely arrive here via the Gulf Stream and then get blown or drift on shore,” Larry Madin, a retired senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Want to Save the Whales? Eavesdrop on Their Calls
“Moorings are typically made from chain, so they clank a lot,” says Mark Baumgartner, whale ecologist and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who helped develop the technology. “And that’s not really good when you’re trying to hear animals that are many miles away making sounds.”
