Ocean Life
Interpreting Environmental DNA Signals in the Ocean Twilight Zone
Elizabeth Allen, WHOI Sponsored by: AOP&E Department
Read MoreExtraordinary Footage of Octopus Garden
Need a break? Sit back, relax, and enjoy this stunning and calming underwater footage from Octopus Garden, two miles below the ocean’s surface in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), where thousands of mother octopuses were discovered nursing their eggs. Meditative soundtrack included.
Read MoreDiving to Octopus Garden in a Submarine
Check out this amazing footage taken from WHOI’s submersible Alvin in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), where thousands of mother octopuses were discovered nursing their eggs in a place known as Octopus Garden. WHOI principal engineer Andy Bowen talks with Chad King, a research specialist with MBNMS, about the animals and how federally-protected marine sanctuaries are critical to the health and protection of these incredible ecosystems.
Read MoreDiscover Octopus Garden
Watch this amazing footage and learn some cool facts about octopus living two miles below the ocean’s surface, where thousands of mother octopuses were discovered nursing their eggs in a place known as Octopus Garden in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS).
Read MoreDrone technology could better measure effect on right whales of food shortages, entanglements
Drone technology could better measure effect on right whales of food shortages, entanglements has been limited to dead specimens. Researchers at WHOI and Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies devised a measurement method for these ocean giants that yields accurate data that can be used for tracking the changes in body mass over time, providing clues to their daily energy requirements and the impacts of outside stressors.
How Drones Are Helping Scientists Figure Out Whales’ Weight
Michael J. Moore, a biologist and director of the Marine Mammal Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, tells Jessica Leigh Hester of Atlas Obscura, body mass “tells you about the health of the animal, and in the context of its environment, it gives you a sense of how it’s doing nutritionally.”
Top of Mind with Julie Rose
Associate Scientist Joel Llopiz describes the vast, virtually unexplored ecosystem lurking beneath the surface of the ocean known as the twilight zone. It is deep enough that it hasn’t really been affected by humans yet. But commercial fishing companies are eyeing it now, so scientists who study the Twilight Zone are urging the UN to establish some rules for it soon. (segment begins at 23:08)
There will be no Biology Department seminar today
Drone-Piloting Scientists ‘Weighed’ Whales From 130 Feet in the Air
A whale’s mass “tells you about the health of the animal, and in the context of its environment, it gives you a sense of how it’s doing nutritionally,” says Michael J. Moore, a biologist and director of the Marine Mammal Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Researchers use drones to weigh whales
Researchers devised a way to accurately estimate the weight of free-living whales using only aerial images taken by drones.
Read MoreAfter 33 years, Michael Moore is still free to be curious at WHOI
Michael Moore is a senior scientist and director of the Marine Mammal Center at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Read MoreSince When Did Animals Become Synonymous With Our Grief?
After a story about 52 Blue called “Song of the Sea, a Cappella and Unanswered” appeared in The New York Times in 2004, letters from heartsick readers flooded Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the laboratories that had studied the whale. 52 Blue sang at a different frequency than all the other blue whales they had studied before.
MBL Falmouth Forum: Living with White Sharks
Gregory Skomal, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Sponsored by: MBL
Read MoreThe American Lobster – Poster Child of a Changing Marine Ecosystem
Rick Wahle, Lobster Institute and University of Maine School of Marine Sciences Sponsored by: Biology Department
Read MoreThe Role of Epigenetics in Organismal Responses to Environmental Change
Neel Aluru, WHOI Sponsored by: Biology Department
Read MoreWhale populations in New York Harbor are booming—here’s why
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the New York Aquarium teamed up to deploy a high-tech acoustic buoy named Melville, 22 miles south of Fire Island. Whales communicate mostly via sound, and each species has distinct calls (and even dialects).
New study measures how much of corals’ nutrition comes from hunting
A new study reveals that more of corals’ nutrients come from hunting than previously expected, information that may help predict the fate of coral reefs as global ocean temperatures rise.
Read MoreResearchers are exploring the SS Portland shipwreck. Here’s how to watch
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is working with NOAA’s Office of Marine Sanctuaries and Marine Imaging Technologies to explore the wreck of the SS Portland as part of a three-year project that will also include explorations of other nearby shipwrecks.
Exploring the wreck of the steamship Portland, ‘the Titanic of New England’
By visiting the final resting place of the Portland, researchers will document changes that have occurred at the site of the wreck and gain more insight into the fate of the doomed steamer.The expedition is being led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Marine Imaging Technologies.
The Spring Freshet & Its Influence in Stefansson Sound Coastal Beaufort Sea
Sam Laney, WHOI Sponsored by: Biology Department
Read MoreCamp Harbor View Whale Watch
In August, WHOI participated in a whale watching trip for 85 Leaders-in-Training, ages 15 to 17, from Camp Harbor View,…
Read MoreClimate change doesn’t only mean rising oceans — your health is at risk, too
According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution website, diarrhetic shellfish poisoning produces gastrointestinal symptoms, usually beginning within 30 minutes to a few hours after consumption of toxic shellfish. Although not fatal, the illness is characterized by incapacitating diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
The Ocean’s Eerie Twilight Zone is in Murky Legal Water
“The most striking thing is just how far down it is and how the light dissolves away,” says Joel Llopiz, a biologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic.
How a Volcanic Eruption Set Off a Phytoplankton Bloom
Lava-driven nutrient fountains “could be a pretty important driver of phytoplankton ecology in the broader ocean,” said Harriet Alexander, a biological oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved in the latest study.