Tools & Technology
New Technology Will Listen For Underwater Whale Traffic In An Effort To Reduce Ship Strikes
Scientists from the Benioff Ocean Initiative and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have deployed a a hydrophone, or underwater microphone, to listen for whale traffic in the Santa Barbara Channel. They hope to use the microphone to help prevent collisions between whales and boats – which are often deadly to whales.
What’s it like in a submersible?
It is hard to describe what it’s like to physically travel down to the twilight zone. Both Heidi Sosik, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Ocean Twilight Zone (OTZ) project lead and Joel Llopiz, Associate Scientist, and OTZ lead of the life histories and behavior theme went down in a submersible for the first time to experience the twilight zone. They were able to able to observe beautiful jellies and small fishes like bristlemouths, hatchetfish, and lanternfish, all in their natural habitat.
This was part of a mission in spring of 2019 where several members of the OTZ Project team conducted an expedition aboard OceanX’s research vessel, the M/V Alucia, out of the Bahamas. The main goal of the expedition was to examine how the OTZ project site off the coast of New England differs from this distant –yet connected– region of the twilight zone. The team worked closely with OceanX to share their journey through video diaries and photographs of the extraordinary creatures brought on board throughout the cruise. The Ocean Twilight Zone is supported the Audacious Project, a collaborative endeavor, housed at TED, to surface and fund ideas with the potential to create change at thrilling scale.
Read MoreWhat is the story behind Mesobot?
Mesobot is designed to let scientists observe the twilight zone by autonomously tracking individual animals for hours or even days without disturbing the environment or disrupting their behavior, making it possible to follow individual animals as they take part in the great migration from the twilight zone to the surface and back each day. Mesobot is also equipped with samplers that will allow it to capture traces of environmental DNA (eDNA) from seawater while on a dive. The engineering team held their first successful at-sea test in June of 2019.
Read MoreConducting airlift and dive operations
May 2019 — Captain Peter Collins explains a day of support operations conducted aboard the R/V Tioga at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO). Helicopter operations included the airlift installation of a new dive board platform and switchgear for the MVCO tower. Dive operations included node junction surveying and a scientific instrument recovery at the Tower.
Learn more about the MVCO here:
https://www.whoi.edu/mvco
What do ocean airlift operations look like?
Watch how scientific instruments get airlifted and installed at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory. The installation includes a new dive board platform and electrical switchgear.
Learn more about the MVCO here:
https://www.whoi.edu/mvco
Researching the Twilight Zone
Meet WHOI technician, Helena McMonagle, and learn how research is conducted in the twilight zone using MOCNESS. This was part of a mission in spring of 2019 where several members of the OTZ Project team conducted an expedition aboard OceanX’s research vessel, the M/V Alucia, out of the Bahamas. The main goal of the expedition was to examine how the OTZ project site off the coast of New England differs from this distant –yet connected– region of the twilight zone. The team worked closely with OceanX to share their journey through video diaries and photographs of the extraordinary creatures brought on board throughout the cruise. The Ocean Twilight Zone is supported by the Audacious Project, a collaborative endeavor, housed at TED, to surface and fund ideas with the potential to create change at thrilling scale.
Read MoreUnderwater robots swarm the ocean
Researchers test a new, acoustic-based navigation system to solve a problem that oceanographers have grappled with for years—getting multiple underwater robots to monitor the ocean cooperatively in swarm-like fashion.
Read MoreStandard-Target Sonar-Calibration Method: The Science – and Challenges in Communicating This
Ken Foote, WHOI Sponsored by: AOP&E Department
Read MoreKnow Your Ocean Science Chats: Deploying and Maintaining the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s Irminger Sea Array
Sheri White, WHOI Sponsored by: WHOI Discovery & Visitor Center
Read MoreMesobot: Following life in the Twilight Zone
Mesobot is a brand new underwater vehicle designed to reveal what lives in the ocean’s twilight zone. Mesobot can follow animals as they move through the darkness and as they migrate from the depths to the surface and back. The twilight zone is vast and remote, but is threatened by unregulated fishing and climate change. We need Mesobot’s insights to understand and protect the twilight zone before humans change it forever.
Read MoreMTR100: #5 Dr. Mark Abbott, WHOI
The editors of Marine Technology Reporter are pleased to share that Dr. Mark Abbott, President & Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is #5 in the 14th Annual “MTR100”.
360˚ Video Time-lapse: Cruise aboard the Tioga
Ride on the bow of the Research Vessel Tioga as it departs the dock at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at 0530 on May 10, 2019 and heads down to the south side of Martha’s Vineyard to support helicopter and dive operations at the Marthas Vineyard Coastal Observatory.
Read More360˚ Video: Deploying a CTD Rosette
The crew of RV Thomas G. Thompson deploys a conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) sensor with a rosette of Niskin sampling bottles in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
A CTD is the primary tool oceanographer use to determine the essential physical properties of seawater. It gives scientists a precise and comprehensive charting of the distribution and variation of water temperature, salinity, and density that helps to understand how the oceans affect life.
Read More360 Video: Departing Woods Hole
RV Thomas G. Thompson departs the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution dock in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
Read More360 Video: Deploying the VPR from the A-frame
The crew of RV Thomas G. Thompson deploys a video plankton recorder (VPR) in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
The VPR is an underwater video microscope system that that takes images of plankton and particulate matter as small as 50 microns and up to a few centimeters in size. The instrument is used to help scientists quickly measure the distributional patterns of plankton without destroying their delicate forms, as can happen when using nets and bottles.
Read More360˚ Video: Deploying MOCNESS
The crew of RV Thomas G. Thompson deploys a Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS) in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
As MOCNESS tows behind a research ship, each net can be opened and shut independently so that it samples a discrete patch of water. The researcher chooses exactly when by using the environmental sensing system. This is an array of sensors mounted on the instrument frame that relays water conditions up to the ship in real time. The data also help researchers match what they find in their sample to the physical properties of the seawater.
Read More360˚ Video: Deploying the VPR from Deck
The crew of RV Thomas G. Thompson deploys a video plankton recorder (VPR) in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
The VPR is an underwater video microscope system that that takes images of plankton and particulate matter as small as 50 microns and up to a few centimeters in size. The instrument is used to help scientists quickly measure the distributional patterns of plankton without destroying their delicate forms, as can happen when using nets and bottles.
Read More360˚ Video: Deploying REMUS
The crew of RV Thomas G. Thompson deploys a REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS, or REMUS, are low-cost robotic vehicles designed by WHOI’s Oceanographic Systems Lab to operate with a simple laptop computer. Initially conceived for coastal monitoring, these torpedo-shaped vehicles are now used as platforms for a wide variety of instruments at a range of ocean depths. REMUS are particularly well suited for surveying and mapping, travelling methodically over an area like a lawnmower to sample key ocean characteristics.
Read More360˚ Video: Recovering a CTD Rosette
The crew of RV Thomas G. Thompson recovers a conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) sensor with a rosette of Niskin sampling bottles in July 2019 on the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) expedition.
A CTD is the primary tool oceanographer use to determine the essential physical properties of seawater. It gives scientists a precise and comprehensive charting of the distribution and variation of water temperature, salinity, and density that helps to understand how the oceans affect life.
Read MoreScientists Team With Fishermen on Tracking Technology
Scientists from the Center for Coastal Studies and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are working with local commercial fishermen to install video monitoring equipment on gillnets.
Modeling Complex Sound Information Processing
Dominika Lyzwa, MIT Sponsored by: AOP&E Department
Read MoreEngineering the future
Created by WHOI engineer Anna Michel, the GOES (Girls in Ocean Engineering and Science) Institute, hosts girls going into sixth grade for a week of engineering activities
Read MoreSharkCam reveals secret lives of basking sharks in UK
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) known as the REMUS SharkCam has been used in the UK for the first time to observe the behaviour of basking sharks in the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland.
Read MoreInfrared Cameras Could Help Ships Avoid Whales
An interview with Dan Zitterbart, a WHOI scientist who is testing a new thermal infrared imaging system to detection whales in busy waterways to prevent ship strikes.
