Research Highlights
News & Insights
This week, NASA’s Perseverance Rover lands on Mars to continue the search for life on the Red Planet. At the same time, WHOI scientists and engineers are applying their experience exploring the deepest parts of planet Earth to the quest…
A recent New York Times article about sound in the deep ocean briefly mentions the work by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) acoustic scientist Ying-Tsong “YT” Lin and his work developing an “acoustic telescope.”
An investigative report this week in the LA Times features the work of WHOI’s marine geochemistry lab in identifying the discarded barrels and analyzing samples from the discovery.
News Releases
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) elected Dana Yoerger as a 2021 fellow for the development of autonomous underwater vehicles for deep-ocean exploration and science. Yoerger is a senior scientist in the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a pioneering researcher in robotics and underwater vehicles.
Yoerger is a long-time, key contributor to the remotely-operated vehicle Jason, the autonomous underwater vehicles ABE and Sentry, and the hybrid remotely operated vehicle Nereus, which reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 2009. His current research focuses on designing and developing robots to explore the midwater regions of the world’s ocean. He leads a team that designed the new underwater robot called Mesobot, which non-invasively tracks midwater animals that play an important role in the movement of carbon through the world’s oceans.
Yoerger has gone to sea on over 80 oceanographic expeditions exploring the Mid-Ocean Ridge, mapping underwater seamounts and volcanoes, surveying ancient and modern shipwrecks, and studying the environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He also supervises the research and academic programs of graduate students studying oceanographic engineering in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program.
“It’s truly an honor to be chosen as an IEEE fellow,” says Yoerger. “I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with very capable engineers and researchers at WHOI and from around the world who enabled me to make a difference.”
A distinction as an IEEE Fellow is reserved for select members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the related fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. The total number of members honored in any one year as a fellow can’t exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.
The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 plus members in 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics.
Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed more than 1300 active industry standards. The association also sponsors or co-sponsors nearly 1700 international technical conferences each year. To learn more about IEEE or the IEEE Fellow Program, please visit www.ieee.org.
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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its mission is to understand the ocean and its interactions with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. WHOI’s pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering—one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in fundamental and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation, and operate the most extensive suite of ocean data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge to inform people and policies for a healthier planet. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu
One of the world’s most prolific research submersibles will put 99% of the ocean floor within reach of science community when it relaunches in 2021
Increased depth range and the ability to explore 99% of the ocean floor, including the abyssal region—one of the least understood areas of the deep sea—are just some of the upgrades underway for the iconic human-occupied Vehicle (HOV) Alvin that were unveiled today at the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fall Meeting 2020. Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Portland State University, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared details on the upgrades, the importance of human exploration of the deep ocean, and what new science questions they hope to answer when Alvin dives again in September 2021.
Participating in today’s event were Bruce Strickrott, WHOI Group Manager and Chief Pilot of the Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin; Adam Soule, Chief Scientist of the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) at WHOI; Dr. Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Professor of Microbiology in the Biology Department at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon and current chair of the Deep Submergence Science Committee (DeSSC); and Chad King, a research specialist at NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) in California.
Alvin is one of the most recognized deep submergence vessels in the world and the only one in the U.S. capable of carrying humans into extreme ocean depths. The sub has completed 5,065 successful dives, more than all other submersible programs worldwide combined. When Alvin relaunches next fall, the iconic sub will have the ability to dive to 6500 meters (21,325 feet)—almost 4 miles deep and 2,000 meters deeper than Alvin’s current maximum depth of 4500 meters (14,800 feet). The upgrade will also give the sub access to 99% of the ocean floor.
Alvin was commissioned in 1964 and is named after WHOI physicist and oceanographer Allyn Vine, who was an early proponent of U.S investment deep-sea submersibles. The original Alvin was only rated for depths up to 1,829 meters (6,000 feet), but advancements in syntactic foam, a specialized material that can provide buoyancy at great depth, provided access to greater depths. As this and other technologies have improved, the scope of Alvin’s capabilities have also expanded. When this latest overhaul is completed, Alvin will enable in-person study of the lower Abyssal Zone and the upper Hadal Zone—one of the least-understood parts of the deep sea and home to high-temperature hydrothermal vents, submarine volcanoes, subduction trenches, mineral resources, and more. This will also give the science community an unprecedented opportunity to visit a critically under-studied part of the planet that plays a role in carbon and nutrient cycling and that will offer a view into how life might be evolved to conditions in oceans beyond Earth.
Alvin is the only publicly funded, human-occupied vehicle available to the U.S. scientific community for exploring the abyssal region in-person. To date, 3,076 researchers have shared a firsthand experience unlike any other in science, allowing in-situ data and sample collection and direct observation of the seafloor and water column on dives lasting up to 10 hours.
Chad King is a research specialist at NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) in California who made his first dive in Alvin in March 2019 to a part of the sanctuary now known as the Octopus Garden. It was the first visit to this area after its discovery in 2018, and data collected by King in Alvin that confirmed that warm water was seeping from the seafloor, something the mother octopuses appeared to be using to incubate their eggs. The dive also documented the first hatching of baby octopus at this site, proving that it was a viable nursery.
“It was a remarkable experience to be able to see, for the first time, these animals mere feet away, in three dimensions, and to give context to the surrounding environment,” said King. “It’s an experience I will never forget.”
According to Adam Soule, the sub is also an important tool for fostering new generations of scientists. “Sometimes the sub is viewed as inaccessible to early-career scientists or those who haven’t used it yet,” he said. “That is not true. If someone has a good idea and they want to use Alvin, they will get to use Alvin. The increased range and scope will be incredibly helpful in an environment where we know very little and have to use our observation skills to decide where to go and what samples to collect.”
Additional upgrades to Alvin include:
- New titanium ballast spheres and syntactic foam modules rated to 6,500 meters.
- Improved high-quality still and 4K video imaging systems.
- More energy-efficient, fully redundant hydraulic system with increased pressure and flow rate and new hydraulic valve manifolds.
- Higher-horsepower thrusters designed and built inhouse and based on a proven WHOI design.
- New motor controllers.
- New pressure housings to complete upgrade to 6,500-meter operations.
- Updated command-and-control system to integrate the new hydraulic and motor controller systems into Alvin’s advanced digital piloting and control/ monitoring interface.
- Enhanced sampling capabilities with an additional manipulator arm.
Based at WHOI, the Alvin Group is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Navy, and NOAA. The group supports all aspects of the sub’s operations, including maintaining and piloting the sub while at sea, integrating new scientific sensors and instruments for specific missions to keep the sub at the forefront of ocean exploration and discovery, and designing and building new parts during each overhaul. Along with Alvin, NDSF operates remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason, and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry for the ocean science community.
Verification testing dives on Alvin are scheduled to begin in the Puerto Rico trench in September 2021.
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The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. WHOI’s pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering—one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in basic and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation, and operate the most extensive suite of data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Oregon State University (OSU) jointly announced that OSU will assume responsibilities for the systems management of the cyberinfrastructure that makes data transmission for the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) possible through September of 2023. OSU was awarded this role after a systematic and thorough selection process. Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has provided OOI’s Cyberinfrastructure systems management since 2014, and will leave the OOI Program in 2021 following a transition period with OSU.
The OOI consists of five instrumented observatories in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans outfitted with more than 800 instruments that continually collect and deliver data to shore via a cyberinfrastructure, which makes the data available to anyone with an Internet connection. The demands on the cyberinfrastructure are great, as it stores 73 billion rows of data, and has provided 36 terabytes of data in response to 189 million user requests since 2014. With the data requests and delivery demands increasing each year, the OOI has the capability to provide data that allows inquiries into episodic ecosystem events in real-time, as well as investigations using long-term time series data. The OOI is made possible through a funded five-year cooperative agreement to WHOI from the National Science Foundation. The OSU award is for $6 million over a three-year period.
“We are delighted that OSU has the capabilities and expertise to take on this hugely important task,” says John Trowbridge, Principal Investigator of the Program Management Office of the OOI at WHOI. “The OOI has become a dependable source of real-time ocean data, helping scientists answer pressing questions about the changing ocean. Educators use real-time ocean data to teach students about the fundamentals of oceanography, the global carbon cycle, climate variability, and other important topics. The team at OSU will help advance this work and ensure that OOI data are served reliably to an ever-growing audience.
“We are also extremely grateful to the Rutgers team for the excellent foundation they established over the past six years that will allow a seamless transition to the OSU cyberinfrastructure team. Rutgers was an important partner that helped establish OOI as a reliable data provider,” adds Trowbridge.
“OSU brings the perfect mix of hardware, software, and ocean data experts to ensure that we are able to store and serve up this gargantuan amount of important ocean data,” adds Anthony Koppers, Principal Investigator for the OSU Cyberinfrastructure Systems Team. “We have the key personnel and systems in place that will allow us to seamlessly take on the challenge of storing and serving OOI data, strategically planning for future data demands and implementing cybersecurity. We also will be working hand-in-hand with the OOI’s Data Management Team to ensure the data meets the highest quality standards.”
OSU’s cyberinfrastructure will handle telemetered, recovered, and streaming data. Telemetered data are delivered to the cyberinfrastructure from moorings and gliders using remote access such as satellites. Recovered data are complete datasets that are retrieved and uploaded to the cyberinfrastructure once an ocean observing platform is recovered from the field. Streaming data are delivered in real time directly from instruments in the field.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. WHOI’s pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering—one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in basic and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation, and operate the most extensive suite of data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu
Massachusetts has long been known as a center of invention and technical innovation and, more recently, has gained attention for its vibrant marine robotics startup community. Now startup companies, entrepreneurs, and others in the Commonwealth who work in the marine robotics and related technologies sector, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, will have a new partner to help them develop products and technologies and bring their ideas to market.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) are teaming up to make WHOI’s unique mix of resources available through the D’Works Marine Technology Initiative to accelerate the pace of marine technology innovation.
“Our goal is to help move ideas from the concept stage to at-sea operations as efficiently as possible,” said James Bellingham, Director of WHOI’s Center for Marine Robotics (CMR). “To do this, we’re making WHOI’s specialized facilities and expertise available to the entrepreneurial community.”
The Innovation Institute at MassTech has seeded the D’Works Innovation Fund via CMR for qualified companies to access WHOI facilities, as well as technical and engineering support, building on a previous $5 million grant to support the construction of DunkWorks Advanced Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping Center and several other new test facilities at WHOI. Applications will be accepted beginning August 26 on a rolling basis through the fall, with the first awards expected to be announced by September 30.
“WHOI’s work at the leading edge of oceanographic research is based on a combination of deep understanding of the ocean and how it works,” said WHOI Deputy Director and Vice President for Research Rick Murray. “WHOI is pleased to work with the MassTech to support the growth of marine robotics, AI, and related technologies that will benefit from WHOI’s state-of-the-art testing facilities. In turn, we expect that marine research will also advance through the innovative ideas tested by entrepreneurs.”
“The funding for the D’Works initiative will expand access to WHOI’s world-class facilities, helping grow new startups and further strengthening our state’s position as the number one region in the world for marine and blue tech innovation,” added Carolyn Kirk, Executive Director of MassTech. “What sets Massachusetts apart is not only our top R&D facilities, but also the talented researchers and innovators that can help entrepreneurs grow their business.”
D’Works funding is intended to support the use of critical fabrication and testing equipment and facilities by startups, entrepreneurs and innovators to develop marketable robotic devices, vehicles, AI, or sensors for use in the marine environment. Available WHOI facilities include the DunkWorks Advanced Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping Center, WHOI’s advanced pressure test and calibration facilities, the Iselin Marine Facility and test well, and WHOI’s skilled carpentry, electrical, and mechanical staff.
Accepted D’Works Innovators are not limited to shore-based testing. Through the program, startups may also make use of WHOI’s coastal research vessel Tioga and small boat fleet, scientific dive program, and offshore infrastructure at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory. Applicants may also implement and test technologies at other WHOI facilities, or apply for membership in the CMR DunkWorks Program.
“Our ideal applicant has a prototype for what they believe to be a working technology in the pre-scaling stage,” said Leslie Ann McGee, CMR assistant director. “This fund is for those innovators or technologists who need access to facilities like we have at WHOI but don’t have the funding for a larger, traditional project at WHOI.”
To apply, Massachusetts-based applicants must submit a proposal outlining specific project milestones and demonstrate how modest funding will advance those goals from a technological and marketing standpoint. Minority and women-owned companies are encouraged to apply. More information is available at https://www2.whoi.edu/site/marinerobotics/home/innovation-fund/
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu.
Key Takeaways
- Massachusetts startups and entrepreneurs may apply for funding to test and develop new marine products and technologies through the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s D’Works Marine Technology Initiative.
- Funding from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Innovation Institute will provide vouchers that can be used to access WHOI facilities, boats, engineering expertise, and technical support.
- Applications from qualified companies will be initially accepted beginning August 26 on a rolling basis through the fall, and the first awards announced by September 30.
- More information is available at https://www2.whoi.edu/site/marinerobotics/home/innovation-fund/
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists appear in two shorts and a feature film at this year’s Woods Hole Film Festival (WHFF). In addition, scientists will also participate in Q&A sessions connected to three of the festival’s feature-length, ocean-themed entries.
The short films, “Divergent Warmth” and “Beyond the Gulf Stream” are part of a program titled “The Blue Between Us,” offered on-demand from July 25 to August 1 as part of the festival’s virtual program.
In “Divergent Warmth,” producer-director Megan Lubetkin gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the synchronized ballet aboard a research vessel during a recent expedition to the East Pacific Rise. Experimental music provides rhythm to imagery of deck operations, launch and recovery of the human-occupied submersible Alvin, and other-worldly views of seafloor hydrothermal vents and lava flows. Interwoven throughout is an evocative reading of Adrienne Rich’s poem, “Diving into the Wreck.”
Dan Fornari, a WHOI emeritus research scholar, acted as associate producer of the 10-minute film. As one of the scientists on the December 2019 expedition, he invited Lubetkin, herself a scientist and the creative exhibits coordinator with the Ocean Exploration Trust, to assist with subsea camera operations and video data management on board. Lubetkin spent her free time shooting additional video, which she edited together while still on the ship to produce a first draft of “Divergent Warmth.”
“I was blown away. It was just fabulous,” Fornari said of his first viewing. “It captures the spirit of going out to sea and being involved in this exploratory effort in the alien realm, where very few people get to go.”
The complex winter currents that collide off the coast of Cape Hatteras are the focus of “Beyond the Gulf Stream,” a short documentary by the Georgia-based production company MADLAWMEDIA. Filmed aboard the WHOI-operated research vessel Neil Armstrong, the 10-minute film features WHOI physical oceanographers Magdalena Andres, Glen Gawarkiewicz, and graduate student Jacob Forsyth as they share their perspectives on the challenges and rewards of doing scientific research at sea, often in difficult conditions.
“I think we have a responsibility to communicate science and the process of doing of science to the public,” said Andres about the film, which was produced in collaboration with WHOI and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography at the University of Georgia. “It does a really nice job of capturing life at sea in the wintertime.”
As a scientist who uses video to capture data from the ocean depths, Fornari is highly attuned to the impact that visual media can have in capturing the public’s imagination about the ocean.
“These kinds of artistic expressions help open doors to people’s minds.” he said. “That’s crucial for getting the public to understand how critically important the oceans are. Then maybe more students will say, ‘I want to be an ocean scientist when I grow up.’”
In addition to the shorts program itself, WHOI scientists, staff, and students will also participate in “Filmmaker Chats” open to the public and broadcast via Zoom, as well as the WHFF Facebook and YouTube channels. Maddux-Lawrence will take questions about “Beyond the Gulf Stream” on Sunday, July 19, beginning at 9:00 a.m. On Friday, July 31 at 9:00 a.m., Lubetkin will appear with Fornari, as well as Alvin pilot Drew Bewley, MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Lauren Dykman, and Texas A&M graduate student Charlie Holmes II to discuss the making of and science behind “Divergent Warmth.” Recordings of both sessions will also be available for viewing afterward on the festival website.
In addition to the short films, WHOI whale biologist Michael Moore appears in the feature-length documentary “Entangled,” which looks at the intertwined plights of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and coastal fishing communities in New England and eastern Canada. After being hunted for centuries, the whales face new challenges in the form of climate change and increased fishing and shipping activity, and Moore has been an outspoken proponent of the need for increased protections to stave off their slide to extinction within the next 20 years.
WHOI scientists will also add their perspective to Q&A sessions following several ocean-themed, feature-length films selected for the festival:
- Thursday, July 30, at 10:00 p.m.: Research specialist Hauke Kite-Powell will answer questions related to aquaculture and seafood in relation to the film “Fish & Men.
- Saturday, August 1, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.: Marine chemist Chris Reddy will answer questions about microplastics in relation to the film “Microplastics Madness.”
- Saturday, August 1, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.: Marine biologist Simon Thorrold will answer questions about marine protected areas and fishing in connection with the film “Current Sea.”
Key Takeaways
- Films featuring WHOI scientists will be screened as part of “The Blue Between Us” shorts program at the virtual Woods Hole Film Festival, which may be viewed online by festival passholders and individual ticketholders during the festival, which runs from Saturday, July 25, to Saturday, August 1. Tickets and more information is available here.
- Whale biologist Michael Moore will appear in the feature-length film “Entangled” about the plight of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.
- WHOI scientists will also participate in Q&A sessions associated with several ocean-themed, feature-length festival films.
- More information is available on the festival website.
Ying-Tsong Lin is the 12th person in history and the first person of Asian descent to visit ocean’s deepest seafloor
A Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution researcher became one of just a handful of people to visit the deepest part of the ocean following a successful dive in the deep-submergence vehicle Limiting Factor on Monday.
Ying-Tsong “Y.T.” Lin, a scientist with WHOI’s Ocean Acoustics & Signals Lab, traveled to the central pool of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, a depth of 10.9 kilometers (6.8 miles), with Victor Vescovo, the pilot and founder of Caladan Oceanic. As a Taiwanese-American, Dr. Lin’s dive marked the first time a person of Asian descent had traveled to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This record-setting dive was among a series of history-making expeditions that Vescovo piloted this month, including dives by the first woman, former astronaut Kathy Sullivan, and by Kelly Walsh, the son of Don Walsh, who, with Jacques Piccard, made the first-ever dive to the Mariana Trench in 1960.
“The sub Limiting Factor is a space-time capsule bringing us to another world, which has not been touched for millions years,” Dr. Lin wrote in an email from the ship following his 10-hour dive. “Looking at the sand waves on the bottom of the world, thinking how long it took for the weak currents at that depth to build them up, space and time just collapsed; I was watching a million years of evolution in just an instant. What I saw down there makes me feel how insignificant I am. I would like to share this opportunity to understand life better with all my friends and colleagues who helped make it possible.”
As part of Caladan Oceanic’s multidisciplinary Ring of Fire expedition, Dr. Lin is conducting an acoustic experiment aboard the submersible’s support ship, Pressure Drop, to determine how sound waves propagate in the deepest parts of the ocean. Because of the pressure at extreme depths, the increased density of water causes changes in the speed of sound, which need to be carefully accounted for to ensure the accuracy of deep-water acoustic instruments.
With a specialized hydrophone recorder provided by the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory deployed in Challenger Deep, Dr. Lin successfully recorded ambient sound as well as acoustic signals transmitted from an underwater speaker deployed near the ocean surface from the ship. In addition to improving scientists’ understanding of how sound refracts in the deep ocean, Dr. Lin’s shipboard experiments will provide greater clarity on how acoustic communication and geo-location could be improved at extreme depths.
“We are so pleased to have partnered with Y.-T. and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on this dive and showing the access we can provide to any individual who wants to regularly and reliably visit any point on the ocean floor,” said Vescovo after the dive.
Dr. Lin is the first WHOI scientist to visit Challenger Deep in-person, but the institution has a history of conducting research at the ocean’s greatest depths. In 2009, WHOI scientists and engineers sent the hybrid remotely operated vehicle Nereus to Challenger Deep, making it just the third vehicle in history to reach a depth of over 10,900 meters. In addition, following James Cameron’s solo dive to Challenger Deep in 2012, the Canadian explorer and director donated his submersible DeepSea Challenger to WHOI so that engineers could document and redeploy some of the technology he and his team developed. These technologies have been incorporated into the autonomous underwater vehicle Orpheus, currently awaiting deep-sea trials.
At WHOI, Dr. Lin is best known for his work on three-dimensional ocean acoustic technologies that help scientists explore the ocean through sound. He lives in Falmouth, Mass., with his wife and sons.
Key Takeaways
- Ying-Tsong Lin is the 12th person in history, as well as the first Taiwanese-American and the first person of Asian descent to travel to the deepest part of the ocean, the Challenger Deep.
- Lin and pilot Victor Vescovo visited the central pool of the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10.9 kilometers (6.8 miles) aboard the deep-submergence vehicle Limiting Factor.
- Lin is an acoustic scientist who is studying how sound propagates in the ocean.
- The research conducted during the dive, and in Dr. Lin’s shipboard experiments, will lead to increased understanding of sound refraction in the ocean and how acoustic communication and geo-location may be improved at extreme ocean depths.
Discussion with experts on ocean technology, exploration, and storytelling
On May 20, ocean explorer and world-renowned filmmaker James Cameron will host a special edition of Ocean Encounters, a popular virtual event series from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Viewers of this special event, titled Extreme Ocean Machines: Exploring Impossible Places, will have opportunities to submit questions to Cameron and a panel of leading experts in submersible technologies, ocean exploration, and storytelling.
Cameron was the first person to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench—the deepest known point on Earth at 11 km (6.8 miles) below the ocean surface—as a solo pilot in a one-man submersible, on 25 March 2012. Aptly named after the deepest part of the trench called Challenger Deep, the innovative, vertical DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submersible and science platform is a “cross between a torpedo and a hot rod painted Kawasaki racing green,” as Cameron has described it. He donated the submersible to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2013.
Cameron will lead a conversation on the revolutionary technologies that are empowering new generations of explorers, scientists, and storytellers on the high seas. The discussion will focus on how extraordinary machines—from ships and subs to autonomous robots and always-on sensors—are taking humans to never-before-seen places and teaching us about the amazing world beneath the waves.
Guests include:
- Mark Dalio, Founder and Creative Director, OceanX
- Orla Doherty, Producer of the BBC’s groundbreaking Blue Planet II television series
- Andrew Bowen, Principal Engineer and Director of the National Deep Submergence Facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Vincent Pieribone, Vice Chairman of OceanX and Director of the John B. Pierce Laboratory at Yale University
Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2020 7:30 – 8:30pm EDT
Title: Extreme Ocean Machines: Exploring Impossible Places
Free registration is required and space is limited.
Register now at go.whoi.edu/extreme
Paper reviews major findings, technological advances that could help in next deep-sea spill.
Ten years ago, a powerful explosion destroyed an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and injuring 17 others. Over a span of 87 days, the Deepwater Horizon well released an estimated 168 million gallons of oil and 45 million gallons of natural gas into the ocean, making it the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) quickly mobilized to study the unprecedented oil spill, investigating its effects on the seafloor and deep-sea corals and tracking dispersants used to clean up the spill.
In a review paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, WHOI marine geochemists Elizabeth Kujawinski and Christopher Reddy review what they— and their science colleagues from around the world—have learned from studying the spill over the past decade.
“So many lessons were learned during the Deepwater Horizon disaster that it seemed appropriate and timely to consider those lessons in the context of a review,” says Kujawinski. “We found that much good work had been done on oil weathering and oil degradation by microbes, with significant implications for future research and response activities.”
“At the end of the day, this oil spill was a huge experiment,” adds Reddy. “It shed great light on how nature responds to an uninvited guest. One of the big takeaways is that the oil doesn’t just float and hang around. A huge amount of oil that didn’t evaporate was pummeled by sunlight, changing its chemistry. That’s something that wasn’t seen before, so now we have insight into this process.”
Released for the first time in a deep ocean oil spill, chemical dispersants remain one of the most controversial debates in the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon. Studies offer conflicting conclusions about whether dispersants released in the deep sea reduced the amount of oil that reached the ocean surface, and the results are ambiguous about whether dispersants helped microbes break down the oil at all.
“I think the biggest unknowns still center on the impact of dispersants on oil distribution in seawater and their role in promoting—or inhibiting—microbial degradation of the spilled oil,” says Kujawinski, whose lab was the first to identify the chemical signature of the dispersants, making it possible to track in the marine environment.
Though the authors caution that the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon release may not be applicable to all spills, the review highlights advances in oil chemistry, microbiology, and technology that may be useful at other deep-sea drilling sites and shipping lanes in the Arctic. The authors call on the research community to work collaboratively to understand the complex environmental responses at play in cold climates, where the characteristics of oil are significantly different from the Gulf of Mexico.
“Now we have a better sense of what we need to know,” Kujawinski says. “Understanding what these environments look like in their natural state is really critical to understanding the impact of oil spill conditions.”
Additional authors of the review are chemist Ryan P. Rodgers (Florida State University), and microbiologists J. Cameron Thrash (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), David L. Valentine (University of California Santa Barbara), and Helen K. White (Haverford College).
Funding for this review was provided by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program, and the National Science Foundation.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu.
Key Takeaways
- Some coastal ecosystems around the Gulf of Mexico recovered, but in areas such as deep-sea coral communities, the oil, gas and dispersants combined with other stressors to create long-lasting impacts.
- Gene analysis tools, used on a wide scale for the first time, provided unprecedented insights into which microbes consumed oil, gas and dispersants in marine ecosystems.
- Advanced chemical analysis showed for the first time that weathering on the ocean surface, particularly by sunlight and oxygen (photo-oxidation), changed the composition of oil but reduced the effectiveness of dispersants applied to the surface.
- The spill science community can be most effective by working collaboratively across academia, industry and government in the event of future oil releases in the deep sea and high latitudes.
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund announced that it has committed $900,000 over the next three years in the fight to save the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. The announcement was made by Dr. Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, alongside Dr. Hendrik Nollens, Corporate Vice President of Animal Health and Welfare at SeaWorld and President of the SeaWorld Conservation Fund, during yesterday’s 2019 Ropeless Consortium meeting, an annual summit to help protect marine animals, at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
The funding provided by the SeaWorld Conservation Fund will be primarily used to test alternative non-lethal fishing gear. Whales and sea turtles commonly entangle in ropes that connect crab or lobster traps on the sea floor to buoys on the sea surface. These ropes allow fishermen to haul their traps to the sea surface, and the buoy allows fishermen to locate gear. Removing this end line from trap and pot fishing gear will significantly reduce or even eliminate entanglements. There are promising prototypes available for evaluation by scientists, regulators and fishermen, but few resources for proper testing of these systems. Support by the SeaWorld Conservation Fund will be used to evaluate the cost, the operational impact to the fishermen and the safety for the whales, as well as advance public awareness of the issues.
“This commitment by the SeaWorld Conservation Fund is absolutely vital in helping protect this iconic species,” says Moore. “The North Atlantic right whale lives mostly in a highly urbanized ocean, where ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement is a constant concern. We must find a way for whales, turtles and other species vulnerable to entanglement to coexist with sustainable seafood harvests.”
“SeaWorld is committed to marine education and conservation and our partnership with SeaWorld will enable much greater public awareness of the huge conservation and animal welfare concern that entanglement represents,” he adds. “This awareness will hopefully swing the balance towards educated seafood consumers being willing to pay the premium that whale friendly harvesting techniques will likely need.”
Entanglements in trap and pot fishing gear are a serious threat to many endangered whales and sea turtles, and North Atlantic right whales are most heavily affected, and some of the world’s most critically endangered marine animals. The species is in its seventh consecutive year of decline, with only about 411 whales left. Approximately 85 percent of all North Atlantic right whales bear scars from being entangled in fishing gear at least once in their lives, and over 50 percent have been entangled at least twice. Eighty-two percent of documented North Atlantic right whale mortality is attributable to fishing gear entanglements.

Proposed buoyless alternative to traditional rope system. Trap is acoustically located, identified and retrieved. Illustration by Natalie Renier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
“In precolonial times, North Atlantic right whales were a relatively common sight on the East Coast, but today the very existence of the entire species is at risk: fewer than 100 reproductively-active females remain in a population of approximately 411 whales total,” Moore explains.
“The New England Aquarium has long recognized that the least risky fishing method for whales is one that removes ropes from the water column. We applaud WHOI’s commitment to ropeless fishing as a potential solution for avoiding the extinction of the North Atlantic right whale,” says Tim Werner, Senior Scientist, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.
SeaWorld’s Nollens adds, “The Fund is dedicated to helping species in need, and we are proud to partner with Dr. Moore and his team on this critical initiative. The plight of the North Atlantic right whale is yet another symptom of man’s impact on the very same ocean on which a large and growing part of the U.S. economy relies. Time is running out but it is our hope to be a key partner in saving this species.”
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About the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund
Since its inception in 2003, the Fund has granted over $17.5 million to more than 1,200 projects with 81 organizations in 70 countries around the world. Its grantees, or benefactors, include world-renowned conservation organizations such as World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Wilderness Foundation Africa, the Panamerican Conservation Association and The Audubon Society. In addition, the Fund supports lesser-known grassroots groups who are committed to protecting and preserving their local communities. The Fund also receives donations from in-park guests, community friends, individual donors and corporate partners. SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment covers all administrative costs for the Fund, enabling 100 percent of all incoming donations to go directly to conservation. Learn more at www.swbg-conservationfund.org
About WHOI
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans’ role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu
Underwater footage captured by the REMUS SharkCam observing the behavior of basking sharks off the west coast of Scotland. (Credit: Amy Kukulya, @oceanrobotcam, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) known as the REMUS SharkCam has been used in the UK for the first time to observe the behavior of basking sharks in the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland.
The groundbreaking technology, designed and built by the Oceanographic Systems Laboratory at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is set to reveal the secret lives of the world’s second largest fish—a species that little is known about, despite being prevalent in the region’s waters.
The research team, which included colleagues from the University of Exeter, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Sky Ocean Rescue, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), hope the stunning images captured by the AUV will strengthen the case for creating the world’s first protected area for basking sharks in this part of the sea.
The team used SharkCam to track sharks once they were tagged and disappeared beneath the water’s surface. The robot collects wide-angle, high definition video of their behaviour from a distance, as well as high quality oceanographic data, such as ocean temperature, salinity, biological productivity and bathymetry, which shows how far the sharks are off the bottom of the seafloor.

The REMUS SharkCam is programmed to follow a specially designed tag placed on a shark and can forward predict where the animal will go and follow along at a safe distance. (Photo: Amy Kukulya, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Initial footage from the innovative SharkCam deployed off the coast of Coll and Tiree last month shows the sharks moving through the water column, potentially searching for food, feeding near the surface and swimming close to the seafloor.
It is hoped that further analysis of the many hours of video footage from the AUV, as well as visuals from towed camera tags attached to the sharks and the deployment of advanced sonar imaging, will uncover even more about the underwater behavior, social interactions, group behavior and courtship of the elusive species.
“Every time we deploy REMUS SharkCam, we learn something new about the species we are studying,” said WHOI Research Engineer Amy Kukulya and SharkCam Principal Investigator. “We’re able to remove the ocean’s opaque layer and dive into places never before possible with this groundbreaking technology, answering questions about key species and revealing new ones.”
Fieldwork for the project took place in July in the proposed Sea of the Hebrides Marine Protected Area (MPA) – one of four possible MPAs currently under consultation by the Scottish Government. MPAs are specially designated and managed to protect marine ecosystems, habitats and species, which can help restore the area for people and wildlife.

Dr. Matthew Witt from the University of Exeter, and Amy Kukulya, research engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), prepare equipment before deploying an underwater robot camera to follow a tagged basking shark. (Photo: WWF/Jane Morgan)
The area is one of only a few worldwide where large numbers of basking sharks are found feeding in the surface waters each year. It is suspected that basking sharks may even breed in Scotland—an event that has never before been captured on film.
“Our seas and coasts are home to some incredible wildlife,” said Dr. Jenny Oates, WWF SEAS Programme Manager. “As our oceans come under increasing pressure, innovative technology like the REMUS SharkCam can reveal our underwater world like never before and help to show why it must be protected. It is essential that we safeguard our seas, not just to enable magnificent species like basking sharks to thrive, but because all life on earth depends on our oceans.”
Footage gathered by the REMUS SharkCam technology will help support and promote basking shark conservation work by demonstrating how important this area is for the life cycle of the species, adding weight to the case for the MPA designation and providing a better understanding of measures which might help protect this iconic species and its habitat.
The REMUS SharkCam technology—owned and operated by WHOI—was originally developed to track great white sharks, but has been adapted to also be able to track sea turtles, smaller sharks and now basking sharks. The ‘smart’ AUV is programmed to follow a specially designed tag placed on a shark and can forward predict where the animal will go and follow along at a safe distance. The special acoustic bio-logger tag trails slightly behind the attachment point at the base of the main dorsal fin and can remain on sharks for the duration of a mission. The SharkCam tags are fitted with a three-tiered release technology and communication system, which allows researchers to find and collect the tags after they have detached from the sharks recovering more data about the animals behavior.
The project was funded by WHOI, WWF, Sky Ocean Rescue, SNH, and the University of Exeter. Additional support came from Sea World Busch Gardens Conservation Fund and Hydroid Inc.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans’ role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu.
Additional quotes for media:
Dr. Suzanne Henderson, Marine Policy and Advice Officer at SNH, who has worked on the basking shark tagging and research project run by SNH and the University of Exeter since 2012, said: “These giant fish are spectacular and watching them feed gracefully at the sea surface is such a special and memorable experience.
“This year’s collaboration has allowed us to use a combination of camera technologies and given us a glimpse of basking sharks’ underwater behaviour – a real first and very exciting. The footage has already made us reassess their behaviour, with the sharks appearing to spend much more time swimming just above the seabed than we previously thought.
“It really brings home why it’s so important that the species and its habitat are protected by designating the Sea of the Hebrides as a Marine Protected Area.”
Dr. Matthew Witt, of the University of Exeter, said: “This year saw the culmination of a decade of work at Exeter to support the conservation of this species. In collaboration with SNH, we have deployed state of the art equipment over several years to learn of the behaviours of these elusive animals.
“This year, our collaborative efforts expand with exciting new partners, to bring advanced video techniques to help reveal even greater detail on the underwater lives of these animals. Our efforts and resulting information highlight why the proposed MPA is important for securing a more positive conservation future for this iconic Scottish species.”
Oceanus Magazine
What makes the shelf break front such a productive and diverse part of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean? To find out, a group of scientists on the research vessel Neil Armstrong spent two weeks at sea in 2018 as part of a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation.