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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

The Mysterious Movements of Deep-Sea Larvae

The Mysterious Movements of Deep-Sea Larvae

December 31, 2009

The marvelous migrations of fish and whales through the deep sea have been hard enough for us humans to follow. But what about tiny organisms—many smaller than the dot beneath this question mark? How they move from one spot to…

Shipwrecks Offer Clues to Ancient Cultures

Shipwrecks Offer Clues to Ancient Cultures

December 18, 2009

Brendan Foley hunts for shipwrecks, but he’s not searching for gold or jewels. The sunken treasure he pursues comes not in chests, but mostly in curvaceous clay jars called amphorae—the cargo containers of the B.C. world. Holding remnants of goods…

Buoys Help Avert Whale-Ship Collisions

Buoys Help Avert Whale-Ship Collisions

July 22, 2009

A lot of lines crisscross, run parallel, and ultimately connect in this story. The first line is a watery one hugging the East Coast between Florida and Nova Scotia, which right whales have migrated along since time immemorial. The second…

Turning a Toy into a Scientific Tool

Turning a Toy into a Scientific Tool

July 15, 2009

John Bailey spends most sunny weekends on a grassy field behind a movie theater on Cape Cod with a group of model airplane enthusiasts and their handmade creations. The hobbyists, fueled on passion and take-out pizza, spend hours with their…

Floating Without Imploding

Floating Without Imploding

July 1, 2009

To allow a heavy vehicle to float in the deepest depths, Don Peters and other engineers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used an entirely new system of ceramic spheres that would provide lift and, at the same time, would not…

News Releases

Eastern oysters

Tiny oyster larvae rely on gravity to feed

September 16, 2026

High-speed imaging reveals how oyster larvae’s dense shell helps them feed—and may offer clues to why ocean acidification threatens their survival

Expedition captures first detailed imagery of Robert Falcon Scott’s last ship, Terra Nova, using cutting-edge Canadian Voyis 3D technology

July 14, 2026

The Heroic Age Expedition, led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, reveals the famed Antarctic explorer’s last ship, Terra Nova in stunning detail

Atlantis and Alvin

Heroic Age Expedition to survey two of the world’s most famous shipwrecks

July 1, 2026

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, in partnership with WHOI, will undertake “once-in-a-generation” expedition to survey Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Quest and Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova

CUREE autonomous underwater vehicle

Autonomous underwater robot discovers hidden coral reef “hotspots”

May 13, 2026

New underwater robot opens new possibilities in coral reef conservation by autonomously identifying biodiversity “hotspots”

WHOI Scientist Catherine Walker Joins NASA-Selected EDGE Satellite Mission

February 12, 2026

Satellite measuring land, polar, and coastal regions could launch by 2030

News & Insights

WHOI builds bridges with Arctic Indigenous communities

February 10, 2021

NSF program fosters collaboration between indigenous communities and traditional scientists, allowing WHOI’s autonomous vehicles to shed light on a changing Arctic

WHOI-assisted study finds ocean dumping of DDT waste was “sloppy”

October 29, 2020

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.

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