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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

lobster trap

Is underwater noise from construction affecting the American Lobster?

July 9, 2026

WHOI’s Sensory Ecology Lab investigates whether an industrialized soundscape impacts the health of a New England icon

Hadal Snailfish

Squishy survivor

June 12, 2026

How the snailfish survives the ocean’s most extreme pressures

Mar de Plata canyon

Answers from the abyss

June 11, 2026

How new discoveries in the deep could change life at the surface

Bathyopsurus-isopod2

A hadal zone mystery solved

June 11, 2026

An upside-down swimming isopod shows how tightly we are connected to the deep ocean

illustration of weddell seal mother in the water

A mother seal dives

June 10, 2026

Follow a Weddell seal as her body adapts to foraging in deep, frigid waters

News Releases

“Digital Reefs” awarded $5 million

September 21, 2022

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) $5 million to participate in NSF’s ground breaking Convergence Accelerator Program. The project, led by WHOI scientist Anne Cohen, builds the world’s first Coral Reef Digital Twin, a 4-dimensional virtual replica of a living coral reef powered by state-of-the art data and models.

The bolder bird gets (and keeps) the girl

September 14, 2022

A new paper by WHOI researchers demonstrates a connection between personality and divorce in albatross

How marine predators find food hot spots in open ocean “deserts”

September 7, 2022

A new study led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (UW APL) finds that marine predators, such as tunas, billfishes and sharks, aggregate in anticyclonic, clockwise-rotating ocean eddies (mobile, coherent bodies of water). As these anticyclonic eddies move throughout the open ocean, the study suggests that the predators are also moving with them, foraging on the high deep-ocean biomass contained within.

Marine Protected Areas in Antarctica should include young emperor penguins, scientists say

August 31, 2022

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and European research institutions are calling for better protections for juvenile emperor penguins, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers listing the species under the Endangered Species Act and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) considers expanding the network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean.

As oceans warm, snapping shrimp sound a warning

August 18, 2022

Research published by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists today in Frontiers in Marine Science confirmed their previous observations that rising temperatures increase the sound of snapping shrimp, a tiny crustacean found in temperate and tropical coastal marine environments around the world.

News & Insights

Florida’s ocean economy depends on science

August 29, 2025

WHOI’s Dennis McGillicuddy on why ocean life matters deeply to the Sunshine State

Valentine’s Day Courtship Tips from the Ocean

February 10, 2025

Are you an ocean lover? Go a little deeper with these courtship tips from beneath the waves!

Recognizing Massachusetts Right Whale Day

April 24, 2023

April 24 marks the first-ever Right Whale Day in Massachusetts. WHOI biologist and veterinarian Michael Moore recently met with the resident who brought this special recognition about– and explains why it’s important to raise awareness about the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Critically Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales Getting Smaller, New Research Finds

June 10, 2021

A report out this week in Current Biology reveal that critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are up to three feet shorter than 40 years ago. This startling conclusion reinforces what scientists have suspected: even when entanglements do not lead directly to the death of North Atlantic right whales, they can have lasting effects on the imperiled population that may now number less than 400 animals. Further, females that are entangled while nursing produce smaller calves.

right whales

Rare Drone video shows critically endangered North Atlantic right whales

May 10, 2021

May 10, 2021   During a joint research trip on February 28 in Cape Cod Bay, Mass., WHOI whale trauma specialist Michael Moore, National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry, and scientists from New England Aquarium, witnessed a remarkable biological event: North…

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