Research Highlights
Oceanus Magazine
A viral video shows a denizen of the ocean’s twilight zone making an unusual trip to the surface
WHOI biologist Francesco Ventura recounts a conservation win for sea turtles in remote Guinea-Bissau
One man’s sunken ship is another fish’s home? Learn about five species that have evolved to thrive on sunken vessels
Name pays tribute to Cervantes’ Don Quixote and reinforces themes of sweetness and beauty
News Releases
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and partners take home prestigious award
Long-awaited event sets the stage for scientists to learn more about physical, chemical and biological processes in the deep ocean East Pacific Rise, Pacific Ocean (May 2, 2025) – Scientists diving in the human-occupied vehicle Alvin recently witnessed a rare…
Washington Sea Grant will work with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to shed light on a highly invasive species
American Association for the Advancement of Science welcomes 471 scientists and engineers in the class of 2024
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution among research groups that offer findings to support protection of species
News & Insights
A marine geobiologist falls for the ‘brains’ and beauty of an ancient single-celled creature that can change its shell into a variety of geometric shapes.
Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser is a marine benthic ecologist, whose primary research focus is on how invertebrates establish themselves along the seafloor.
WHOI’s new deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicle moves one step closer to exploring the hadal zone—the deepest region of the ocean—to search for new clues about the limits of life on Earth, and possibly beyond.
Scientists, in collaboration with commercial fishermen, are using underwater video cameras to document the behavior of seals and other animals in and around fishing nets just east of Cape Cod—an area that has seen steady growth in gray seal populations over the past few years.
“When hydrothermal vents were discovered in 1977, it very much flipped biology on its end,” says Julie Huber, an oceanographer who studies life in and below the seafloor at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) on Cape Cod. “People knew that organisms could live off of chemical energy, but they didn’t imagine they could support animal ecosystems.”
Scientists like Dr. Huber have continued to study those chemical-munching microbes. And it turns out, she says, a diverse set of microbes can be really good at making a living where the sun doesn’t shine. They make use of the chemicals available to them, even at some of the harshest vents, known as black smokers.