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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

Larry Madin and Kelly Sutherland

Tiny drifters, massive impact

March 24, 2026

How salps shuttle carbon to the deep

The unseen toll of war on science

March 19, 2026

As the changing climate accelerates the spread of toxic algal blooms in the Arctic, the Russia–Ukraine war is cutting off critical international collaboration needed to understand and protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities.

Jane Ruckert, a technical diver

From ruin to reef

January 27, 2026

What Pacific wrecks are teaching us about coral resilience—and pollution

One researcher, 15,000 whistles: Inside the effort to decode dolphin communication

January 21, 2026

Scientists at WHOI analyze thousands of dolphin whistles to explore whether some sounds may function like words

A new underwater robot could help preserve New England’s historic shipwrecks

December 1, 2025

WHOI’s ResQ ROV to clean up debris in prominent marine heritage sites

News Releases

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”

Industrial fishing has been depleting midwater fish for decades, new WHOI study finds

May 8, 2026

The research focuses on a poorly understood group of larger midwater fishes that the authors call the “dark web,” species, such as pomfrets and snake mackerels.

New WHOI study cautions that deep-sea fishing could undermine valuable tuna fisheries

January 27, 2026

The study shows that large-scale harvesting of mesopelagic fish that live hundreds of meters below the surface could reduce the food available to bigeye tuna

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and CMA CGM expand their partnership

January 27, 2026

CMA CGM, which has long been committed to preserving biodiversity through multiple initiatives in the U.S. and worldwide, will support two key WHOI projects

Seawater microbes offer new, non-invasive way to detect coral disease, WHOI-led study finds

January 20, 2026

Coral reefs support more than 25 percent of all marine life and underpin the livelihoods of roughly one billion people globally.

News & Insights

A swordfish swims near the ocean’s surface off the coast of Miami, Florida. Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington tagged a group of five swords there to track their movements in and out of the ocean twilight zone, a dimly-lit layer of the ocean between 200 and 1000 meters deep (656 to 3,280 feet). (Photo by Steve Dougherty Photography).

Following the elusive sword

November 5, 2019

Satellite tags allow researchers to “see” how swordfish move in and out of the ocean twilight zone.

WHOI Senior Scientist Joan Bernhard holds a synthetic model of a foram species known as Astrammina

Falling in love with foraminifera

October 30, 2019

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.

How do you study marine metamorphosis?

October 22, 2019

Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser is a marine benthic ecologist, whose primary research focus is on how invertebrates establish themselves along the seafloor.

The Rise of Orpheus (Part 1)

October 2, 2019

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.

grey seal in gillnet

Underwater cameras tackle tough questions for fishery

September 3, 2019

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. 

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