Latest Woods Hole, Massachusetts Stories

Forms partnership with WHOI to accelerate technology development, ocean research and discovery WOODS HOLE, Mass., March 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Explorer and filmmaker James Cameron and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have formed a partnership to stimulate advances in ocean science and technology and build on the historic breakthroughs of the 2012 Cameron-?led DEEPSEA CHALLENGE expedition exploring deep-ocean trenches. The announcement comes on the one-year...

For decades researchers have recorded sounds from whales and other marine mammals, using a variety of methods including passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to better understand how these animals use sound to interact with each other and with the environment. Now, for the first time, researchers report using this technology to record spawning cod in the wild. Acoustic behavior in cod has been of interest for several decades, but few studies have observed their use of sound as part of...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA-funded researchers are making final preparations at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Mass., for an ocean-going campaign designed to shed new light on the link between ocean salinity and shifts in global precipitation patterns. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Reporters are invited to attend a media briefing on the expedition at 10 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 5, at...

NASA-funded researchers are making final preparations at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Mass., for an ocean-going campaign designed to shed new light on the link between ocean salinity and shifts in global precipitation patterns. Reporters are invited to attend a media briefing on the expedition at 10 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 5, at WHOI. Media also can participate via telephone. NASA's field campaign, named the Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean...

Tracking Debris from Damaged Oil Rigs Could Help Forecast Coastal Impacts in the Future Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, mysterious honeycomb material was found floating in the Gulf of Mexico and along coastal beaches. Using state-of-the-art chemical forensics and a bit of old-fashioned detective work, a research team led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) confirmed that the flotsam were pieces of material used to maintain buoyancy of the pipe...

A search team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has located the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 some 3,900 meters, or nearly 2.5 miles, below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil's northeastern coast.The team left the port of Suape, Brazil, aboard the vessel Alucia on March 22, arriving at the search site on March 25. After one week of searching, one of the mission's three autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), the REMUS 6000s, detected debris on the seafloor. A...

WHOI Scientists and Engineers Provide Tools and Expertise to Assist with DiscoveryThey were called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Until the late 19th century, New Zealand's Pink and White Terraces along Lake Rotomahana on the North Island, attracted tourists from around the world, interested in seeing the beautiful natural formations created by a large geothermal system. But the eruption of Mt. Tarawera on June 10, 1886, buried the terraces in sediment and caused the lake basin to enlarge,...

U.S. scientists have discovered a unique new species of worm that feeds on plankton and has 10 slender tentacles on its head--a creature they are affectionately dubbing the 'squidworm'.Using a robotic submersible in the Celebes Sea, off the coast of Indonesia, researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts and the University of California, Santa Cruz discovered the creature at depths of 2,500 to 2,800 meters below sea level.The annelid, which grows to sizes of...

Contrary to some previous, highly publicized, reports, ocean acidification is not likely to worsen the hearing of whales and other animals, according to a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist who studies sound propagation in the ocean.Tim Duda, of WHOI's Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department, undertook a study in response to warnings that as the ocean becomes more acidic"”due to elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)--noise from ships will be able...

NANTUCKET, Mass., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- As sea levels continue to rise, what are coastal communities doing to adapt to and mitigate a situation that could result in the eventual displacement of millions of Americans and destroy beaches and coastal ecosystems? Leading government officials, policy-makers, scientists, insurance experts and others will join together at a conference here on September 24 to explore the issues from various points of view and discuss how some communities are...