Posts by Stephanie Murphy
Cape Cod Towns Lead the Way on Sea Level Rise Planning
With help from WHOI Sea Grant’s floodplain specialist, three Cape Cod towns are pioneering new approaches to coastal flooding as sea level rise threatens to expand flood zones far beyond their current boundaries. Through a groundbreaking project in association with the Pleasant Bay Alliance, the towns of Orleans, Chatham, and Harwich are working to adopt…
Read MoreInvestigating Public Perception of Flooding and Erosion Risk
While sea level rise, hurricanes, and winter storms are increasing in coastal communities, Massachusetts flood insurance enrollments are not. In fact, participation in flood insurance policies declined in recent years, particularly on Cape Cod. More frequent and intense weather events leave homeowners vulnerable to property damage caused by flooding and erosion. Economists Di Jin and…
Read MoreLayer by Layer: Building a sense of myself in science
I stood in WHOI’s Seafloor Samples Lab, a massive library filled with rows and rows of mud and rock collected from the bottom of the ocean, looking down at a sediment core on the table in front of me. I opened the core, carefully slicing it
Read MoreO-STEAM Applications Open
WHOI Sea Grant is accepting applications for the Ocean STEAM Powered (O-STEAM) Fellowship, a week-long, residential fellowship in Woods Hole offered at no cost to Massachusetts high school sophomores and juniors. In 2026, we are pleased to be offering 2 weeks of O-STEAM! Open to students of all backgrounds and identities, this residential program will run in two gender-based cohorts.
Read MoreFrom Bike Shop to Bay: An intern’s journey into aquaculture
When Aydan Craveiro’s high school shop teacher sent an email about a job opportunity, he couldn’t have imagined where it would lead. The position — a shellfish aquaculture internship on Cape Cod — offered everything he was looking for: outdoor work, housing, and a chance to escape the basement of the bike shop where he’d…
Read MorePost 5: Winter launch
We released our second set of drifters into Cape Cod Bay on Tuesday (2/10/2026). Thank you to the crew of the RV Tioga for deploying the drifters for us! But first, a quick re-cap! Two drifters from the fall deployment escaped Cape Cod Bay – Maddie and Athvika. The Athvika drifter stopped transmitting pings in…
Read MoreWHOI Sea Grant Welcomes Coastal Resilience Specialist Rachael Hamilton
Rachael is no stranger to the Massachusetts coastline. Originally from Gloucester, she received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Community Development through the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Rachael has a background in outreach and community engagement, through prior work with Black Earth Compost and as a research assistant…
Read MoreMeet Our 2026 Knauss Fellows
The National Sea Grant Office has selected 49 finalists from 26 Sea Grant programs across 26 states for the 2026 Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. WHOI Sea Grant has three finalists among this year’s cohort: Shari Rohret, Nicole Vandale, and Nadège Aoki. Sea Grant’s Knauss Fellowship places early-career professionals in legislative and executive…
Read MoreShow Your Support for Sea Grant
Add your name to our list of supporters! Last year, the Massachusetts Sea Grant programs invited residents to add their names to a sign-on letter urging Congress to maintain strong support for Sea Grant. To date, over 600 constituents—from shellfish growers in Wellfleet to science teachers in Worcester—have already answered the call. Their message is…
Read MorePost 4: Summary of First Deployment
We are officially done tracking all of the drifters from our first release back in October! The remaining two drifters (Drifter #1 made by Athvika and Drifter #4 made by Maddie) continued their paths out into the Atlantic up until December 1st when, due to the limited GPS tracking time paid for each drifter, we…
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