News
Ever wonder how those dazzling fish end up in aquarium tanks? At seven U.S. aquariums, scientists and aquarists are pulling off something wild: raising marine fish from newly hatched babies the size of a pinhead into the showstoppers millions come to see. A new interactive StoryMap, developed by WHOI Sea Grant and UMass Boston, takes…
Shellfish constables in coastal Massachusetts can say goodbye to “PowerPoint purgatory” and hello to an inspired, flexible way of learning! It took a team of people across multiple agencies and disciplines to change the way the training had been done for decades, but the Massachusetts Shellfish Officers Training Course has officially traded its intensive two-week…
Project Launches Interactive Site to Share Ocean Conservation Science July 28, 2026 – A nationwide collaboration among public aquariums and research institutions has developed new methods to breed more than 20 marine fish species in human care, reducing reliance on wild-caught animals while launching new public resources to help advance sustainable aquaculture. Through a multi-year…
Grace Simpkins with a drifter in advance of the July 2026 deployment. By Margaret Gregory, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Our fourth and final deployment of the 2025 O-STEAM drifters occurred on Monday (7/20/26)! A huge thank you to the crew of the RV Tioga for deploying the drifters for us this week and over the past…
Unlike our winter and fall deployments, all of our drifters released during spring escaped Cape Cod Bay and are now in the greater Atlantic Ocean! Immediately after being released into the bay on May 11, the drifters built by Sofia and Ella/Viv (drifter 1 and 2) started to head northeast towards Race Point. The third…
WHOI Sea Grant welcomes Jessica Drysdale, who joined our team in May as research and fellowship coordinator. Jess has been working in the Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry department at WHOI since 2015, including projects exploring carbon cycling in the ocean and understanding the fate and movement of anthropogenic radionuclides from coastal sources. She has a…
With its soft sand and warm water, South Cape Beach in Mashpee is a popular Cape Cod summer destination. But it’s more than just a great place to relax; year round, South Cape also serves as a barrier for marshes, ponds, and habitats. Monitoring this shoreline is fundamental to being able to protect it, and beach-goers can be part …
Interest in aquaculture as a business opportunity brings a steady influx of inquiries to WHOI Sea Grant for technical and permitting assistance. The Fundamentals of Shellfish Farming class highlights ways someone could get involved with shellfish farming including creating a new farm, working on a farm, and …
WHOI biologist Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser studies the colonies that settle around shipwrecks, looking at changes to the colonies over time as well as changes to the ship, including the impacts of large fishing nets and other gear that become entangled in the wreck. This “marine debris” can destroy whole sections of a wreck, disrupting the habitat of colonizing animals.
The ocean is full of strange, fascinating, and sometimes surprising science. From its distinctive creatures to intricate ecosystems, here are some of the many things I learned in my 2025 O-STEAM fellowship that make the marine world so incredible.