Category: Ocean Awareness

The NOAA Fisheries response team uses poles with specialized knives to cut entangling lines. Credit: Alaska Department of Fish and Game/Jamie Musbach (NOAA Fisheries Permit # 24359)

Humpback Whale Successfully Freed from Entanglement in Endicott Arm

7/26/2026 - By fisheries.noaa.gov, fisheries.noaa.gov. The Tracy Arm-Fords Terror wilderness, located 50 miles south of Juneau, Alaska, features a pair of steep glacial fjords: Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. While remote, the waters in this area see steady vessel traffic, ranging from massive cruise ships and small charter boats to commercial fishing… SEE MORE

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Story of Octopus Intelligence Set in the Pacific Northwest

7/14/2026 - By Janet Green Hammerman, best4boats.com. The Netflix adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt's bestselling novel Remarkably Bright Creatures is drawing renewed attention to one of the ocean's most fascinating inhabitants — the giant Pacific octopus. Set in a fictional Pacific Northwest coastal town, the story follows an aging widow, a drifting… SEE MORE

Octopus

Eyes On The Deep: How Ocean Imaging Is Transforming Underwater Discovery

Ocean Awareness

7/7/2026 - By Elise Hugus, whoi.edu. From ancient shipwrecks in the Black Sea to a lost WWI submarine off San Diego, the ability to see — and share — what lies on the ocean floor has never been more powerful. A new feature from WHOI's Oceanus magazine profiles Dwight Coleman, the institution's… SEE MORE

Image Credits: The Australian Institute of Marine Science.

WHOI Develops Tool to Predict Coral Bleaching Months Before It Strikes

6/9/2026 - By whoi.edu, whoi.edu. A new forecasting tool from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution could give reef managers and coastal communities a five-to-six-month head start on one of the ocean's most destructive events: coral bleaching. Called the Bleaching Event Early Predictor (BEEP), the system works by tracking three large-scale climate patterns in… SEE MORE

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Story of Octopus Intelligence Set in the Pacific Northwest

Ocean Awareness

6/9/2026 - By Janet Green Hammerman, best4boats.com. The Netflix adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt's bestselling novel Remarkably Bright Creatures is drawing renewed attention to one of the ocean's most fascinating inhabitants — the giant Pacific octopus. Set in a fictional Pacific Northwest coastal town, the story follows an aging widow, a drifting… SEE MORE

Physician Dr. Larry Spetka swims with his namesake, Larry the whale shark, in the Gulf in May 2025. Credit: BWRI/Jamison Smith

A Year in the Life of Larry the Whale Shark

6/8/2026 - By fisheries.noaa.gov, fisheries.noaa.gov. One year ago today, researchers deployed a satellite tag on a whale shark off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida. They never could have anticipated the epic journey that would ensue. On May 28, 2025, researchers set out from Boca Ciega Bay, Florida, heading into the Gulf… SEE MORE

Coral bleaching at Cheeca Rocks in the Florida Keys in 2023. [Credit: NOAA]

World’s Fourth Mass Coral Bleaching Event Likely Ended in 2025

6/7/2026 - By nesdis.noaa.gov, nesdis.noaa.gov. After analyzing satellite data and bleaching observations, NOAA’s experts say the record-breaking fourth global coral bleaching event likely concluded in mid-2025. The fourth global coral bleaching event was confirmed by NOAA on April 15, 2024. From early-2023 to mid-2025, bleaching-level heat stress impacted 84% of the world’s coral… SEE MORE

During the 2025 Deep-sea Habitats of the Cook Islands expedition on Exploration Vessel Nautilus the team surveyed various seascapes to better understand seabed environments, and natural and mineral resources in the region. In this image, polymetallic nodules rest on sediment accumulated in a depression between rounded pillows and extended lobate lava flows, which are evidence of ancient volcanoes. (Image credit: Courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust)

NOAA Scientists and Partners to Map Deep Waters, Seabed in the Cook Islands

6/6/2026 - By noaa.gov, noaa.gov. This summer, NOAA Ocean Exploration will conduct an expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to map, explore and characterize deep waters off the coast of the Cook Islands. The effort is in partnership with the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority. Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), mapping technologies and onsite… SEE MORE

The Container Ship That’s Also an Ocean Science Lab

5/29/2026 - By Amy E. Nevala, whoi.edu. Some of the most valuable ocean data in the Atlantic isn't being collected by a research vessel — it's riding aboard a container ship. The M/V Oleander, which makes twice-weekly cargo runs between Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Hamilton, Bermuda, has carried scientific instruments since… SEE MORE

Three Ocean Robots Exploring Active Underwater Volcanoes

5/18/2026 - By Amelia Macapia, whoi.edu. The ocean floor is home to thousands of volcanoes — many of them active — and understanding what's happening down there requires machines that can go where humans can't. A new feature from WHOI's Oceanus magazine profiles three robotic vehicles that are transforming what scientists know… SEE MORE