In the News
That strawberry squid can’t be true (But it is)
You know you’ve truly arrived when the popular fact-checking website Snopes has to weigh in on whether something looks so outlandish, so unbelievably alien, that it can’t be true. But it is. Recently, Snopes came to the conclusion that the strawberry squid photographed by WHOI postdoctoral researcher Paul Caiger was, in fact, real. We could…
Read MoreUltra-black skin helps deep-sea fishes avoid detection
Below 200 meters, where sunlight is only a glimmer, light—in the form of bioluminescence—is still an important way to communicate, find mates, and avoid predation. And in this barely visible light from above and within the twilight zone, new research shows that some deep-sea fish are able to avoid detection by absorbing nearly every photon…
Read MoreEnvironmental threats of seafloor mining to the Twilight Zone
A team of researchers from a wide range of oceanographic research centers worldwide recently published an opinion article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that concludes seafloor mining has the potential to significantly disrupt the ocean’s twilight zone. Despite this, very little consideration is given to mid-water ecosystems when evaluating the…
Read MoreBringing Light to the Twilight Zone
Many animals build complex structures for protection or to capture food, but very few are built exclusively from materials that the animals themselves produce. In the twilight zone, structures made of mucus are quite common and serve many vital functions, but little is known about them because of their fragility and transparency. Now, our friends at the Monterey…
Read MoreFREE EVENT: Buttonwood Park Zoo offers virtual look at ‘Ocean Twilight Zone’
The Buttonwood Park Zoo will host its Wildlife Education Series, “A Deep Dive into the Ocean Twilight Zone,” virtually on Thursday, April 30, at 7 p.m. Capt. Philip G. Renaud, USN (Ret), Program Manager of the Ocean Twilight Zone Program for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will be the guest speaker. The virtual presentation will…
Read MoreThe oceans’ twilight zone must be studied now, before it is too late
Members of WHOI’s Ocean Twilight Zone project were instrumental in the recent formation of JETZON (Joint Exploration of the Twilight Zone Ocean Network), an international group linking all of the world’s major twilight zone research projects. Leaders of JETZON published a commentary in the journal Nature arguing that “Exploitation and degradation of the mysterious layer…
Read MoreThe Largest Mass Migration on The Planet Happens Every Single Day, And We Never See It
At night, they rise. As the Sun disappears over the horizon, a vast movement takes place in the world’s oceans, as countless sea creatures begin the long trek upwards towards the surface waters above. They do not stay long. When the Sun rises, bringing light and the threat of watchful surface predators, they will retreat…
Read MoreEnter the Twilight Zone: Scientists dive into the oceans’ mysterious middle
As part of a $25-million mission, NASA will travel to the north Atlantic in April with the WHOI OTZ team to study the movement of carbon between the atmosphere and the deep ocean via the twilight zone.
Read MoreSatellite Observes Massive Ocean Migration
Every night, under the cover of darkness, countless small sea creatures swim from the ocean depths to feed near the surface, then descend out of sight again before daybreak. This vast animal migration—a critical part of Earth’s carbon cycle—has been observed for the first time on a global scale thanks to a space-based laser. The…
Read MoreThe Lawless High Seas May Soon Gain Protections Under a Groundbreaking Ocean Treaty
“Historically, the high seas have been open to a wide array of uses,” said Porter Hoagland, a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “There’s a notion of the freedom of the high seas, and with modern technology—including the ability to get out and use the ocean in those areas, as well as…
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