No matter how far you live from the ocean, you feel its presence every day. The ocean produces half of Earth’s oxygen, drives our climate and weather, provides an enormous portion of the world’s food and is a source of new fuels, pharmaceuticals and materials.
We work on, in, and beneath the waves to learn more about the ocean and its influence on our planet—knowledge critical to the stewardship of these precious resources.
Your donation supports the people, ideas, and innovation at the heart of our 85+ year legacy as a world leader in ocean research, exploration, and education.
The strength of WHOI science is its people. Supporters like you are drawn to scientists like WHOI Vice President for Research, Larry Madin. His recent retirement inspired hundreds of gifts to the Laurence P. Madin Research Accelerator Fund and unlocked a $1 million match from the Deerbrook Charitable Trust. The Madin Fund is helping support a new generation of researchers who will carry forward Larry’s devotion to ocean science.
Big ideas fuel big results. Recently our idea to explore the critically important yet under-explored Ocean Twilight Zone (OTZ) made waves with private funders. With their support, we have completed 4 major OTZ expeditions using custom-made ocean robots that are shedding light on a vast ocean realm that regulates our climate and has more biomass than all of our fisheries combined.
WHOI scientists visit impossible places and do impossible things for ocean science. We do this by inventing our own tools inside two renowned marine innovation centers: The Center for Marine Robotics and The National Deep Submergence Facility. Both are developing next-generation robots and submersibles designed to accelerate our understanding of our changing ocean.
WHOI researchers are working to preserve critical ocean ecosystems, such as coral reefs. A recent discovery that some corals are adapting to ocean warming that is killing many reefs sparked the WHOI Super Reefs Project. Project scientists are identifying climate-resistant corals and rearing them so they can seed compromised reefs and restore their health before it’s too late.
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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is the world’s leading non-profit oceanographic research organization. Our mission is to explore and understand the ocean and to educate scientists, students, decision-makers, and the public.