Saving Seafood

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell: City would be great home for fisheries center

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — December 29, 2015 — If NOAA Fisheries should decide to move the Northeast Fisheries Science Center out of Woods Hole, Mayor Jon Mitchell said New Bedford would be just right for a new home.

Mitchell calls the city “the best place in the Northeast by far.”

For about a year, the Commerce Department, which contains NOAA, has been assessing the adequacy and the condition of the various buildings that constitute the laboratory. NOAA spokeswoman Teri Frady said repairs, renovations or replacement are all possible options and any definitive direction is still a long way off.

“This kind of facilities study is done of any project like this,” Frady said. “There’s no decision at this point. We’re mainly focusing on the study so that the Department of Commerce and NOAA have everything they need.”

For his part, Mitchell said told The Standard-Times he “raised this issue with NOAA at least a year ago, along with the federal delegation.”

Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times

Drones for Good: Tiny Flying Robots Help Protect Endangered Whales

August 7, 2015 — A crowdfunding project called Snotbot, which aims to fund quadcopter-enabled research of whales by collecting their projectile exhalations, has been getting a lot of attention.

It hasn’t hurt that Snotbot has a high-profile fan and patron: Patrick Stewart, the actor best known for helming the Starship Enterprise and leading the X-Men on small and big screens worldwide, appears in the project’s fund-raising video.

But Snotbot is not alone. Since 2013, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been using multi-copters to collect whale snot and high-resolution full-body images of endangered great whales.

After testing multiple iterations of drone hardware and software designs on expeditions off the shores of New Zealand, Chile, and New England, the team has arrived at their current flier of choice: a six-propeller multi-copter 32 inches in diameter, equipped to collect both images and breath samples from endangered humpback and right whales while the creatures are swimming at sea.

Read the full story from TakePart

Woods Hole Science Stroll Sunday, August 9 Offers Free Family Science Activities

August 6, 2015 — Interested in touring a research vessel, seeing the submersible ALVIN and other ocean robots, or learning about research on whales and sea turtles, squid, plastics in the ocean, and climate change?

These activities are just a few of the many exhibits, demonstrations and displays to be featured by Woods Hole science organizations during the Woods Hole Science Stroll.

The free public event will be held Sunday, August 9 from 11 am to 3 pm on Water Street in Woods Hole. 

The NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow will be open for tours at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) dock, with the submersible ALVIN and other WHOI ocean robots on display nearby. The WHOI Ocean Science Exhibit Center, featuring interactive ocean exhibits, will be open on School Street. Visitors can see squid and other aquatic organisms in research tanks at the Marine Biological Laboratory’s Marine Resources Center, and learn about biology, biomedicine, and environmental science research at their Visitors Center on Water Street.

Get all the details about the day’s events or get directions and more information.

Questions? 

Contact Shelley Dawicki, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, at 508-289-2252 or Shelley.Dawicki@noaa.gov.