Pollution

LATEST TODAY'S CATCH

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

May 6, 2013 - 8:10AMThe “garbage patches,” as referred to in the media, are areas of marine debris concentration in the North Pacific Ocean, circulated by the North Pacific gyre. The gyre spreads across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the western US...
Apr 26, 2013 - 9:47AM
At Carrie Bow Cay in Belize, Dr. Candy Feller explains her research on the...
Oct 9, 2012 - 9:17AM
In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, what is the effect of oil on...

SPOTLIGHT

Ocean Trash Plaguing Our Sea

In the Pacific Ocean, four ocean currents merge to form the North Pacific gyre, also known as the North Pacific Subtropical...
May 12 2011 - 7:43am
Woods Hole scientists operate an ROV to sample the oil spewing from the ruptured Macondo Well.  After the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) administrators and investigators were among those...
Science in a Time of Crisis  Oil Spill Pioneers
May 10 2011 - 1:54pm
Part 1 of a 6-part series describing WHOI's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  "Oil Spill Pioneers" describes WHOI's four decades of experience studying oil spills, dating back to the 1969 Cape Code oil spill in Falmouth, MA....
Whale Rescue
Jan 14 2011 - 11:50am
When a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale becomes entangled in fishing gear, members of a response team from the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network spring into action. In the past 25 years, dozens of whales have been freed from life-threatening entanglements. Explore other...
Apr 22 2013 - 10:29am
Sometimes I think that our planet Earth, named for the Old English word for “dry land” (eorthe), should get a new name. Despite our knowledge that more than 70% of the planet’s surface is ocean—definitely not “dry land”—we still refer to our home by an 8th century description. The same goes for...
May 8 2013 - 11:20am
What happens to the waste coming out of a fish processing plant? Typically the fish guts and bones get sent to sea via a pipeline, and the Environmental Protection Agency regulates how much can be dumped. The sites can attract predators, such as these seagulls, fish, and even small sharks in Alaska...
Jul 27 2011 - 4:13pm
A still from a video documenting a remote beach in Curaçao that's been blanketed in plastic garbage. You can read how this marine debris impacted on researcher on our blog. 
Jun 7 2010 - 12:24pm
Major oil spills like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill are devestating, but aren’t the only way oil gets into the ocean. Nearly 85 percent of oil in U.S. coastal waters comes from runoff (roads, parking lots, etc.), polluted rivers, airplanes, and small boats and jet skis. These sources...
Jun 16 2010 - 11:36am
Carl Pellegrin (left) of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Tim Kimmel of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepare to net an oiled pelican in Barataria Bay, La., Saturday, June 5, 2010. The pelican was netted and transported to a facility on Grand Isle, La., for stabilization...
Apr 20 2012 - 10:37am
Bonny Schumaker, cofounder of the nonprofit On Wings of Care, flies over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill area every few weeks to survey for wildlife -- and on April 6, 2012, when this picture was taken, she was pleasantly surprised. "We were pleased to see very few of the surface oil slicks we've...
Jun 11 2010 - 9:38am
An autonomous underwater vehicle from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) being launched from the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter in the Gulf of Mexico. More about the Gulf oil spill can be found in our Gulf oil spill section.
Recycled Fishing Gear Converted into Energy
Jan 14 2011 - 2:37pm
Instead of adding castaway fishing nets to already crowded landfills, Hawaii’s multi-partner marine debris group has developed a method of converting marine debris into usable electricity. The Nets-to-Energy Program is reducing the effects of marine debris on the ocean and keeping shorelines...
Jul 24 2012 - 3:07pm
The Gulf oil spill is recognized as the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Within days of the April 20, 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people, remote underwater cameras revealed the BP pipe was leaking oil and gas on the ocean floor...
Dec 19 2011 - 3:07pm
A tiny yellow goby, Lubricogobius exiguus, living inside an abandoned can on the seafloor; Suruga Bay, Japan
Sep 16 2011 - 7:34pm
More than ever, the fate of the ocean is in our hands. To be good stewards and leave a thriving ocean for future generations, we need to make changes big and small wherever we are. To make a positive difference, here are five simple things you can do in 10 minutes or less to help protect the ocean—...
2011 Student Summit on the Ocean   Coasts Webcast  Part 3
Mar 28 2011 - 3:02pm
Recorded Feb. 15, 2011, this video from the Third Student Summit on the Ocean and Coasts includes presentations that were given by delegations from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (2:30), Oregon Coast Aquarium (16:40), Texas State Aquarium (30:10), Georgia Aquarium (44:00), South Carolina Aquarium (59:00...
Apr 20 2012 - 12:23pm
A scientist, Chris Reddy from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, collects oil-laden "sand patties" on a Louisiana beach two years after the oil spill. Watch a video of Chris Reddy talking about the effects of oil spills on marshes.