Building Blocks - The Foundations of Our Science

Without a strong foundation, structures become weak and fail. Science is no different. Here are a few of our foundational building blocks that have become an established baseline for ocean stewardship and science excellence.

New England/Mid-Atlantic

Sound science requires a strong foundation made with solid, reliable building blocks. Developing those building blocks takes time, thought, and fortitude. For us, that’s 150 years of asking tough research questions. Many of our surveys, equipment, methods, research programs, and reference collections simply started as questions: Can we measure it?, How do we measure it?, or What do we measure it with?. Let’s take a look at the history and evolution of a few of our foundational building blocks, and see how they became established baselines of ocean stewardship and science excellence that you can’t find anywhere else.

View of the stern of the fisheries survey vessel Henry B. Bigelow showing a trawl net being deployed.

Bottom Trawl Surveys: Capturing How Species and the Ocean are Changing Over Time

Begun in 1963, these spring and fall standardized sampling surveys of the Northeast Shelf are the longest running in the world. They tell us about the abundance and distribution of species, and how they and ocean conditions are changing over time. The survey records and reports contain data not available anywhere else and are used by researchers in many disciplines.

Learn more about our bottom trawl surveys

Man checks lines on a row of large glass bottles on shelves containing different algal cultures in the Milford Lab’s mass culture room.

Algal Culture: Growing Food for Shellfish Research and a Hatchery Resource

Different microalgae are collected and cultured at our Milford Laboratory for research and for the shellfish hatchery industry to use as feed. Originally started in the 1950s, the culture collection has significantly expanded to include more than 230 strains today. It serves as a resource for our research and for commercial growers and hatcheries throughout the United States.

Learn more about the microalgal culture

Spencer Baird and colleagues seining in small boat near shore

Fish Collection: Identifying and Learning More About the Fish in the Sea

From the local harbor to the deep sea, fish and data about fish have been collected by NOAA Fisheries since 1871 using ever-improving technology and methods. Our early specimens were sent to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and accounted for a large percentage of the Institution’s initial collection. Fish collection continues today on numerous resource surveys and from other field projects. New species continue to be found, and more is learned about those we have already discovered.

otoliths or fish earbones of different shapes and sizes from different species are displayed on a black cloth background.

Age & Growth Specimens: What Fish Earbones Can Tell Us

Knowing the age structure of a fish population helps to monitor, assess, and manage stocks for long-term benefits. Each year our researchers and technicians determine ages of tens of thousands of fish and shellfish. Aged scales and otoliths collected decades ago are archived for future needs and help answer current research questions. More than 3.1 million samples dating back to the 1920s are stored in our warehouse.

Learn more about aging fish and shellfish

Dozens of white, brown, and pink-colored sea scallops photographed on a black ocean floor.

Benthic Surveys: Secrets from the Ocean Floor

Surveys of the ocean bottom and the water just above it have been conducted since the federal fisheries service was founded. Many bottom samples were sent to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and are housed in the Woods Hole Benthic Specimen Reference Collection. Taxonomists and systematists from many research institutions and countries use the data for describing new species or species distributions. Samples also reveal information about natural and human impacts on the ocean floor.

Learn more about the history of the center’s benthic research

underwater image taken of the side of a large blue shark as it swims by from left to right

Cooperative Shark Tagging Program: Citizen Scientists and Researchers Working Together

Begun in 1962, the cooperative shark tagging program is the oldest continuing citizen science program in NOAA Fisheries and the longest such program in the world. Thousands of recreational and commercial fishermen participate in the program to learn more about Atlantic sharks.

Learn more about the Apex Predators Program and shark research

This illustration shows the variety of technologies that NOAA Fisheries researchers use to record underwater sounds and study marine animals. The seascape shows bottom- mounted and drifting acoustic recorders, underwater autonomous vehicles, Atlantic cod and humpback whale with tags, and instruments deployed from a NOAA ship and small boat. Colored circles show a zoomed-in view of the instruments and indicate the type of data collected: green for real-time data, orange for archival data, and blue for active

Passive Acoustic Monitoring: Listening for Sounds in the Ocean

Innovative passive acoustic technologies and methods help to understand the distribution, movements, and behavior of marine animals and the soundscapes in which they live. Center researchers also evaluate the impacts of human-made sounds on acoustically sensitive marine animals to aid management, monitoring, and conservation efforts.

Learn more about passive acoustics research

The Milford Method: NOAA Fisheries' Role in Shellfish Aquaculture

The Milford Lab, now renowned for its groundbreaking research, supported these early oyster growers by developing culture techniques. The lab is particularly well known for developing the “Milford Method,” a breakthrough technique for breeding and growing shellfish that is still used worldwide.

Learn more about the Milford Method

Marmap station locations from the Carolina's to Maine.

The Monitoring Decade: Learning About the Future from the Past

The Marine Resources Monitoring, Assessment and Prediction Program, or more easily referred to as MARMAP, was the longest-running ecosystem monitoring program of its time. The “MARMAP Decade” ran from 1977 through 1988, when the program collected biological and environmental information from periodic surveys of northeastern U. S. continental shelf waters.

Learn more about MARMAP

View of the Woods Hole Lab from the water in 1885.

Standard Seawater? Yes, There is Such a Thing!

Spencer Baird established the first federal fisheries lab in Woods Hole for a number of reasons. One of them was the salinity of the seawater, which he felt was suitable for rearing animals and a consistent source for research experiments.

Learn more about standard seawater

McDonald hatching jars in the lab aboard the R/V Fish Hawk.

Fish Culture

Today the NEFSC has an entire laboratory built to support aquaculture. But did you know this charge goes all the way back to 1872, when $15,000 in Congressional funding to the U.S. Fish Commission started a nationwide fish propagation effort? Read more about how the commission took on this project and successfully moved live fish from the East Coast to the West Coast in the days before flight.

At sea, lowering sampling equipment off side of ship.

NOAA's Long History of Water Column Sampling in the Northeast

What started as ocean exploration in 1912 is now a broadly focused, long-term program. We supply critical information to climate research and predictions, fisheries and protected species management, and basic science.

Learn more about the history of column sampling