Latest news with #WoodsHole
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
When will the refitted M/V Monomoy begin ferry service between Cape Cod, Islands? Latest.
What is the status of the M/V Monomoy? The work on refitting the M/V Monomoy, 'is making fantastic progress,' Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority General Manager Robert Davis said, and it is scheduled for a stabilization test on Aug. 20. The ship is one of three purchased by the Authority in 2022 from Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, Louisiana. The vessel, along with the M/V Barnstable and M/V Aquinnah, was converted for use by the Steamship Authority at Alabama Shipyard in Mobile. The M/V Aquinnah was commissioned earlier this month and is expected to return to regular, year-round runs between the Vineyard and Woods Hole by June 16, Davis said May 16. The purchase and conversion costs for the three vessels were made possible, in part, via an agreement with the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority that yielded $28.1 million in federal funding. Davis reported that a utility building for the new Woods Hole Terminal construction is 50% completed and is expected to be ready by the end of this year. The terminal should be open a year from now, he said. Some issues caused by the construction raised by staff and customers are being addressed, Davis said. They include restriping crosswalks from the ferry to the buses and moving pickup and drop-off areas behind the new building as well as adding Jersey barriers along the adjacent bike path. A golf cart also will be arriving to assist customers, he said. Authority Board Chair James Malkin asked about coordination for safety around the construction site during the upcoming summer season. Other board members asked for more state police and coordination with the Falmouth police at the site, which will be provided. Susan Vaughn writes about transportation and other local community issues affecting Cape Cod residents and visitors. She can be reached at smharris@ Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans. This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Steamship Authority updates on new Cape Cod, Islands ferries
CNET
7 days ago
- Science
- CNET
Dolphin Researchers Win $100,000 AI Prize for Studying Their Whistling
If any dolphins are reading this: Hello! A team of scientists studying a community of Florida dolphins has been awarded the first $100,000 Coller Dolittle Challenge prize, established to award research in interspecies communication algorithms. The team used non-invasive hydrophones to perform the research, which offers evidence that dolphins may be using whistles like words, shared with multiple members of their communities. A type of whistle dolphins employ is used as an alarm, according to the US-based team led by Laela Sayigh of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Another whistle the team studied is used by dolphins to respond to unexpected or unfamiliar situations. Capturing the sounds is just the beginning. Researchers will use AI to continue deciphering the whistles to try to find more patterns. "The main thing stopping us cracking the code of animal communication is a lack of data. Think of the 1 trillion words needed to train a large language model like ChatGPT. We don't have anything like this for other animals," said Jonathan Birch, a professor at London School of Economics and Political Science and one of the judges for the prize. "That's why we need programs like the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which has built up an extraordinary library of dolphin whistles over 40 years. The cumulative result of all that work is that Laela Sayigh and her team can now use deep learning to analyze the whistles and perhaps, one day, crack the code," Brich added. The award was part of a ceremony that honored the work of four teams from across the world. In addition to the dolphin project, researchers studied ways in which nightingales, marmoset monkeys and cuttlefish communicate. The challenge is a collaboration between the Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University. Submissions for next year open in August. Dolphin language is just the start Researching animals and trying to learn the secrets of their communication is nothing new, but AI is speeding up the creation of larger and larger datasets. "Breakthroughs are inevitable," said Kate Zacarian, CEO and co-founder of Earth Species Project, a California-based nonprofit that also works in breaking down language barriers with the animal world. "Just as AI has revolutionized the fields of medicine and material science, we see a similar opportunity to bring those advances to the study of animal communication and empower researchers in this space with entirely new capabilities," she said. Zacarian applauded Sayigh's team and their win and said it will help bring broader recognition to the study of non-human animal communication. It could also bring more attention to ways that AI can change the nature of this type of research. "The AI systems aren't just faster. They allow for entirely new types of inquiry," she said. "We're moving from decoding isolated signals to exploring communication as a rich, dynamic, and structure phenomenon, which is a task that's simply too big for our human brains, but possible for large-scale AI models." The Earth Species Project recently released an open-source large audio language model for analyzing animal sounds known as NatureLM audio. The organization is now working with biologists and ethologists to study species including orcas, carrion crows, jumping spiders and more. It plans to release some of their findings later this year, Zacarian said.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Lost WWI submarine captured in never-before-seen images off the California coast
A World War I submarine wreck off the coast of Southern California has been captured for the first time in new video and images made possible using advanced deep-sea imaging technology. The sunken U.S. Navy vessel now resting on the San Diego seafloor is known as the USS F-1. F-class submarines were based in the Pacific, serving at Hawaii and off California. The F-1 was lost at sea following an accidental collision on December 17, 1917, resulting in the death of 19 crew members. While others were rescued, the submarine sank in just 10 seconds. It was found again nearly 60 years later, according to the Submarine Force Library and Museum Association. The high-definition images of the over a century-old submarine were taken in February and March, when researchers at the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used a human-occupied vehicle called 'Alvin' and the autonomous underwater vehicle named 'Sentry' to travel down 1,300 feet below the surface of the Pacific waters. 'Once we identified the wreck and determined it was safe to dive, we were able to capture never-before-seen perspectives of the sub,' WHOI's Bruce Strickrott, manager of the Alvin Group at WHOI and the sub's senior pilot, said in a statement. 'As a U.S. Navy veteran, it was a profound honor to visit the wreck of the F-1 with our ONR and NHHC colleagues aboard Alvin.' The mission also included team members from the Navy, the Naval History and Heritage Command, and the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation completed surveys of the submarine using video cameras, imaging systems on Alvin, as well as sonar systems on Sentry and the research vessel Atlantis. They also examined a Navy torpedo bomber training aircraft that crashed near the same location in 1950. The sonar on Atlantic and Sentry was used to produce maps of the wreck and seafloor, while Alvin's cameras captured images of the wreck that was stitched into models capable of measuring the sub and the marine life it now supports. Researchers were also able to reconstruct the F-1 and create a three-dimensional model. The dives were part of a previously planned training and engineering mission to give pilots-in-training time to hone their skills and to allow for the development of new technology. 'While these depths were well within the dive capability for Alvin and Sentry, they were technical dives requiring specialized expertise and equipment,' Anna Michel, the co-lead of the expedition, said. 'We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve.' Following the dives, they held a remembrance ceremony on Atlantic, ringing a bell for each of the service members lost at sea. 'History and archaeology are all about people and we felt it was important to read their names aloud," said Naval History and Heritage Command Underwater Archaeologist Brad Krueger. It was his first in-person dive on a historical wreck site. "The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered.'
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Lost WWI submarine captured in never-before-seen images off the California coast
A World War I submarine wreck off the coast of Southern California has been captured for the first time in new video and images made possible using advanced deep-sea imaging technology. The sunken U.S. Navy vessel now resting on the San Diego seafloor is known as the USS F-1. F-class submarines were based in the Pacific, serving at Hawaii and off California. The F-1 was lost at sea following an accidental collision on December 17, 1917, resulting in the death of 19 crew members. While others were rescued, the submarine sank in just 10 seconds. It was found again nearly 60 years later, according to the Submarine Force Library and Museum Association. The high-definition images of the over a century-old submarine were taken in February and March, when researchers at the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used a human-occupied vehicle called 'Alvin' and the autonomous underwater vehicle named 'Sentry' to travel down 1,300 feet below the surface of the Pacific waters. 'Once we identified the wreck and determined it was safe to dive, we were able to capture never-before-seen perspectives of the sub,' WHOI's Bruce Strickrott, manager of the Alvin Group at WHOI and the sub's senior pilot, said in a statement. 'As a U.S. Navy veteran, it was a profound honor to visit the wreck of the F-1 with our ONR and NHHC colleagues aboard Alvin.' The mission also included team members from the Navy, the Naval History and Heritage Command, and the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation completed surveys of the submarine using video cameras, imaging systems on Alvin, as well as sonar systems on Sentry and the research vessel Atlantis. They also examined a Navy torpedo bomber training aircraft that crashed near the same location in 1950. The sonar on Atlantic and Sentry was used to produce maps of the wreck and seafloor, while Alvin's cameras captured images of the wreck that was stitched into models capable of measuring the sub and the marine life it now supports. Researchers were also able to reconstruct the F-1 and create a three-dimensional model. The dives were part of a previously planned training and engineering mission to give pilots-in-training time to hone their skills and to allow for the development of new technology. 'While these depths were well within the dive capability for Alvin and Sentry, they were technical dives requiring specialized expertise and equipment,' Anna Michel, the co-lead of the expedition, said. 'We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve.' Following the dives, they held a remembrance ceremony on Atlantic, ringing a bell for each of the service members lost at sea. 'History and archaeology are all about people and we felt it was important to read their names aloud," said Naval History and Heritage Command Underwater Archaeologist Brad Krueger. It was his first in-person dive on a historical wreck site. "The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered.'
