URI Graduate School of Oceanography

Moonrise on 2/2/2026 over Newport with the bow of #RVEndeavor and small ice floes in Narragansett Bay, off the #URIGSO pier. Photo by Veronica Berounsky

🧊 Another cold weekend ahead... stay warm, Rams!

❄️ Watch the snow roll in on our pier webcam: buff.ly/jz3QxkN

📸 : Moonrise on 2/2/2026 over Newport with the bow of #RVEndeavor and small ice floes in Narragansett Bay, off the #URIGSO pier. Photo by Veronica Berounsky

Rubin studied cores of coral reefs and volcanic rocks on an International Ocean Discovery Program expedition in 2023 in Hawaii.

Rubin is part of the “Alchemists” subgroup, which recognizes explorers who embrace creativity and inspire new ways of seeing the world through bold, interdisciplinary approaches to discovery. 🌊 🦑 🌋 🧪

🎉 Join us in congratulating Kenna on this well-deserved honor! Read more: buff.ly/9Z3SEeG

Kenna Rubin aboard the multi-purpose vessel MMA Valour on an expedition to study drowned Hawaiian reefs in 2023. (Photos courtesy of ML Parker media)

🌊 We’re thrilled to share that #URIGSO’s @kennarubin.bsky.social has been named an Explorers Club 50 (EC50) honoree!

Each year, the @theexplorersclub.bsky.social recognizes fifty extraordinary people advancing science & exploration across the globe. 🌊 🦑 🌋 🧪

➡️ Read more: buff.ly/9Z3SEeG

#URIGSO Professor Isaac Ginis and his colleagues in URI Marine Affairs are helping advance how emergency managers prepare for major coastal storms, using advanced forecasting tools and Department of Homeland Security–standard emergency management exercises.

➡️ buff.ly/fXvPGHZ

➡️ Read more about the course: buff.ly/vvSFUmF

🛥️📊 These first-year undergrads spent the fall on Narragansett Bay learning boat handling, knot tying, sensor deployment, & real-time data analysis. #URIGSO students supported fieldwork, dove to retrieve instruments, and guided students through MATLAB & data interpretation for their final projects.

🌿🌊 #WorldWetlandsDay

A recent #URIGSO-led study analyzed 23,000+ sediment samples and found a key gap in a common method for measuring carbon in salt marshes. Addressing this gap is essential for understanding marsh resilience and for guiding blue carbon strategies.

➡️ Read more: buff.ly/T2ubRtp

🚢 🔊 What’s it really like to live & work aboard a research vessel? In this episode of the Oceanography pod, #RVEndeavor ops manager Brendan Thornton & captain Chris Arminetti reflect on nearly 50 years of life at sea and retiring a ship with over a million miles in her wake.

🎧: buff.ly/BbUUkU7

The results highlight the persistence of microplastic pollution and underscore the urgency of reducing plastic inputs to coastal systems. Read more in Environmental Science and Pollution Research: buff.ly/oZp0aTc 🌊

Using sediment cores from across the Bay and Rhode Island Sound, the team found that an estimated 2,300–3,000 tonnes of microplastics have accumulated in seabed sediments over the past century. 🌊 🦑

🌊🚨 New research on #microplastics in Narragansett Bay

#URIGSO researcher Victoria Fulfer, Ph.D. ’24, and Professor J.P. Walsh have published a new study documenting exponential growth in microplastic pollution in Narragansett Bay since the 1940s.

➡️ buff.ly/oZp0aTc

❄️ Snowy scenes from URI’s Bay Campus as we welcome students back for their second week of the semester. Stay warm, Rams!

Central to the study was a passive sampling device designed by Snook during his doctoral research while a trainee in URI’s STEEP Superfund Program. The study provides regulators with the data needed to take action to remediate PFAS contamination at its source & protect freshwater systems, long-term.

URI study identifies long-term source of PFAS contamination to Pawcatuck River Provides foundation for decision-making around remediation for sites previously identified by researchers as PFAS ‘hotspots’

Published in Environmental Science & Technology Water, the research shows that PFAS stored in pond sediments continue to migrate into the river decades after textile operations ceased, with one site potentially releasing contamination for more than 100 years without remediation.

➡️: buff.ly/e9uWhpS

🌊 PFAS in the Pawcatuck River: A new study led by #URIGSO alum Jarod Snook, & co-authored by members of the Lohmann Lab, has identified long-term sources of PFAS (“forever chemicals”) entering the Pawcatuck River from two historically contaminated textile mill waste ponds in Bradford & Westerly, RI.

Credit: #URIGSO Ph.D. candidation, Philip Yang

A bird lands to rest on the CTD cable of the NOAA ship Nancy Foster during the May 2025 NF2503 expedition off the coast of Louisiana and Alabama.

#CTDAppreciationDay 🌊 🚢

12 Rhode Island educators stepped into the role of shipboard scientists aboard #RVEndeavor for a three-day research cruise, steaming 100 miles out to the shelf break and back. They worked with #URIGSO scientists, crew, & marine techs to conduct CTD profiles! #CTDAppreciationDay 🌊 🚢

Credit: #URIGSO marine research associate, Heather Stoffel

Members of the MERL lab at #URIGSO documenting the spatial extent of hypoxia in Narragansett Bay near Quonset Point.

#CTDAppreciationDay 🌊 🚢

Credit: #URIGSO marine research associate, Pierre Marrec

Credit: #URIGSO marine research associate, Pierre Marrec

Summer fieldwork for the Ocean Margins Initiative (OMI) project in Ghana, co-led by #URIGSO's Melissa Omand. The new Seabird SBE 55 ECO CTD was purchased by the University of Ghana, with installation aboard the Ghanaian Navy vessel GNS AFLAO.

#CTDAppreciationDay 🌊 🚢

Credit: #URIGSO Ph.D. student, Alyssa Tsukada

Credit: #URIGSO Ph.D. student, Alyssa Tsukada

Credit: #URIGSO Ph.D. student, Alyssa Tsukada

On the NES-LTER (@nes-lter.bsky.social) winter cruise aboard the #RVNeilArmstrong, the science team conducted incubation experiments to better understand plankton grazing behavior across the northeast shelf.

#CTDAppreciationDay 🚢 🌊

📸 #URIGSO student Alyssa Tsukada collecting weekly data for the Narragansett Bay Long-Term Plankton Monitoring program on the Cap’n Bert. ❄️

🌊 🚢 Happy #CTDAppreciationDay! The #CTD measures conductivity, temperature, and depth, and supports countless #URIGSO research efforts! ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

📸 #URIGSO student Alyssa Tsukada collecting weekly data for the Narragansett Bay Long-Term Plankton Monitoring program on the Cap’n Bert, in the snow!

Working alongside RI oyster farmers, Rosa collected 127 water samples, monitored carbonate chemistry linked to ocean acidification, & studied how different aquaculture gear influences oyster growth/survival. Her research offers practical insight to support the state’s growing aquaculture industry. 🌊

🦪 What does it take to understand oyster health in Narragansett Bay?

For 18 months, #URIGSO student Jacqueline Rosa tracked how water quality and farming methods affect oysters in Narragansett Bay. 🌊 🦑

🔗 Read the story: buff.ly/KKx9XSW

Pictured is an excerpt from Assistant Dean Princess Metuge's message shared with the Bay Campus this morning.

Today, we reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose vision of using knowledge and innovation to improve life for all humankind continues to inspire. Let us honor his legacy by striving for unity, equity, and a brighter future for all.

❄️ The latest issue of #AboardGSO is landing in mailboxes now!

🚢 Inside: the retirement of #RVEndeavor, the many ways #URIGSO researchers study phytoplankton, and how our Small Boats Program supports both science and student learning at GSO.

A black-and-white photo of 2025 AWJ fellows during an oyster science immersion, with the text: Applications now open, deadline: February 16, 2026. AWJ: The Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists. Photo by Therese Iacono

Applications open TODAY! Don't miss the opportunity to spend a week in June with us during the 28th Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists (AWJ)! This year's theme: Pollution, Plastics and PFAS. Apply by Feb. 16! @urigso.bsky.social
web.uri.edu/metcalf/awj/

Our winter transect cruise is underway on the RV Armstrong. Our team will spend 5 days stitching a line across the Northeast US Shelf sampling the winter ecosystem. Fair wind & seas with mild temps for the crew! @whoi.edu @urigso.bsky.social @wellesley.edu @smast @uslter.bsky.social Thank you #nsf

With a focus on using GIS to examine the tropical coastal processes and challenges of the Bahamas, the team conducted beach and seafloor surveys, measured salinity and density in water bodies around the island, analyzed shoreline marine debris, and snorkelled the many bays and beaches they visited!

🌊 Ten URI undergraduate students spent their January term on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, as part of a class called Coastal Processes, Changes and Challenges in the Tropics, led by #URIGSO’s J.P. Walsh & Chris Damon of URI CELS Environmental Data Center (EDC).

➡️ Explore the blog: buff.ly/COOCsO7

#HOVAlvin is owned by the Office of Naval Research, operated by #WHOI, and #nsffunded. 📸 : Dan Fornari, WHOI MISO Facility and coPIs of AT50-21- Barreyre, McDermott, Parnell-Turner, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The story highlighted the transformation of #HOVAlvin, the world’s longest-operating & most productive human-occupied deep-sea submersible, & its leap to 6,500m dive capabilities. Its improved imaging, maneuverability, and navigation grant access to 99% of the ocean floor for in-person exploration!