$135
Limit: 100 people
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, now home to ~750 year round residents, was first used as fishing grounds by the native Wampanoag people. By the late 1600’s, Europeans began to firmly establish themselves, with thirteen families each taking 60 acre plots around Little Harbor to raise mostly sheep and crops. By the early 1800’s, Woods Hole had become a center of the booming whale trade. At the industry’s peak, nine whaling ships were docked at the Bar Neck wharf in Great Harbor, supporting a thriving local economy of chandlers, outfitters, candlemakers and processors of oil and whale bone.
Woods Hole is now the site of several famous marine research institutions, including the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Woods Hole Research Center, NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (which started the Woods Hole scientific community in 1871), a USGS coastal and marine geology center, the home campus of the Sea Education Association, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It is also the site of United States Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England, the Nobska Light lighthouse, and the terminus of the Steamship Authority ferry route between Cape Cod and the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Founded in 1930, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is an independent, non-profit organization, dedicated to research, engineering and higher education at the frontiers of ocean science. Its primary mission is to develop and effectively communicate a fundamental understanding of the ocean and its interaction with the Earth system for the benefit of society.
Our excursion to Woods Hole includes a walking tour of parts of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, historical sites, and the science exhibit center, a provided lunch, tours of deep-submergence vehicles and a research vessel as available, and free time to explore the village shops and restaurant/pubs.
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Woods Hole Village
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
