URI Graduate School of Oceanography

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URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography is one of the world’s premier academic institutions of oceanography and ocean exploration. An anchor of the blue economy.

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In collaboration with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the University of Ghana, the team collected samples from two of these sites last summer. Photos show University of Ghana researchers pulling samples and recovering a sediment trap array!

Researchers from the University of Ghana pull samples from the ocean for their geochemical properties to be examined in the lab. (Photo courtesy Colleen Durkin, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) University of Ghana research team recovering a camera-equipped sediment trap array in summer 2026. (Photo courtesy Colleen Durkin, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
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#URIGSO's Melissa Omand is using AI to uncover the chemical makeup of “marine snow,” tiny particles that drift through the ocean. The team is collecting images & physical samples across four regions: coastal Ghana, the equatorial Atlantic, the New England shelf, & the California Current.

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"Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, has pointed to the station’s proximity to the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography as part of the case for the move." 💪 🌊

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Please join us in congratulating Dr. Elin Torell on her new role as Interim Director of GSO Research! Part of the URI community since 2002, she most recently served as director of the Coastal Institute & PI of the NSF-funded Rhode Island Network for Excellence in Science and Technology (RI-NEST).

Professional headshot of a woman wearing a teal sweater and floral scarf used to announce an interim director for the Graduate School of Oceanography, set against a calm seascape background.
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🌊 Meet R/V Warfish! A traditional 45-foot Downeast-style lobster boat, Warfish is equipped for coastal oceanography & supports research throughout Narragansett Bay & the Sounds. Today, Warfish hosted a demonstration of AUV acoustic navigation & tracking off Jamestown, sponsored by NOAA OECI.

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#URIGSO researchers & their collaborators aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson are using these measurements to investigate how water moves through the Kermadec Trench, northeast of New Zealand, and how oxygenated water is renewed in one of the deepest, under-explored environments on Earth. 🌊

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URI's Deep Autonomous Profiler (DAP) is a lander/water-column profiler that collects measurements & samples from the deep ocean. It can measure temperature, salinity, oxygen, & density; capture video; record sound; & collect water samples throughout the water column or while resting on the seafloor.

Oceanographic crew on a ship lowering a yellow rosette water‑samplinglander through a gantry crane while team members in hard hats and life vests guide lines against a calm blue sea and sky.
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This week, #URIGSO hosted URI research administrators on the Narragansett Bay Campus. These professionals support faculty research in myriad ways, so it was great to show them firsthand how their crucial work makes ocean research, exploration, and discovery possible.

Group of people standing above an indoor test tank, watching a tethered green underwater inspection robot operate in clear blue water.
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As a #URIGSO student, Mercer spent two years as the weekly Fish Trawl Assistant aboard the Cap’n Bert. Today, she serves as chief of NOAA’s Cooperative Research Branch and director of the Narragansett Laboratory, where she leads research that brings scientists and the fishing community together.

Two people on a small boat at sea, wearing waterproof bibs and gloves, proudly holding a large freshly caught fish toward the camera under a pale morning sky.Smiling researcher holding a freshly caught squid by its mantle over a measuring board in a lab sink, wearing a plaid shirt and a black wrist brace while preparing the specimen for measurement.Person smiling on a fishing boat holding a freshly caught mackerel with orange gloves, wearing sunglasses, a pink beanie and red waterproofs, with fishing nets, trays of fish, and the sea visible in the background.Woman in a red rain jacket and blue gloves measuring and preparing a caught fish on a processing station aboard a small research boat at sea, with choppy water and seagulls on a foggy horizon.
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🎣 From Fish Trawl Assistant to the leadership of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center Narragansett Laboratory: Meet #URIGSO alum Anna Mercer ’15, Ph.D., whose career has been built on collaboration and communication.

🌊 Read Anna’s story & how GSO shaped her career: buff.ly/dI2RGEb

Woman on a fishing boat smiling as she holds a large Atlantic cod, wearing red waterproof bibs and gloves on the calm open sea.Two researchers in waterproof jackets and blue gloves smiling on a fishing boat as they measure and prepare a caught fish on a measuring board, with knife, scissors and sampling tools nearby and foggy sea in the background.Smiling Anna crouched in a ship's fish hold, surrounded by a huge pile of freshly caught squid and holding several in each hand to showcase the haul.Smiling woman stands with arms outstretched in a tiled office hallway behind a large NOAA (U.S. Department of Commerce) floor emblem, posing cheerfully as if celebrating a visit to the agency.
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Here are just a few of the lobsters they've seen over the last field season!

For the graduate students involved, it’s an early-morning, hands-on, and often challenging experience...but also a unique way to see science, policy, and the fishing industry intersect at sea. 🌊

➡️ buff.ly/KMJdr2y

Smiling student showing off a large bright orange lobster while standing on a fishing boat, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and blue gloves, with open sea and distant wind turbines under a clear blue sky.Three freshly caught lobsters lie on a sunlit wooden boat deck, the sparkling blue sea stretching to the horizon where an offshore wind turbine stands.Gloved hand holds a freshly caught bright orange-red lobster by the tail over a boat crate, displaying its claws, legs, and long antennae.
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🦞It's #NationalLobsterDay! Through collaboration with the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, #URIGSO students get to spend time offshore with local fishermen, collecting data on American lobster & contributing to research that helps us better understand/steward this important marine resource.

Large live lobster laid on a weathered wooden board with antennae, showing large claws and segmented tail beside calipers used to measure its size.Student on a boat smiling while holding a freshly caught lobster with blue gloves and orange bibs, standing beside a crate of crabs and gear against the open ocean, demonstrating a commercial lobster catch.A blue-gloved hand holding a live brown-red lobster by the body with claws raised and the tail fanned, showing its antennae, segmented shell, and spiny claws.Three banded lobsters resting on a sunlit wooden dock as a fresh catch, with sparkling blue sea and an offshore wind turbine visible on the horizon
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Congrats to Dr. Colleen Mouw on her new role as Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at #URIGSO!

Dr. Mouw earned both her M.S. & Ph.D. in Oceanography here & has been a faculty member for the past decade. She previously served as both Acting Dean & Associate Dean of the URI Graduate School.

Smiling professional headshot of a woman wearing glasses and a silver chain necklace against a neutral gray background, with a caption indicating she is the Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at URI's university graduate school of oceanography.
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GSO's J.P. Walsh & Mary Klimasewiski have brought this extensive dataset together in Rhode Island Beach Dynamics Over Decades, a new interactive website that incorporates monitoring data contributed by the URI Environmental Data Center, URI Department of Geosciences, & Eastern CT State University.

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🌊 🌀 What can more than 60 years of beach survey data tell us about coastal change in RI? With a nor’easter coming this weekend, it’s a timely question. Since 1962, #URIGSO researchers have monitored beaches along our southern coast, documenting shoreline change and how they respond to severe storms.

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🌧️ ☹️ UPDATE: Due to the strong nor’easter forecast to impact Rhode Island this weekend, we made the difficult decision to postpone Science Saturday. We're sad that we won’t see lots of smiling ocean fans this Saturday, but look forward to welcoming you to our campus soon. Stay tuned for updates!

A circular illustration of marine life and oceanographic instruments surrounded by text that says Science Saturday, Postponed due to weather.
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