Woods Hole is an ocean-going village. In the past two centuries, the little village at the tip of Cape Cod has hosted ships bearing whale oil for candle making, bat guano for the local fertilizer factory, fish for market, and one of the world’s most active marine research fleets.

As a fishing port, Woods Hole never rivaled cities such as New Bedford, Boston, Gloucester, or Portland, but fishing did play a central role in the life of the village. In the 1700s and 1800s Woods Hole natives fished mostly with weirs (nets) along shore. In the 1900s the village hosted a fleet of draggers that landed their catch at Sam Cahoon’s, a thriving fish market that was the largest business in town in the 1940s.

Landings in Woods Hole declined in the 1960s, and by the time Cahoon’s market closed in 1966, the village was no longer a bustling fishing port. Some commercial fishermen still keep vessels at the town pier next door to the aquarium, but they mostly land their catch elsewhere.

Science is a relatively new activity in Woods Hole, having come to the village in 1871. At first Woods Hole-based scientists explored local waters in a flotilla of borrowed or rented rowboats, sailing yachts, and steam-powered tugs and launches. By the 1880s, the scientists were exploring offshore waters aboard larger, ocean-going vessels such as the Albatross.

Unlike whaling, the fertilizer trade, and fishing, marine science in the village shows no signs of winding down. Woods Hole scientists in the 21st century are still going to sea to study marine animals and the marine environment, and the little village is firmly established as a world-renowned center for fisheries science, marine biology, oceanography, and marine ecology.