In the early 1880s a man named Spencer Fullerton Baird chose Woods Hole as the site for the first U.S. Fish Commission laboratory. Baird is credited with having kicked off Woods Hole's reputation as a science town.

Located at the end of Water Street and beginning of Albatross Street is what we call "The Fisheries". Officially, it is now NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center.