R/V Rachel Carson is the replacement vessel for R/V Point Lobos and R/V Zephyr as part of MBARI's fleet renewal process. She is a multi-purpose vessel for MBARI's Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Ventana, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) programs, and Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) sampling.

R/V Paragon allows researchers to access near coastal waters reliably, quickly and inexpensively.

ROV Ventana is a hydraulic vehicle that was built for MBARI in 1988 by International Submarine Engineering. The specifications for Ventana were developed by David Packard and the original core group of scientists and engineers at MBARI. The vehicle can dive to 1500m and includes a standard suite of instruments, cameras, data collection sensors, a high definition camera, and animal collection devices. Since 1988, ROV Ventana has completed over 2500 dives.

ROV Doc Ricketts is MBARI's next generation ROV developed at SMD. The system breaks new ground in providing an integrated unmanned submersible research platform, with many powerful features providing efficient, reliable and precise sampling and data collection in a wide range of missions.

DMO operates the Dorado AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). The AUV is deployed weekly in the Monterey Bay for CTD and other midwater instrumentation. The AUV can be configured with modular sections to add battery capability and other scientific sensor options.