First Blueprint
MBARI’s doors opened in the fall of 1987 with five employees, and little by little
the science and engineering staff grew. Executive Director Richard Barber immediately
focused his attention on drawing up a broad research plan that would comply with the
guidelines set by Packard, who more than once had expressed his desire that an
understanding of the California
Current be set as a
goal for MBARI research.
Like many oceanographers, Barber’s perspective was systems-oriented, and he was strongly attracted to MBARI for the opportunity to address the gaps in oceanographic understanding of coastal systems. MBARI’s overarching goal became the development of a system concept for the ecology of Monterey Bay that could be expanded for use in other ocean regions and, eventually, for use on a global scale.
It became apparent in the following years that simultaneously tackling all the broad questions defined at MBARI’s inception was less than practical. As the institute has evolved, projects have developed as sub-sets of the initial research outline, and topics of inquiry have spun off from the original scientific questions. Nonetheless, the institutional eye has remained fixed on the target of an integrated system concept. Pursuit of this goal has led MBARI through its first decade of discovery.
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