July 24, 2008
MBARI open house provides fun for all ages
On July 19, MBARI staff and volunteers shared their knowledge and enthusiasm with thousands of visitors at our Moss Landing facility. Click on any of the photographs below to find out about a few of the displays and activities provided during the 2008 MBARI open house.

Image: Todd Walsh (c) 2008 MBARI
Larry Bird describes an underwater video camera system called the “Eye-in-the-Sea.”

Image: Ashley Blacow (c) 2008 MBARI
Perry Shoemake, Margarite Blum, and Mike Burczynski show visitors some of the gear that oceanographers use when conducting fieldwork in the open ocean.

Image: Kim Fulton-Bennett (c) 2008 MBARI
A young visitor discovers how sand grains look under a microscope.

Image: Ashley Blacow (c) 2008 MBARI
At the kids crafts tent, visitors of all ages got to make their own jellyfish out of paper plates and ribbon. Finished jellyfish hanging outside the craft tent added a festive air to the open house.

Image: Kim Fulton-Bennett (c) 2008 MBARI
Machinist Jerry Allen shows visitors one of MBARI’s computer-controlled machining tools.

Image: Ashley Blacow (c) 2008 MBARI
One of the most popular activities at the MBARI open house is making remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) out of PVC pipe and small electric motors. After constructing their ROVs, visitors can test them in one of three small swimming pools.

Image: Todd Walsh (c) 2008 MBARI
Making remotely operated vehicles at MBARI’s open house is fun for the entire family.

Image: Todd Walsh (c) 2008 MBARI
Visitors often enjoy seeing unusual rocks that have been collected from the depths of nearby Monterey Bay using MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles.

Image: Todd Walsh (c) 2008 MBARI
Geologist Charlie Paull describes how sand from the beaches of Monterey Bay ends up deep in the channel of Monterey Canyon.

Image: Kim Fulton-Bennett (c) 2008 MBARI
Meghan Powers shows a visitor how to use a pipette and other equipment that helps MBARI marine biologists analyze DNA from deep-sea animals.

Image: Kim Fulton-Bennett (c) 2008 MBARI
Engineer Paul McGill shows off MBARI’s “benthic rover,” which crawls slowly across the seafloor, periodically measuring the activity of animals that live in the sediment.

Image: Todd Walsh (c) 2008 MBARI
Timothy Martinez, the son of MBARI machinist Dean Martinez, describes how an abrasive water jet cuts through various materials used to build oceanographic instruments.

Image: Ashley Blacow (c) 2008 MBARI
Kids at the MBARI open house enjoy wrestling with our giant, pink, inflatable squid.

Image: Todd Walsh (c) 2008 MBARI
In a new activity at this year’s open house, visitors were able to try out MBARI’s “video annotation” system, identifying animals in deep-sea video taken by our remotely operated vehicles.

Image: Kim Fulton-Bennett (c) 2008 MBARI
Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pilot Mark Talkovic demonstrates the use of ROV Ventana‘s manipulator arm.
For additional information or images relating to this article, please contact: Kim Fulton-Bennett
831-775-1835, kfb@mbari.org