MBARI’s video lab staff review and annotate all of MBARI’s deep-sea mission video recordings. They also publish their own research in science journals, and produce all of MBARI’s YouTube videos, among many other things.
On June 8 and 9, MBARI researchers, including Fred Bahr (at left in photo), shared their enthusiasm for ocean research with visitors to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as part of the aquarium’s celebration of “World Oceans Day.”
MBARI welcomes our 2013 interns. The intern program is designed to provide professional development opportunities to college students and educators. From over 200 applications, 18 undergraduate and graduate students were selected. They come from around the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Colombia.
MBARI researcher Lonny Lundsten is in British Columbia this week to learn techniques for the scientific description of sponges. Experts from the University of Victoria and the Khoyatan Marine Laboratory are teaching him how to prepare specimens for different types of scanning electron microscopes.
Jun 5, 2013 – Surprisingly large amounts of discarded trash end up in the ocean. Plastic bags, aluminum cans, and fishing debris not only clutter our beaches, but accumulate in open-ocean areas such as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Now, a paper by researchers at MBARI shows that trash is also accumulating in the deep sea, particularly in Monterey Canyon.
Nancy Barr manages MBARI’s web and print projects, often working with MBARI President and CEO Chris Scholin, as shown in this photo. Nancy spent much of the last five months writing, editing, and selecting images for MBARI’s 2012 Annual Report, copies of which just arrived from the printer this week.
Teresa Cardoza describes her job as being “the liaison between marine operations and research and engineering.” Teresa keeps track of every detail to make sure the ships, vehicles, and crew are ready so that each mission will be successful. She arranges for facilities and local services at ports from Canada to Mexico.
Engineers Brian Kieft, left, and Brett Hobson loaded two long-range autonomous underwater vehicles onto a small boat for testing this week. The newest vehicle is longer to accommodate additional science instruments.
On May 2nd the research vessel Point Sur returned to her home port of Moss Landing after a five-month, 19,900-mile trip to Antarctica and back. Operated by Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the Point Sur shares MBARI’s dock with MBARI’s research vessels, the Western Flyer and the Rachel Carson.
MBARI’s Senior Education and Research Specialist George Matsumoto participated in this week’s Tribal Marine Science Workshop at NOAA/University of Alaska’s Kasitsna Bay Laboratory in Alaska.
The Deep Environmental Sample Processor (D-ESP) is being tested in MBARI’s test tank this week in preparation of a six-month deployment on the Monterey Advanced Research System (MARS) cabled observatory.
The blue shipping container may not look like much, but it contains MBARI’s D. Allan B. autonomous underwater vehicle. This one-of-a-kind robot is specially equipped to create detailed maps of the deep seafloor.
MBARI Administrative Assistant Mariah Salisbury gained a new appreciation for the rigors of ocean research during her last cruise aboard the R/V Rachel Carson with MBARI’s Biological Oceanography Group. But she didn’t let the cold and wet deter her from preparing the water-sampling bottles on the CTD-rosette.
Mar 29, 2013 – Miles below the ocean surface, diverse ecosystems flourish at hydrothermal vents. Without sunlight, animals live off of bacteria that thrive on chemicals billowing out of the Earth’s crust. These strange communities appear entirely detached from life on land.
Mar 20, 2013 – Killing wildlife and occasionally sickening people, harmful algal blooms can be more than just a nuisance. But predicting these blooms is difficult—even more difficult than predicting the weather—because blooms result from a dynamic interaction between both physical and biological processes.
Over the weekend, MBARI researchers conducted Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) experiments on the San Pedro Shelf off Southern California.
When the research vessel Rachel Carson set sail for Southern California last week, it was equipped with two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to perform very different kinds of missions. One AUV is mapping the seafloor to identify areas with interesting chemical features, such as gas venting from the seafloor.
Last weekend, MBARI researchers Judith Connor and Jim Barry talked about changes in ocean chemistry during performances of Ocean—a science-inspired dance program—at San Jose State University.
Ryan Smith, a researcher visiting MBARI from the Queensland University of Technology, launches his “Ecomapper” AUV from the beach in front of MBARI. The AUV carried instruments to measure water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and algae.
Feb 15, 2013 – A surge in jellyfish blooms over the past decade has spawned similar blooms of public fascination with these sea drifters and their apparent saturation of our oceans. Images of fish nets and nuclear-plant intake pipes clogged with gelatinous sacks of tentacles have flared concerns for fisheries and public safety.
Research programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) encompass the entire ocean, from the surface waters to the deep seafloor, and from the coastal zone to the open sea. The need to understand the ocean in all its complexity and variability drives MBARI's research and development efforts.