Expedition log by Principal Engineer Giancarlo Troni and the Deep Sea 3D expedition team

From coding the software that controls underwater robots to counting the bristles and teeth on tiny worms, the work of engineers and scientists may seem worlds apart. Yet in the deep sea, these disciplines come together with a shared purpose: to explore, understand, and help protect our ocean. 

David Packard—the namesake of our flagship research vessel—founded MBARI as a new kind of research center with collaboration at its core. This expedition has been a true team effort, with scientists, engineers, and marine operations crew working side by side, each contributing their expertise to advance ocean exploration. 

Marine operations are the backbone of MBARI’s work. The crew of R/V David Packard were instrumental in every operation at sea, including deployments of the MiniROV. Their hard work set the stage for scientific discovery and engineering innovation.  

Video footage from the MiniROV’s cameras will help scientists better understand the communities of life at locations across Monterey Bay—Portuguese Ledge, Central Slope Corals, and Sur Ridge. Rocks collected by the MiniROV will be studied further to catalog the small, often hidden organisms that are not easily observed with cameras alone. 

At the same time, engineers gathered detailed sensor data and generated high-resolution maps of the seafloor. This information will help us characterize the environments where deep-sea organisms live and even create detailed 3D reconstructions of corals and sponges. Using machine learning tools, the CoMPAS Lab’s mapping system can also detect larger animals in the imagery. Combined with precise navigation data, these observations could allow scientists to estimate the density and distribution of organisms across Monterey Bay. 

Together, these efforts create a more complete picture of deep-sea ecosystems—one that no single discipline could achieve alone. In the ocean, discovery is rarely the work of one person or one field, but the result of collaboration, where scientific curiosity, engineering innovation, and maritime expertise come together to illuminate one of the least explored places on Earth.