MBARI research expedition provides a detailed snapshot of life in Monterey Bay The 2025 CANON Expedition used MBARI’s advanced technology, including our new research vessel David Packard, to collect detailed data about marine life, ecosystems, and processes. Why It MattersMBARI’s advanced technology can answer fundamental questions about ocean processes that are ecologically important, but have historically been challenging to observe. Our findings can help resource managers and policymakers make decisions about the future of the ocean. Marine environments are dynamic, with many different factors that ebb and flow over time and over great distances, making it challenging to use traditional research tools to assess ocean health and answer questions about marine life.Led by Senior Scientist Francisco Chavez and the Biological Oceanography Group, CANON leverages several of MBARI’s novel platforms for observing marine life, ecosystems, and processes. Image: Lori Eanes © Monterey Bay AquariumMBARI’s Controlled, Agile, and Novel Observing Network (CANON) project is finding innovative ways to improve our ability to observe life in the constantly changing marine environment. Typically, MBARI scientists deploy individual instruments to answer specific research questions. Under CANON, a coordinated, interdisciplinary team of researchers and engineers deployed a diverse array of MBARI technologies to conduct a comprehensive study of Monterey Bay over a one-month period.“It’s incredibly challenging to answer fundamental questions about ocean ecosystems when the subject of that study is constantly changing over time and space. We knew collaboration and innovation were the key to tackling that challenge,” said MBARI Senior Scientist Francisco Chavez, who leads MBARI’s Biological Oceanography Group. “CANON is an opportunity for us to leverage the expertise of teams across MBARI to improve our understanding of life in Monterey Bay.”Each year, Chavez and the Biological Oceanography Group coordinate with science and engineering teams across MBARI to identify a specific research task for CANON. This year, CANON sought to demonstrate how multiple modes of observation can work together to describe the abundance and distribution of marine life in Monterey Bay. Mobilizing our fleetThe MBARI LRAUV can be outfitted with innovative instrumentation for ocean exploration and science, from cameras (pictured) to DNA samplers. Image: Chris Wahl © 2025 MBARICentral to the CANON Expedition was MBARI’s long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (LRAUV), a versatile platform for ocean science. The LRAUV can be launched from a ship or from shore and outfitted with an assortment of custom-designed instrument payloads to conduct different science missions. A solar-powered docking station can recharge the LRAUV at sea, enabling extended operations with high-power sensors without bringing the vehicle back to shore to recharge its battery. MBARI engineers and marine operations crew deployed six LRAUVs over the course of the monthlong field survey. Two Wave Gliders—autonomous vehicles that ride the waves on the ocean’s surface—helped the team on shore coordinate with vehicles in the water.MBARI’s new research vessel, R/V David Packard, served as the headquarters for Chavez and the Biological Oceanography Group when fieldwork kicked off in early September. R/V David Packard allowed the team to collect data on oceanographic conditions that will provide critical context for understanding the biological observations recorded by MBARI’s autonomous robots.MBARI’s longtime investment in innovative technology and our proximity to one of the most productive environments on Earth put us in a unique position to answer fundamental questions about the processes that shape ocean ecosystems.“Cutting-edge robots are giving us a persistent presence in the ocean so we can document changes in ecosystems that occur over weeks and months,” explained Senior Mechanical Engineer Brett Hobson, who leads MBARI’s LRAUV Team. “Paired with targeted field studies from our research vessels, we’re able to look at life in Monterey Bay through different lenses and use that data to answer big-picture questions about our ocean.” DNA detectivesMarine organisms leave behind a trail of shed cells, skin, waste, and mucus as they move around in the ocean. Known as environmental DNA (eDNA), this mix of genetic material is transforming our ability to study marine life. MBARI’s Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) can collect and preserve eDNA as well as detect harmful organisms and toxins, playing a pivotal role in CANON fieldwork. Thanks to more than two decades of engineering innovation from MBARI’s SURF Center, the ESP is small enough to be installed inside an LRAUV to collect eDNA samples to help the CANON team characterize Monterey Bay’s biological communities.Using the Benchtop ESP (right) and a nanopore sequencer (left), MBARI researchers conducted DNA sequencing while at sea aboard our new flagship vessel, R/V David Packard. Image: Joe Warren © 2025 MBARI“Just a few drops of water contain the DNA ‘fingerprints’ to identify marine organisms,” explained Research Specialist Kobun Truelove. “Outfitting autonomous robots with ESP technology allows us to collect DNA samples across a large area that we can sequence back in the lab to catalog which organisms were present.”Thanks to ESP technology, the 2025 CANON Expedition also marked the first time MBARI researchers conducted high-accuracy genetic sequencing at sea.After processing samples with the Benchtop ESP to isolate eDNA material, the team used a nanopore DNA sequencer to identify specific DNA markers and build a real-time catalog of marine life while the David Packard was at sea. This work will help inform future efforts to automate eDNA sample collection and sequencing onboard autonomous vehicles. From top predators to tiny planktoneDNA is a promising tool for monitoring marine ecosystems, but verifying eDNA sequences with actual observations of marine organisms is a critical next step. Innovative imaging systems developed by MBARI engineers and installed on LRAUVs are bridging this gap.During its two-week deployment on MBARI’s LRAUV Makai, the Piscivore system had a close encounter with a curious female white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Image: © 2025 MBARIMBARI’s Piscivore camera system provides a glimpse at the ocean’s top predators, such as tunas, sharks, and seabirds, that are challenging to observe. Footage from Piscivore’s cameras will now be compared to eDNA samples collected from wiffle pills—porous, pill-shaped samplers filled with absorbent material to soak up eDNA—attached to the vehicle’s exterior housing to ground-truth using eDNA as a tool for detecting the ocean’s ecologically important, but elusive, predators.“Combining MBARI’s expertise in imaging, machine learning, and eDNA, Piscivore is a powerful tool for observing the ocean through the perspective of its top predators. Piscivore’s two-week deployment during the CANON project gathered a trove of information about Monterey Bay,” said Senior Observatory Engineer Jared Figurski, who has led development of Piscivore.Three additional imaging platforms collected visual data of the ocean’s tiniest inhabitants—plankton. Planktivore and Triton are camera systems that collect microscope images and video of tiny plankton as the LRAUV moves through the water column. These platforms can document not only the composition of the plankton community, but also their abundance. The Imaging Flow Cytobot (IFCB) is a stationary system installed on MBARI’s Power Buoy—a station designed to recharge autonomous vehicles at sea using wave energy. A high-resolution camera on the IFCB collects static imagery of suspended particles, including plankton. Observing the largest migration on EarthSpring-loaded bottles on the CTD rosette collect water samples at specific depths that researchers can process after the instrument is retrieved to look for the genetic fingerprints of migrating animals. Image: Eli Catalano © 2025 MBARIAt sunset, billions of animals travel from the deep sea to surface waters to feed, then retreat to the ocean depths at dawn. This daily event provides a vital link between the surface and the deep sea, yet many fundamental questions remain about vertical migration.A new higher-capacity CTD rosette on MBARI’s R/V David Packard allowed the Biological Oceanography Group to collect water samples around the clock and across more depths to look for the DNA signatures of migrating animals. MBARI’s Acoustical Ocean Ecology Team has conducted extensive research on diel vertical migration. Working with MBARI’s Ocean Soundscape Team, they are studying the ecology of animals that anchor ocean food webs: small fishes and crustaceans that provide food for countless other animals and ultimately humans too. Sound offers another lens to “see” these organisms. Using acoustic echosounder technology on R/V David Packard, the Biological Oceanography Group was able to observe the migration of organisms from the depths every evening and contextualize their eDNA samples.“The state-of-the-art oceanographic tools aboard the David Packard allowed us to collect data at much higher resolution than before. By pairing acoustic and DNA data, we hope to quantify and see species-specific patterns of migration that have been difficult to detect,” said Senior Research Technician Katie Pitz. Modernizing a long-term datasetMarine environments change frequently, so long-term observations, or time series, are critical for revealing seasonal, annual, and decadal variability and distinguishing natural changes from the impacts of human actions. The Biological Oceanography Group launched the Monterey Bay Time Series (MBTS) in 1989, leveraging monthly ship surveys, autonomous robots, and stationary moorings to collect a trove of data about Monterey Bay. These data are used by research teams across MBARI and are publicly available. MBARI researchers envision a future where autonomous vehicles, guided by intuitive AI algorithms and equipped with state-of-the-art scientific instruments, conduct continuous, real-time monitoring of ocean health, freeing up scientists to conduct targeted sampling to pursue unexpected discoveries. CANON takes the first steps towards this bold vision for ocean exploration and science. This work was funded as part of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s longtime support of MBARI’s work to advance marine science and technology to understand a changing ocean.Story by Senior Science Communication and Media Relations Specialist Raúl NavaFor additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org. Share Like this? Share it! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Email