Octopus Garden When MBARI and MBNMS researchers were onboard the E/V Nautilus last year they had the opportunity to check out a spot near Davidson Seamount.  They found something so surprising and intriguing that we revisited the same site on this expedition. On the seafloor, in cracks and crevices on the edge of this underwater …

Deep-sea coral observatory Along with the sanctuary and other collaborators, studies of deep-sea coral and sponge communities at Sur Ridge are becoming a focal area for collaborative deep-sea research around Monterey Bay.  As one element of this partnership, MBARI is initiating a “Deep-Sea Coral Observatory” to help understand various processes that influence the biodiversity, productivity, …

Deep-sea coral discovery Unlike shallow water coral reefs that are accessible in most tropical reef areas, deep-sea corals are typically remote and inaccessible due to their great depth, often hundreds to thousands of meters beneath the surface, as well as far from shore. So, even though deep-sea coral ecosystems occur in deep rocky habitats across …

New research using an MBARI-inspired “camera tag” shows that some sharks in South Africa spend a lot of time in kelp beds.

MBARI’s 2018 Annual Report provides a multimedia view of the institute’s latest research and technology developments.

Twenty thousand years ago, when giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers roamed the Los Angeles Basin, in the dark ocean depths lived an immense colony of worms.

Recent article highlights the world-wide use of MBARI's FOCE design for ocean acidification experiments

MBARI biologist Steve Haddock recently rolled out a new and improved web site that allows citizen scientists around the world to report jellyfish blooms.

A gallery of some of the amazing deep-sea animals we observed during this expedition:

We are fortunate to have two aquarists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, MacKenzie Bubel and Wyatt Patry, working with us on this expedition. They are busy collecting an array of new deep-sea animals and have been able to keep several animals alive longer than we ever have before. They are hoping to successfully culture several key species. The cold room …

The Midwater Ecology Group is out here studying a layer in the water column called the oxygen minimum zone, or OMZ. The OMZ is a layer where the oxygen levels are lower than the waters above. In the Monterey Bay area the OMZ is typically 600 to 900 meters below the surface. OMZs form where large amounts of organic …

We steamed for just over four hours until we reached our first dive site at approximately 3,000 meters (almost two miles). The first few hours of the dive were spent filling the Midwater Respirometry System (MRS) sample buckets with mysid shrimp for a deep deployment. According to Research Specialist Kim Reisenbichler the shrimp are “good …

Scientists at MBARI recently found a way to identify several groups of glowing marine organisms by the light they produce.

Computer models suggest that marine protected areas improve recovery of sea life after major population declines.

During this cruise, we completed 12 ROV dives, collected 49 vibracores, and 201 push cores. The length of these samples total 11,215 centimeters of sediment cores. Of that, we sliced, bagged, and labeled over 4,009 one-centimeter slices of mud. We hope these muddy samples can shed some light on how these features were formed. This …

On February 7, 2019, Frank Roberts, an emeritus on MBARI’s board of directors, passed away at the age of 99.

What can we learn from sampling the seafloor and how do we do it? On this cruise, we are studying the processes that modify the seafloor in an area offshore Morro Bay, where a wind farm may be located in the future. The environmental conditions and stability of the seafloor are important factors to consider …

Walter Munk was a giant in the world of oceanography. He died February 8, 2019 at his home in La Jolla, California.

Today we recovered a mooring that has been gathering information about this site since September 2018. The mooring is equipped with a current meter that measures a vertical profile of bottom currents every 30 seconds. There is also a sediment trap eight meters above the seafloor used to capture sediment and organic material as it settles …

A new study shows that anchovies and krill in Monterey Bay form dense aggregations during upwelling events caused by strong northwest winds.