Using sound to locate prey Meilina Dalit Despite the early call time of 4:30 a.m., spirits were pleasant the morning of the first day of the expedition. With a great weather forecast for the next couple of days, there was little to complain about other than wishing for another hour of sleep. The R/V Western …

In the first quantitative analysis of deep-sea bioluminescence, MBARI researchers Séverine Martini and Steve Haddock show that three quarters of the animals in Monterey Bay from the surface down to 4,000 meters deep can produce their own light.

MBARI’s M1 mooring is an important data collection station that floats above the seafloor in Monterey Bay continuously taking a variety of measurements to give researchers a clear picture of oceanographic conditions.

A new paper reveals the first observations of an elusive, giant pelagic octopus with a surprising choice of prey: jellyfish!

A team effort Nancy Barr The work completed this week will be very helpful for Scientist Charlie Paull as he plans his Western Flyer expedition scheduled for next month. Paull’s team will be collecting instruments placed in the canyon for the Coordinated Canyon Experiment, and will collect samples at key locations in the canyon. The …

Seeing fine details in the deep sea Nancy Barr Images created from two days of surveying an extensive clam field in Monterey Canyon are impressive for their level of detail—especially when you remember that these pictures are coming from more than 2,800 meters deep (about 1.7 miles) in the ocean. The surveys answered some science …

MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ventana completed its 4,000th dive in February 2017. With over 16,000 hours underwater, Ventana is by far the most experienced scientific ROV in the world.

Clams as far as they can see Nancy Barr When the ROV Doc Ricketts arrived at an extensive clam bed deep in Monterey Canyon this morning, it was soon evident that things had not changed drastically since the last time the site was mapped by David Caress and his team. That answered the first question …

Taking in the big picture Nancy Barr While it has long been possible to capture video and still images in the deep sea, most cameras used at depth have a very limited field of view and—unless the water is perfectly clear—must be very close to their subject matter. The stereo cameras used in this week’s …

The first survey Nancy Barr The first low-altitude survey of this expedition centered on an area surrounding an instrument node located about 30 kilometers offshore at a depth of 1,850 meters in Monterey Canyon. Here’s how it works: Four systems record data as the ROV runs a preprogrammed path across a 100-meter-square section of the …

Annette Gough joined MBARI as an administrator in 1988 (the institute was established in 1987) and is retiring this year.

The US Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program recently selected one of Kelly Benoit-Bird’s research as its Resource Conservation and Climate Change Project of the Year.

New research findings highlight a unique visual adaptation in a deep-sea squid, the cockeyed squid, which has eyes that are grossly different in size and structure.

During a study to learn how sediments flow through submarine canyons, a one-ton monitoring device on the seafloor was swept down Monterey Canyon and partially buried—twice in one year.

Last week researchers working onboard the R/V Rachel Carson received a surprise visitor—a handsome seabird called a brown booby. Brown boobies are usually associated with warm tropical waters. This bird was far from home!

A new paper in the journal PLOS One shows that some species of juvenile rockfish find it harder to exert themselves in acidified seawater, but other species are more adaptable.

MBARI’s Benthic Rover, an autonomous seafloor crawler, recently broke it's own world record, spending over a year autonomously crawling across the deep seafloor and collecting scientific data without any help from humans.

Axial Seamount, a large underwater volcano off of the Oregon coast, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, having last erupted in 2015. At the Fall 2016 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, MBARI researchers unveiled a new seafloor map that reveals previously undocumented lava flows from the 2015 eruption.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently approved a five-year, $11 million grant to the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS). On December 5-6, 2016, CeNCOOS will hold its annual meeting to discuss recent discoveries and future plans for monitoring the coast using funds from their new federal grant.

A century after its first discovery, the existence of the giant larvacean, B. charon, was confirmed by MBARI scientists when a routine sample collection turned extraordinary.