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.

A new MBARI robot will add to the midwater observations researchers have been making with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for nearly two decades.

An unusual deep-sea fish that was previously identified in the Southeastern Pacific has recently been found to live around the Hawaiian Islands and off the coast of Central California as well.

A recent paper shows that some juvenile king crabs hitch rides on wandering sea cucumbers, perhaps as a way of evading predators.

MBARI’s newest senior scientist, Kelly Benoit-Bird, uses sound to observe animals such as seabirds and dolphins as they chase their prey underwater.

Over 40 ocean technologists attended a workshop at MBARI to review the state of performance of engineering infrastructure of ocean observatories and science sensors.

During a recent mission, MBARI's Wave Glider Tiny ran into some problems. When MBARI engineers went to sea to recover the Wave Glider, they discovered major damage to the fiberglass hull, mast, and solar panels.

Lonny Lundsten and Michelle Côté While the ROV and AUV surveys are the priorities for this research expedition, as per the multidisciplinary nature of this mission, we are constantly designing other science tasks that are undertaken as time allows. Investigating the release of methane into the water column from seafloor features is an additional area of interest for the scientists …

Lonny Lundsten and Michelle Côté We recovered two AUVs during the first several hours of the morning. At 10:30 a.m. the MiniROV arrived at the seafloor at a depth of 240 meters. The mission objective was to ground truth a slump scar using the video camera on the ROV.  A slump scar is essentially an underwater landslide with …

Lonny Lundsten and Michelle Côté Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operations are now underway. Our team has developed a rhythm and the crew of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier (SWL) is expertly handling AUV and ROV deployments. There is an ongoing dance between the various scientific elements of this expedition to integrate the mooring work, CTD casts, …

MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Anela Choy, who studies the impacts of plastic debris on ocean food webs, has been selected as one of five recipients of the L'Oreal Women in Science Fellowship for 2016.

What happens when you merge dance and science? SpectorDance and MBARI have done it again with Ocean Trilogy.

Lonny Lundsten and Michelle Côté The principal activities conducted during this expedition on Sir Wilfrid Laurier are led by Chief Scientist Humphrey Melling of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. These activities include the servicing of subsea oceanographic instruments and moorings for ocean and sea‐ice monitoring, CTD rosette casts at selected locations, and continuous underway measurement of surface seawater …

Lonny Lundsten and Michelle Côté As development continues in the Canadian Arctic, it is crucial for scientists to understand the causes and effects of changes to the seabed and to identify areas of special concern, including ecologically sensitive habitats and geohazards. Mud volcanos in the upper slope area are of particular interest as they are thought to …

Today we sailed towards Kugluktuk, Canada, for a refueling stop alongside a Canadian fuel tanker. We sailed past the icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. While in transit, MBARI technicians and Canadian Coast Guard crew members hauled out gear from the hold and onto the well deck for assembly. MiniROV pilots Dale Graves, Frank Flores, and Ben Erwin …

This week, the Oceanic Engineering Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) presented MBARI with an award for the Institute's "consistent presence and efforts towards the goals of the society to advance ocean research for the science and technology community."

MBARI Adjunct Victoria Orphan has been named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, in recognition of her work on microbial communities in extreme environments and their impact on the cycling of nutrients and energy through the oceans.

Yesterday we took a late-night flight from Yellowknife, Canada, to Cambridge Bay, Canada. Then we took a quick but cold ride, on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), out to the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier and arrived onboard at around 10:00 p.m. In Yellowknife, we switched to a plane that could land on a gravel runway. At the …

The weather is damp and windy, but the science gear was successfully loaded onto the Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker (CCGS) Sir Wilfrid Laurier. A helicopter was used to deliver two loads, each slightly less than the limit of about 635 kilograms (1,400 pounds), to the ship.

Cannibalism is not so unusual in the deep sea, especially for squid, but until recently the diet of Gonatus squid was largely unknown. Remotely operated vehicle observations of these squid in their natural habitat have enabled scientists to learn a great deal more about their feeding behavior.