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.

Off the coast of central California, there are more than 10,000 depressions, 10 meters (33 feet) deep, known as pockmarks. We do not know how these large depressions were formed, however, we do know they never overlap, are beautifully circular, and roughly 100 meters in diameter. MBARI’s detailed mapping surveys conducted in 2018 show that …

Beaked whales congregate in parts of a Navy sonar test range off Southern California that have dense patches of deep-sea squid that are lacking in nearby “sonar-free” areas.

Marine biologists recently discovered large schools of fishes thriving in low-oxygen conditions that would be deadly to most other fish.

Peter Brewer receives the prestigious National Science and Technology Award in Beijing, China.

In 1995, an oil-field work boat sank suddenly off Southern California. Twenty-three years later, an MBARI ROV pilot who worked on that boat helped find the wreck.

Ocean researchers propose a new "pole-to-pole" Marine Biodiversity Observation Network

Marine biologists recently discovered five new species of colorful nudibranchs on the deep seafloor offshore of California and Baja California.

Adopt-A-Float program lets grade-school students participate in a major scientific study of the vast Southern Ocean.

  Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Coordinator Andrew DeVogelaere Two of the many nice things about being at sea are being rocked to sleep in your bunk by waves and the short, 30-step commute from your stateroom to the lab. This morning, launch prep began at 6:00, with a remotely operated vehicle dive starting …

Pulses of sinking debris carry large amounts of carbon to the deep seafloor, but are poorly represented in global climate models.

Postdoctoral Fellow Amanda Kahn Yesterday we left Moss Landing Harbor on the morning’s high tide and made the five-hour trip to Sur Ridge. The winds and waves were extreme so we could not do any research operations. Instead, we stayed near the coastline and waited for conditions to improve, which happened this morning. Our first …

Deep in the Gulf of California MBARI researchers watched shrimp "play dead" by hanging motionless in the water. They speculate that the shrimp do this to avoid being eaten.

Scientists know that the ocean is taking up a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Marine chemist Andrea Fassbender is bringing this process into focus by studying how carbon moves between the atmosphere, upper ocean, and deep sea.

Oceangoing robots are taking on ever-more complicated tasks and ushering in a technology revolution in oceanography, transforming the everyday work of ocean researchers.