If you are a fan of nature documentaries, you may have come across a strange, gelatinous creature floating through the water with its many-colored glimmering comb rows. These luminescent animals are not, in fact, aliens or robots, but ctenophores (the “c” is silent, so it is pronounce “tee-no-fors”), commonly called comb jellies. Ctenophores are gelatinous …

Building on their 2015 expedition, MBARI researchers will be mapping the Pescadero Basin and searching for hydrothermal vents.

The cruise activities don’t end when we get back to shore. Next, comes the data analyses, interpretation, and communication through peer-reviewed research papers, social media, and press releases. The sediment traps and Sedimentation Event Sensor recorded another period during which large amounts of marine snow reached the seafloor. Interestingly, data from the Benthic Rover, time-lapse …

Contributor: University of Aveiro (Portugal) Postdoctoral Researcher Luciana Genio Knowing where and for how long the pelagic larvae of deep-sea benthic animals live in the water column is extremely important to understand how populations respond to natural (e.g., climate and food supply) and human (e.g., pollution, overfishing, mining) disturbances. On this cruise, we deployed a …

Over the 30-year (and counting) time-series study at Station M, we have seen changes in the biological carbon pump with changing sea surface conditions along the California coast. The abyss is not the invariable environment most people once envisioned. Short-term processes and events can have major impacts on long-term patterns. Every two hours, the Sedimentation …

MBARI engineers recently tested a new long-range autonomous underwater vehicle that is designed to detect and track oil spills.

The Benthic Rover is a fully autonomous underwater vehicle that collects data for the Pelagic-Benthic Coupling Lab’s studies of seafloor carbon consumption. Capable of yearlong deployments, it is the only untethered underwater rover in the world operating at abyssal depths. The Rover has transited over 11 kilometers of abyssal seafloor at 4,000 meters depth since …

MBARI engineers recently tested a new version of a camera system to study groundfish on deep, rocky reefs.

A new paper shows that currents in submarine canyons often involve large-scale movement of the seafloor. This discovery could help ocean engineers avoid damage to pipelines, communications cables, and other seafloor structures.

A new paper shows that currents in submarine canyons often involve large-scale movement of the seafloor. This discovery could help ocean engineers avoid damage to pipelines, communications cables, and other seafloor structures.

We’re heading home! During this cruise, we completed 25 ROV dives, collected 130 vibracores, and 348 push cores. This totals over 20,000 centimeters of sediment cores collected during this expedition. Of those samples, we sliced, bagged, and labeled over 2,000 one-centimeter slices of mud and sand. Now the next phase begins: we analyze all these samples to understand …

In the last two weeks aboard the R/V Western Flyer, we’ve spent 24 ROV dives cruising across the seafloor offshore Southern California, collecting sediment cores. Much of the seafloor we have surveyed is flat, muddy, and brown. So, one can imagine the eruption of excitement when we see a cool deep-sea animal. More notable organisms …

Along with scientists from MBARI and the U.S. Geological Survey, we have two graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher from Stanford University on the R/V Western Flyer with us. Each is interested in something slightly different but all are eager to help out and gain first-hand experience with the many tasks required to complete this research. …

Each day starts at 6:00 a.m. with preparing the ROV Doc Ricketts for the first dive of the day. Preparations include making sure we are in the correct spot on the map and all our sediment coring equipment is ready to go on the ROV. The ship’s stellar crew and ROV pilots jump into coordinated …

If you take a styrofoam cup into the deep sea, the immense water pressure will squeeze all the air out of the cups compressing them into miniature versions of the original cup. The deeper the ROV goes, the smaller the cups get as more air is squeezed out. Prior to departing, we packed cups decorated …

Yesterday, we set sail for the Southern California expedition. At the start of every cruise a safety meeting is held for all the participating scientists to learn how the Western Flyer is run and to go over all the ship rules and safety protocols. During our long transit south, we made a short stop offshore …

MBARI and the Monterey Bay Aquarium co-host symposium that is bringing together researchers from at least 34 countries.

MBARI and Monterey Bay Aquarium leaders will be participating in the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

Researchers from MBARI and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration are testing a new underwater robot that will swim around Lake Erie monitoring algae and toxins in the water.

Today is the last day of this research cruise. Our station is in the bay and we awoke to feeding whales surrounding the ship this morning. We will recover the MRS, put all our samples away, clean the lab, and head back to the beach. It has been a productive and interesting expedition for all the researchers, but we are looking …