MBARI VIDEO LAB: The MBARI video lab team is responsible for managing and annotating the video and images recorded during MBARI’s scientific missions. We currently have over 25,000 hours of underwater video footage from Monterey Canyon, Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, and the Gulf of California, most of it recorded by the ROVs Ventana, Tiburon, and Doc Ricketts. We identify and describe the organisms and geological features so MBARI scientists and their collaborators can access and utilize this valuable information. My primary focus is on midwater organisms such as jellies, cephalopods, fish, and crustaceans.

VIDEO ANNOTATION: Our custom-designed Video Annotation and Reference System (VARS) facilitates annotations and enables searching of our enormous deep-sea database of 6 million+ observations. This treasure trove of information has contributed to over 400 peer-reviewed publications. These data and images are also available to the public through our VARS Public Query web application and the MBARI Deep-Sea Guide.

OTHER THINGS WE DO: The video team edits video footage for MBARI scientists to present at conferences and seminars and for our partner institution, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well as produces videos featuring our scientific research for MBARI’s YouTube channel. I also provide video content for the MBARI Annual Report. Several times a year I am invited to participate on seagoing research expeditions where I appreciate seeing amazing deep-sea animals in real life, not just on a screen!

  • Burford, B.P., Schlining, K.L., Reisenbichler, K.R., Robison, B.H., (2018). Pelagic shrimp play dead in deep oxygen minima. PLoS ONE, 13: . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207249
  • Sherlock, R. E., Walz, K. R., Schlining, K. L., Robison, B. H., (2017). Morphology, ecology, and molecular biology of a new species of giant larvacean in the eastern North Pacific: Bathochordaeus mcnutti sp. nov.. Marine Biology, 164: 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-3046-0
  • Haddock, S.H.D., L.M. Christianson, W.R. Francis, S. Martini, C.W. Dunn, P.R. Pugh, C.E. Mills, K.J. Osborn, B.A. Seibel, C.A. Choy, C.E. Schnitzler, G.I. Matsumoto, M. Messié, D.T. Schultz, J.R. Winnikoff, M.L. Powers, R. Gasca, W.E. Browne, S. Johnson, K.L. Schlining, S. von Thun, B.E. Erwin, J.F. Ryan, and E.V. Thuesen (2017). Insights into the biodiversity, behavior, and bioluminescence of deep-sea organisms using molecular and maritime technology. Oceanography, 30: 38-47. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.422
  • Schlining, K., S. von Thun, L. Kuhnz, B. Schlining, L. Lundsten, N.J. Stout, L. Chaney, and J. Connor (2013). Debris in the deep: Using a 22-year video annotation database to survey marine litter in Monterey Canyon, Central California, USA. Deep Sea Research I, 79: 96-105. 
  • Lundsten, L., K.L. Schlining, K. Frasier, S.B. Johnson, L. Kuhnz, J. Harvey, G. Clague, and R.C. Vrijenhoek (2010). Time-series analysis of six whale-fall communities in Monterey Canyon, California, USA. Deep-Sea Research Part I, 57: 1573-1584.
  • Lundsten, L., C.K. Paull, K.L. Schlining, M. McGann, and W. Ussler III (2010). Biological characterization of a whalefall near Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Deep-Sea Research Part I, 57: 918-922.
  • Stein, D.L., J.C. Drazen, K. Schlining, J. Barry, and L. Kuhnz (2006). Snailfishes of the central California coast: Video, photographic and morphological observations. Journal of Fish Biology, 69: 970-986.
  • Schlining, K.L., and J.D. Spratt. 1999. Assessment of the Carmel Bay spot prawn, Pandalus platyceros, resource and trap fishery adjacent to an ecological reserve in central California. In The Biodiversity Crisis and Crustacea: Proceedings of the Fourth International Crustacean Congress, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, July 20–24, 1998.
  • Schlining, K.L. 1999. The spot prawn (Pandalus platyceros Brandt 1851) resource in Carmel Submarine Canyon, California: Aspects of fisheries and habitat associations. M.S. Thesis, California State University, Stanislaus.