The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is a nonprofit research center that studies the ocean. It is located in Moss Landing, California. MBARI was started in 1987 by David Packard and is mainly funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Christopher Scholin is the president and chief executive officer of the institute. He manages about 220 scientists, engineers, and staff members.
At MBARI, scientists and engineers work together to create new tools and methods for ocean research. Ongoing funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation allows the institute to study topics that other funding groups might not support. One of David Packard’s goals for MBARI was to "Take risks. Ask big questions. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; if you don’t make mistakes, you’re not reaching far enough."
MBARI’s campus in Moss Landing is near the center of Monterey Bay, at the top of the Monterey Canyon. Monterey Bay is one of the most biologically diverse areas of water in the world. The submarine canyon beneath it is one of the deepest underwater canyons along the United States’ coastline. Because the 4,000-meter-deep submarine canyon is only a few hours away from their base, scientists have a good location for research.
MBARI is not open to the public, but it holds an open house once each year. Although MBARI is a sister institution to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the two organizations operate separately and have different management and funding sources.
MBARI’s service mark shows a gulper eel.
History
Biological oceanographer Bruce Robison was diving in the HOV Deep Rover near central California and was frustrated with the underwater video technology used by his team. He worked with Derek Baylis, an engineer at the newly created Monterey Bay Aquarium, to design an underwater housing for photography and videography. This new technology inspired David Packard to consider ocean research programs with larger goals.
In the fall of 1986, Packard organized a meeting with other west-coast oceanographic institutions, including the University of Washington, Stanford University, and SIO, to discuss creating a research institution in Moss Landing to support studies in the Monterey Canyon. They decided the institute would operate separately from the aquarium and address a specific need in ocean technology. The first MBARI board of directors met on June 27, 1987, with Packard and chemical oceanographer John Martin leading the group.
Research
MBARI's current work includes studies in several areas of ocean science, such as marine biology, geology, chemistry, and biological oceanography. The organization also creates new tools and methods for ocean research, as well as technology used in ocean observatories.
A major part of MBARI's research involves creating and using robotic vehicles and other machines that operate automatically to collect data in the ocean. These tools help scientists learn more about ocean life and natural events in the ocean.
Research vessels
In December 2011, MBARI retired the RV Point Lobos after 23 years of service. In 2012, MBARI also retired the RV Zephyr, which was used to launch MBARI's autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These two boats were replaced by one larger boat, the Rachel Carson, which MBARI bought in the summer of 2011. The Research Vessel Rachel Carson can launch both remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and AUVs, and it can also support scientific missions that last several days.
From 1996 to 2022, MBARI's main research vessel was the RV Western Flyer. This ship was 35.6 meters (117 feet) long and had a special design called a small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH). It used a moon pool in the center of the ship to deploy the ROV Doc Ricketts. The Western Flyer supported ROV dives along much of the west coast of North America, including the Gulf of California, Vancouver Island, and the Hawaiian islands.
In 2021, MBARI announced plans to build a new research vessel called the RV David Packard. The ship's outside was finished and launched in October 2022. It was delivered in March 2025 and started scientific missions in the summer of 2025.
Underwater vehicles
MBARI has been a leader in creating and using two types of underwater robots: remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). ROVs are robotic submersibles connected to a ship on the surface by a long cable. Scientists and pilots on the ship control these robots. AUVs are robotic submersibles that are programmed on the surface and then released to collect data on their own with little or no help from humans.
MBARI’s ROV Doc Ricketts is a robot that can go down to 4 kilometers deep. It is named after Ed Ricketts, a scientist who studied the ocean. Doc Ricketts has been used on the ship R/V Western Flyer since 2009. It replaced another robot called ROV Tiburon, which was used on the same ship from 1997 to 2009.
ROV Ventana is a robot that can go down to 1.8 kilometers deep. It was built for MBARI by International Submarine Engineering based on plans created by David Packard and scientists at MBARI. Ventana was delivered in 1988 with basic tools and cameras. Over time, it has been updated with new sensors, a high-definition camera, and tools to collect sea life during more than 3,600 dives.
MBARI also uses AUVs, which are untethered underwater robots. The Dorado-class AUVs are 53.3 centimeters (21 inches) wide and can be 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) to 6.4 meters (21 feet) long, depending on the mission. These AUVs include models for studying the upper ocean, mapping the seafloor, and taking underwater images. They can operate at depths of up to 6,000 meters and have been used for missions lasting up to 20 hours.
MBARI’s Tethys AUV, also called the long-range AUV, is a newer robot designed to travel farther than most AUVs. It is 30.5 centimeters (12 inches) wide, 230 centimeters (7.5 feet) long, and weighs 120 kilograms. Tethys can operate for longer periods than typical AUVs, which usually last about a day, but not as long as gliders, which can work for months. In October 2011, Tethys traveled nearly 1,800 kilometers over 24 days at sea.
Notable achievements
MBARI researchers regularly use remote-controlled vehicles to explore the deep Monterey Canyon. These trips have helped scientists find new animal species and learn about their roles in the deep ocean's ecosystem.
Some important species discovered by MBARI scientists include the bumpy jelly (Stellamedusa ventana), the big red (Tiburonia granrojo), the pigbutt worm (Chaetopterus pugaporcinus), and the bone-eating worms called Osedax. Bruce Robison was the first person to see the transparent head of the barreleye fish, Macropinna microstoma.
In 2008, MBARI launched the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS), the first deep-sea observatory connected by cables off the U.S. mainland. MARS allows scientists to attach tools like earthquake sensors and cameras to the ocean floor and leave them there for long periods. MARS was created in 2002 with funding from the National Science Foundation and built by a group of organizations, including MBARI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Washington, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and others.
MBARI scientists have also made important advances in studying tiny ocean life. In 2000, Oded Beja and Edward DeLong found a gene in certain bacteria that helps produce a protein called rhodopsin, which was unknown in bacteria before. They also helped develop metagenomics, a method to study genetic material from many ocean organisms. Alexandra Worden led efforts to focus metagenomics on eukaryotic cells, allowing scientists to study the DNA of these cells even when they cannot be grown in labs.
In 2001, MBARI scientists used the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), a robotic lab under the sea, to detect the start of a harmful algal bloom. The ESP lets researchers analyze ocean samples remotely, in real time, and over long periods. It collects and examines water samples, such as the genetic material of tiny ocean organisms, directly in the ocean.