Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Christopher Scholin serves as the institute's president and chief executive officer, managing a work force of approximately 220 scientists, engineers, and operations and administrative staff.

With this 4,000-meter-deep submarine canyon only a few ship-hours from their base of operations, institute scientists enjoy an advantageous proximity to this natural, deep-sea "laboratory."

Much of MBARI's research focuses on the development and use of robotic vehicles and other automated methods for gathering information in the ocean.

AUVs are robotic submersibles that are programmed at the sea surface and then released to collect data autonomously, with little or no human intervention.

In addition to ROVs, MBARI has also developed untethered undersea robots called autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

Tethys provides capabilities falling between existing propeller driven AUVs, which typically have endurances on the order of a day, and buoyancy-driven vehicles (gliders) that can operate for many months.

[2] In 2008, MBARI deployed the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS)—the first deep-sea cabled observatory offshore of the continental United States.

MARS enables researchers to hook up a variety of scientific instruments such as earthquake monitors and low-light video cameras and leave them on the deep seafloor for extended periods of time.

In 2001, MBARI scientists and engineers detected the onset and development of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) using the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP)—an undersea, robotic DNA laboratory.

Using the ESP, researchers are able to conduct molecular biological analyses remotely, in real-time, over a sustained period, and with interactive capability.