2024

Annual Report

Our team continued to build on more than 35 years of innovation and discovery.

108 combined days at sea
63 AUV missions
1,164 kilometers mapped
74 ROV dives
356 hours of ROV video
645K video annotations
275K machine learning video localizations
5 petabytes of soundscape data downloaded
117 floats launched (SOCCOM/GO-BGC)
70 publications
89 presentations
59 mentorships
21 news stories
25 video productions
781K total social media followers
3 new species
Scholin Beach3

President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Scholin reflects on another year of change and looks forward to a new chapter for MBARI.

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Deploying innovative technology to monitor aquatic ecosystems

Partnerships across the country and overseas leverage MBARI technology for ecosystem health assessments in the ocean and our nation’s waterways.

Deploying innovative technology to monitor aquatic ecosystems

Visualizing marine life with new technologies

MBARI’s engineering innovation is helping researchers visualize the ocean and its inhabitants in new ways, transforming how we monitor ocean health.

Visualizing marine life with new technologies

Revealing deep-sea biodiversity

MBARI technology revealed a remarkable species of nudibranch with unique adaptations for life swimming through the ocean’s midnight zone.

Revealing deep-sea biodiversity

Documenting the dynamic processes that shape the seafloor

MBARI’s advanced technology is revealing the dynamic processes that sculpt the seafloor and answering fundamental questions about marine geology.

Documenting the dynamic processes that shape the seafloor

Inspiring a new wave of ocean explorers

FathomVerse mobile game aims to improve the artificial intelligence tools needed to study the ocean.

Inspiring a new wave of ocean explorers

Celebrating a major milestone for ocean science and conservation

MBARI’s partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium brings the deep sea to land and provides tools for ocean conservation.

Celebrating a major milestone for ocean science and conservation

Ship to Shore

MBARI’s advanced technology has provided remarkable new insights into life in the ocean. What we have learned at sea is shaping efforts on shore to protect marine life and habitats.

Raising awareness

A bus featuring MBARI’s deep-sea images joins the Santa Cruz METRO fleet as part of a campaign to raise awareness about local wildlife.

Raising awareness

Listening and learning

MBARI’s acoustic monitoring can detect the vocalizations of whales, revealing new information about the ecology of gigantic, yet elusive, marine mammals.

Listening and learning

New discoveries

During an expedition to the Gulf of California, researchers observed a deep-sea squid carrying exceptionally large eggs.

New discoveries

Building community

As co-host of the Fifth Marine Imaging Workshop, MBARI brought together experts in ocean visualization from around the world.

Building community

2024 Award Recipients

Benoit Bird Kelly

Kelly Benoit-Bird

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 2024 Steinbach Visiting Scholar

Fathomversewhite Blue Background

FathomVerse Team

Kevin Barnard, Lilli Carlsen, Emily Clark, Issie Corvi, Joost Daniels, Kakani Katija, Carlos A. Rueda, Giovanna Sainz, Brian Schlining

Playing for the Planet Awards, Finalist for Best Purpose-Driven Game

International Serious Play Awards, Silver Medal for Non-profit Training

In Memoriam

An engineer with a bald head, white beard, and glasses wearing a pale-green polo shirt stands in front of a window with closed white blinds.

Daniel Davis

Former Senior Software Engineer

Daniel Davis was a software engineer with a passion for math. He developed systems integral to many research projects, from coordinating a network of ocean monitoring instruments to measuring the sizes of objects underwater.

A marine biologist with dark-gray hair and a dark-gray beard wearing glasses, a light-blue shirt, and blue jeans pilots a sailboat. The biologist is holding the sailboat’s silver metal helm with two hands. Behind the biologist are two white-and-red sails flapping in the wind and a rolled-up gray sail. The background is clear-blue sky.

William “Bill” Hamner

Former Senior Scientist

Marine biologist William “Bill” Hamner was an inspiration and mentor to many MBARI researchers. He developed several fundamental tools and techniques for marine science and played an important role in MBARI’s development.