2025

Annual Report

MBARI President CEO Antje Boetius 03 300

President and Chief Executive Officer Antje Boetius reflects on her inaugural year leading MBARI.

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The MBARI team continued to build on our decades of innovation and discovery.

206 days at sea
152 autonomous vehicle missions
119 square kilometers mapped by AUV
5,645 square kilometers mapped by ship
99 ROV dives
371 hours of ROV video
1.29M video annotations (65% machine learning)
3.6 petabytes of soundscape data downloaded
133 floats launched (SOCCOM/GO-BGC)
83 publications
147 presentations
58 mentorships
26 news stories
40 YouTube video productions
900K total social media followers
2 new species

Monterey Bay and Beyond

Collaboration is an essential part of MBARI’s work. Our technology and expertise played an integral role in research projects around the world in 2025.

Explore Map

Expanding MBARI’s capacity for ocean research with a new state-of-the-art ship

The arrival of a new flagship research vessel, David Packard, marks the start of an exciting new chapter in MBARI’s work.

Expanding MBARI’s capacity for ocean research with a new state-of-the-art ship

Gaining new insight into the ocean-climate connection

MBARI research and technology are providing urgently needed information about the ocean’s role in storing carbon—and in buffering against climate change.

Gaining new insight into the ocean-climate connection

Mapping changes to the Arctic seafloor with advanced MBARI technology

MBARI researchers and a team of international collaborators returned to the Arctic to study seafloor processes in the Canadian Beaufort Sea.

Mapping changes to the Arctic seafloor with advanced MBARI technology

Making MBARI’s innovation more accessible to the ocean exploration community

The new MOLA AUV is a powerful, portable underwater robot equipped with advanced sensors and software to collect detailed data on ocean environments.

Making MBARI’s innovation more accessible to the ocean exploration community

Connecting with a global community committed to science and conservation

Collaborations extend the reach of MBARI research and technology to advance our understanding of the global ocean.

Connecting with a global community committed to science and conservation

Opening opportunities for the next generation of ocean explorers

MBARI programs support emerging marine scientists and engineers whose curiosity and creativity are shaping the future of ocean discovery.

Opening opportunities for the next generation of ocean explorers

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.

Imaging innovation

Three-dimensional visual data from the innovative EyeRIS imaging system could contribute to the design of bioinspired robots in the future.

Imaging innovation

The secrets of whale songs

Studying whale songs in the aftermath of a marine heatwave offers clues to how whales adapt to changing ocean conditions.

The secrets of whale songs

An adorable discovery

The bumpy snailfish described by MBARI collaborators at SUNY Geneseo is one of more than 300 species discovered with MBARI technology.

An adorable discovery

Listening with light

Geo-Sense is a new instrument that uses distributed acoustic sensing technology to monitor the geological processes that sculpt the seafloor.

Listening with light

2025 Award Recipients

A woman with blonde hair wearing a navy blue zipper vest and green three-quarter sleeve shirt underneath, looks up and to the left of the frame. She has her thumbs in her vest pockets, with the rest of her hands hanging down. The jacket has a white logo and MBARI on her left side of the zipper. She is standing in front of a large robot with a yellow box at the top and a blue octopus between the words “Doc Ricketts MBARI.” Below the yellow box, there is a metal frame that encases wires, tubes, and other mechanical parts.

Antje Boetius

Order Pour le Mérite for Science
and Arts
Federal President of Germany

Fellow
The Royal Society

Senate Medal for Art and Science
Free Hanseatic City of Bremen

Alt text: A woman with dark hair wearing a dark colored shirt looks at a laptop on a desk in front of her. She is facing the photographer, and the monitor’s light shines in her face, making it the brightest part of the scene. The rest of the scene is very dark with red light in the back behind her, to the left of the frame. The red light gives the background a red glow. There are numerous instruments behind her on a countertop.

Kakani Katija

2025 Green Ones to Watch
Bloomberg News

In Memoriam

A headshot shows a former member of the MBARI Board of Directors wearing a tan bucket hat, white polo shirt, black quarter-zip sweater, and purple vest. The background is a tan cloth tent and bright-green grass.

Dean Morton

Former MBARI Board Member

Dean Morton served as a member of MBARI’s Board of Directors for 25 years. His decades of executive experience from Hewlett-Packard brought valuable business expertise that was instrumental in guiding MBARI during our formative years.

A headshot shows a former member of the MBARI Board of Directors with gray hair wearing a gray shirt and tie. The background is a textured gray screen.

Robert Spindel

Former MBARI Board Member

A member of MBARI’s Board of Directors for 16 years, Robert Spindel shared his extensive expertise in underwater acoustics and electrical engineering to help guide the institute’s work in developing cutting-edge technology for studying the ocean.