Meet MBARI: Autonomous robots help team reveal the secret lives of ocean predators

At MBARI, our “office” is Monterey Bay and its deep submarine canyon. For many of our staff, that means spending much of their time on the water. Our marine operations team tests, deploys, and maintains a variety of underwater robots and instruments. Jared Figurski is a senior ocean observatory engineer, leading a team of scientists and engineers who are using autonomous robots to observe ocean predators.
Tunas, sharks, seabirds, and marine mammals play an important role in ocean ecosystems, but these top predators are also challenging to study. They spend much of their time far out at sea, dispersed across the open ocean. Many are also fast swimmers that can easily evade a boat or robot. MBARI’s Piscivore camera system gives us a glimpse into the secret lives of these ocean predators.
Piscivore’s video observations help us better understand populations of ocean predators and their prey. The data collected by Piscivore and MBARI’s ocean observing platforms can help resource managers implement regulations to protect marine life and ecosystems from threats like overfishing and climate change.
MBARI’s innovative technology is transforming what we know about the ocean and its inhabitants. Our scientists, engineers, and marine operations staff work together to create innovative tools for a more sustainable future where autonomous robots and artificial intelligence can track ocean health in real time and help us visualize ocean animals and environments. Studying our blue backyard is revealing our connection to the ocean-how it sustains us and how our actions on land may threaten its future.
We’re spotlighting various teams at MBARI to showcase the different ways we’re studying the largest environment on Earth. We hope this series inspires a new generation of ocean explorers. Dive in: mbari.co/MeetMBARI
Video editor: Dave Timko
Production team: Heidi Cullen, Madeline Go, Larissa Lemon, Kyra Schlining, Nancy Jacobsen Stout, Susan von Thun

[@theShadeslayer]

I love how the outro graphic symbolizes the purpose of MBARI

[@kanagasenthilraja7652]

Always i am curious to watch MBARI Videos.

[@boundsgreenboy8354]

Always interesting to what methods are used to better understand how,why and whatever else is happening beneath the seas and oceans that we know only a fraction of in reality. God bless MBARI and those unsung and unsighted.

[@brucefelter1335]

WOW SUCH AMAZING AND SO IMPORTANT WORK! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO AND FOR POSTING SUCH OUTSTANDING VIDEOS!💯💯💯💯💯

[@daniellaurin9566]

This was a very beautiful video, thank you for your work.

[@kavtel305]

Cool

[@bradsillasen1972]

What fun!

[@Panda-wv3ng]

Hey there R/V paragon!!

[@1NatureLady]

Maybe we could stop the oceans from being over fished.

[@BudaKhan420]

I don’t know what it’s like north of LA or south of Orange County, but when I was a kid there were seashells all over the seashore. Now the last time I was there, there was nothing or hardly anything. Then I recently saw a statistic that 60% of recently extinct species were mollusks. That’s a sign of a healthy ocean is whether you got mollusks or not.

[@GhostOnTheHalfShell]

Love how RUclips flags this as climate related when the topic isn’t central.

[@1NatureLady]

Can you imagine all the contamination from Fukushima and their reactors that are still leaking into the Pacific....