Marine Applied Research and Exploration - MARÉ

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Marine Applied Research and Exploration - MARÉ

Eyes on the Seafloor: Explore. Inform. Protect Life on Earth depends on the health of the oceans. Some even predict the global collapse of all fisheries by 2050.

The global food web is inextricably tied to the ocean and fisheries. Yet pollution, coastal development, overfishing, and new threats such as climate change and energy development are taking a deadly toll on the health of marine environments. Scientists estimate that 29% of currently fished species have already collapsed. Because they are below the surface, the ocean’s resources are out of sight a

nd often out of mind. Overcoming this lack of illumination is critical to managing the health of the oceans and the quality of the environment, for our children and their children. MARE is the only organization in the world that is using fast, accurate, and cost effective underwater technology to assess ocean habitats. The support MARE provides to scientists and policy makers is essential to making the right decisions that protect and manage ocean resources. Since 2003, MARE is the leader in illuminating the ocean’s unknowns. Through partnering with scientists, resource managers, and environmental organizations, MARE is ensuring decision makers can make the right decisions to protect fish, the oceans, and the world ecosystems.

05/28/2026

California MPA Monitoring Series: What is an MPA?

MPA. Three letters doing a lot of work off California's coast.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are like national parks for the ocean: places where marine habitats and species are protected so ecosystems can recover and thrive. The law behind California's network, the Marine Life Protection Act, was signed in 1999. The full system of 124 MPAs along the coast was phased in regionally and completed in 2012, built through a public, stakeholder-led process.

But a line on a map isn't protection. Knowing what actually lives there, and how it's changing, is.
That's where MARÉ comes in. For 20+ years, we've put ROVs on the California seafloor, documenting species and habitats below diver depth. That long-term record is what turns a designation into evidence: what's recovering, what's shifting, what's working.
This is the first post in our CA MPA series.
👉 Follow along as we head into the 2026 field season.

Save this for the next time someone asks what an MPA actually is.

05/19/2026

This habitat is very much alive.
Gorgonian corals, fish - a mesophotic ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico, thriving below the depth most ocean surveys reach.
Understanding what lives here and how these habitats are structured is the first step toward protecting them. That's what brings MARÉ's ROV to this depth.
Filmed by MARÉ ROV Beagle.

05/10/2026

Do you know what this is? Hint: it's related to Mother's Day!

Squid eggs! 🦑 More specifically, the eggs of Doryteuthis opalescens — the California market squid. You probably know her better as calamari.

Each of those finger-like capsules holds a couple of hundred developing embryos, and a single mom lays 20+ of them. That's thousands of babies per female - anchored to the seafloor in clusters sometimes called "sea mops."
Multiply that across a whole spawning aggregation, and you're looking at millions of future squid in one neighborhood. 🤯

This nursery was spotted by our ROV Beagle while surveying the California seafloor - exactly the kind of habitat we work to document and protect.
Happy Mother's Day to the squid moms putting in serious work down there.
Follow for more from below scuba depth.

05/07/2026

Most reef fish surveys stop at 30 meters. The fish don't.
The mesophotic zone sits just below that line and it's where some commercially important species are larger, more abundant, and largely uncounted. Without data from this depth, stock assessments are working with an incomplete picture.
MARÉ's ROV surveys the mesophotic zone to document what conventional methods miss, building the baseline that fisheries management actually needs.
What else is down there? Follow along and we'll show you.

05/05/2026

A king crab has found the only hard structure for meters in any direction.
A tube sponge on the Pacific seafloor - not much, but enough. In the mesophotic zone, these structures become gathering points. Where the sponge grows, other species follow.

👉Tag someone who needs to see this.

04/30/2026

The bluntnose sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus) is a relic of an older ocean. While most shark lineages evolved five gill slits, this one never did - a trait unchanged for roughly 200 million years.
It doesn't hunt near the surface. It doesn't need to. This is its world.
Filmed at 121 meters off the Channel Islands by ROV Beagle.

04/28/2026

Deep-sea science doesn't happen without serious engineering.
Sea to lab to sea - diagnosing, rebuilding, testing.
This is the part people don't always see.
The hours before the dive. The work behind the work.
Follow for what deep-sea research actually looks like.

04/22/2026

Looks like a crab.
It's not.
Tuna Crabs are actually squat lobsters — and they might be the most important animal in the Eastern Pacific you've never heard of. Tuna, whales, sharks, billfish. They all depend on this one species.
They swarm in massive aggregations below the surface. They survive in waters with almost no oxygen. And scientists are still figuring out basic facts about how they live.
This Earth Day, we're thinking about the species holding the food web together from the dark.
Help us keep exploring 👇
secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/l96S3GWHgwzzOtqGpFRLYQ

04/15/2026

Our partners at the International Ocean Film Foundation wrapped their 23rd annual event this weekend. Watch online from now through April 28.

More than 36 films (11 award winners) that highlight MARE's mission to protect the ocean ecosystems that sustain us all. It's rare and inspiring to see the stories happening underwater and to make room for MARÉ's deeper sea footage on the big screen.

🌊Use code ONLINE25 for 25% off through Friday, April 17th.
Link: https://2026ioff.eventive.org/welcome

04/09/2026

Meet the Dumbo octopus - named for those ear-like fins it uses to navigate total darkness at up to 7,000 meters deep.
Yes, they're as magical as everyone says. 🐙
This footage was captured by our ROV Beagle. Not borrowed, not stock - filmed by MARÉ in the mesophotic zone, the part of the ocean most people never think about.

Most people will never see one of these in the wild. We think everyone should.

👉Save this for the next time someone asks what's below scuba depth.

Address

101 Taylor Drive #107
Blue Lake, CA
94920

Telephone

+15102321541

Website

http://www.maregroup.org/

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