Monterey Bay Aquarium

[superme80]

Went to the Aquarium on Sunday. It was awesome! The lines were pretty long, but so worth it. I highly recommend it. You can get discount tickets at AAA.

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

We went mid-afternoon the first week of August and it was quite tame

 

[GrandBob]

Glad to hear that you guys enjoyed our sister organization.

Where I work -- http://www.mbari.org/

If anyone wants the nickel tour while they're in town, let me know.

-Bob

 

[usnuzuloose]

Glad to hear that you guys enjoyed our sister organization.

Where I work -- http://www.mbari.org/

If anyone wants the nickel tour while they're in town, let me know.

-Bob

If you dont mind me asking, what do you do there? I visit often as I only live 3 hours away. Looks interesting. Thanks

 

[tiffjoy]

I am so glad you enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium! We have had yearly passes for 3 years running now. We never seem to get tired of it.

 

[tiffjoy]

Glad to hear that you guys enjoyed our sister organization.

Where I work -- http://www.mbari.org/

If anyone wants the nickel tour while they're in town, let me know.

-Bob

We visit Monterey often. I knew about the research center, but is it open to tours? I'd be really interested!!

 

[GrandBob]

If you dont mind me asking, what do you do there? I visit often as I only live 3 hours away. Looks interesting. Thanks

I work for MBARI, not the aquarium. I'm guessing you visit the aquarium often, as you would normally need to have an employee show you around MBARI. We're sister organizations (both started by David Packard, with Julie Packard as our Chairman of the Board in both cases). But other than that, separate. We're in Moss Landing, about 20 miles north of Monterey.

What do I do? I'm a software engineer. I wrote much of the software to control Tiburon, our first in-house designed ROV (a robot submarine). I wrote most of the software for FOCE, our CO2 / Ocean Acidification experiment. And lots of other cool undersea toys. And they pay me to play with these toys

We visit Monterey often. I knew about the research center, but is it open to tours? I'd be really interested!!

Normally, no, it's not open to tours. Various engineers and scientists will schedule tours for school groups. And give short tours for friends and family. I'm willing to show some folks around for a short time, if you're really interested.

But once a year, usually in summer, we hold an Open House, which is open to the public. Here's the scoop on the one from this year.

And once every week or two, usually on Wednesdays at 3PM, we have seminars, and they're open to the public too. They vary from being highly technical on specific scientific studies, to ones that are of more interest to the general public. Looking ahead at our schedule, it looks to me that the one scheduled for Oct 13 would generate quite a bit of interest with the public. The others, not so much.

-Bob

 

[cartoonvoice]

That's my hometown and the city is amazing and the aquarium is one of the best!

 

[Rhonna]

I work for MBARI, not the aquarium. I'm guessing you visit the aquarium often, as you would normally need to have an employee show you around MBARI. We're sister organizations (both started by David Packard, with Julie Packard as our Chairman of the Board in both cases). But other than that, separate. We're in Moss Landing, about 20 miles north of Monterey.

What do I do? I'm a software engineer. I wrote much of the software to control Tiburon, our first in-house designed ROV (a robot submarine). I wrote most of the software for FOCE, our CO2 / Ocean Acidification experiment. And lots of other cool undersea toys. And they pay me to play with these toys



Normally, no, it's not open to tours. Various engineers and scientists will schedule tours for school groups. And give short tours for friends and family. I'm willing to show some folks around for a short time, if you're really interested.

But once a year, usually in summer, we hold an Open House, which is open to the public. Here's the scoop on the one from this year.

And once every week or two, usually on Wednesdays at 3PM, we have seminars, and they're open to the public too. They vary from being highly technical on specific scientific studies, to ones that are of more interest to the general public. Looking ahead at our schedule, it looks to me that the one scheduled for Oct 13 would generate quite a bit of interest with the public. The others, not so much.

-Bob

Hi,

Is your company going to have anything to do with the new west coast ocean science project with the undersea gliders?

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...sf/2011/10/largest_ocean_science_project.html

 

[GrandBob]

Hi,

Is your company going to have anything to do with the new west coast ocean science project with the undersea gliders?

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...sf/2011/10/largest_ocean_science_project.html

You're talking about OOI, the Ocean Observing Initiative

http://www.oceanobservatories.org

Yes, we've been involved with OOI since day 1, primarily in a planning and consulting role. We're not one of the primary contractees. Now we're mostly working with UCSD and the San Diego Supercomputing Center on the CyberInfrastructure (CI) portion of the project.

Pretty much, if you're in oceanography, you're going to be involved with OOI somehow. Almost all of NSF (National Science Foundation) funding for oceanography has been directed to OOI.

There are 4 main pieces of OOI -
CI - CyberInfrastructure. Program management by UCSD.

CGSN - Coastal/Global Sensing Network. Program management primarily by Woods Hole, but also Oregon State and Scripps in San Diego.

RSN - Regional Sensing Network (the big cabled observatory being put in place off Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia). Program management by U of Washington.

Education - Program management by Rutgers

While the main awards of 10s of millions goes to the Program management organizations noted, they're subcontracting major portions to lots of other Universities and oceanographic institutes. We're getting a tiny slice of the pie; but our organization is motivated primarily by being involved with the other major institutes, not by the relatively small number of dollars that we're getting from it.

Oops, was that more than you wanted to know?

-Bob

ETA (I couldn't resist) - While we've done some pioneering work on AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles), we're not involved in the glider portion of OOI. But that's just a small portion of OOI. However, our MARS cabled observatory in Monterey Bay was funded by NSF as the official prototype for the RSN (cabled observatory) portion of OOI. We and the rest of the organizations learned some valuable lessons before deploying the full-scale network off the west coast. I'm responsible for the software in two of the six experiments cited on our MARS page.

 

[Rhonna]

You're talking about OOI, the Ocean Observing Initiative

http://www.oceanobservatories.org

Yes, we've been involved with OOI since day 1, primarily in a planning and consulting role. We're not one of the primary contractees. Now we're mostly working with UCSD and the San Diego Supercomputing Center on the CyberInfrastructure (CI) portion of the project.

Pretty much, if you're in oceanography, you're going to be involved with OOI somehow. Almost all of NSF (National Science Foundation) funding for oceanography has been directed to OOI.

There are 4 main pieces of OOI -
CI - CyberInfrastructure. Program management by UCSD.

CGSN - Coastal/Global Sensing Network. Program management primarily by Woods Hole, but also Oregon State and Scripps in San Diego.

RSN - Regional Sensing Network (the big cabled observatory being put in place off Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia). Program management by U of Washington.

Education - Program management by Rutgers

While the main awards of 10s of millions goes to the Program management organizations noted, they're subcontracting major portions to lots of other Universities and oceanographic institutes. We're getting a tiny slice of the pie; but our organization is motivated primarily by being involved with the other major institutes, not by the relatively small number of dollars that we're getting from it.

Oops, was that more than you wanted to know?

-Bob

ETA (I couldn't resist) - While we've done some pioneering work on AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles), we're not involved in the glider portion of OOI. But that's just a small portion of OOI. However, our MARS cabled observatory in Monterey Bay was funded by NSF as the official prototype for the RSN (cabled observatory) portion of OOI. We and the rest of the organizations learned some valuable lessons before deploying the full-scale network off the west coast. I'm responsible for the software in two of the six experiments cited on our MARS page.

Most of the technological explanations would be over my head but the basic concept is interesting. I wonder how much of the project will be geared toward understanding fault lines/earthquakes/tsunamis?

I asked because my sister works at Oregon State and the university is involved in this new project (although she is not, she's currently an accounting tech). Plus, I saw your post when we had just come back from a coast trip (Newport) which is one of the areas where they will have a base/buoys for the underwater gliders. The OSU Marine Hatfield Science center was closed the day we went. (We've been before.)

I try to get her to consider a move to the central CA coast area (hence, my other thread about the ideal central CA coastal town which no one has posted on yet) but the cost factor is a big deterrent. Both housing and finding a good job.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[GrandBob]

Most of the technological explanations would be over my head but the basic concept is interesting. I wonder how much of the project will be geared toward understanding fault lines/earthquakes/tsunamis?

I asked because my sister works at Oregon State and the university is involved in this new project (although she is not, she's currently an accounting tech). Plus, I saw your post when we had just come back from a coast trip (Newport) which is one of the areas where they will have a base/buoys for the underwater gliders. The OSU Marine Hatfield Science center was closed the day we went. (We've been before.)

I try to get her to consider a move to the central CA coast area (hence, my other thread about the ideal central CA coastal town which no one has posted on yet) but the cost factor is a big deterrent. Both housing and finding a good job.

Thanks for the reply.

You're most welcome. The various portions of OOI will support a wide array of oceanographic experiments and specialties, including physical, chemical, biological, and geological oceanography, among others. The RSN, the cabled observatory, in particular has a lot of interest for seismologists and vulcanologists. In fact, it's a big motivation for placing the cabled observatory there. It will traverse the underwater Juan de Fuca ridge, where there's a lot of tectonic activity. Over the last 20 years, a lot of research has been done on hot vents and smokers in that region -- areas where water as hot as 600 degrees C is emitted from rifts in the earth's crust. There are a lot of areas where this water, rich in minerals, builds huge mineral deposits, 10 or more meters tall, culminated by a vent at the top where it appears to "smoke" - actually that's the minerals coming out -- sulfer, manganese, and other elements. It's fascinating to see the underwater video.

A lot of interest in seismology (earthquake study) too. We have a working underwater seismograph in Monterey Bay, west of the San Andreas fault. It's of great interest to USGS, because there are very few seismographs west of that fault, since the fault goes along the coast. They really need data from both sides of the fault to analyze the earthquakes. When the cabled observatory goes in off Oregon & Washington, hundreds of kilometers out to sea, it will be a treasure trove of scientific information, especially for the study and prediction of earthquakes.

So yes, fault lines and earthquakes are very much on the radar of the scientists that will use OOI.

-Bob