MBARI ROV Ventana completes 2,000 dives

MOSS LANDING, California—The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's (MBARI) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ventana completed its 2,000th dive today off Monterey, California. This accomplishment represents more than 8,920 hours that Ventana has explored the deep sea, and more research dives than any other ROV in the world.

“In reaching its 2,000th dive, Ventana has proven itself to be the workaholic of remotely operated vehicles,” said MBARI President and CEO Dr. Marcia McNutt. “However, its success is even better measured in the vast wealth of information about the deep sea and the life it contains, recorded during its more than 12 years of exploration and experimentation in Monterey Bay. This milestone is a tribute to the fine engineers and marine operations staff at MBARI who have kept this vehicle in the water nearly 200 days each year while still keeping its tools and systems at the state of the art.”

Ventana first dove in Monterey Bay on August 25, 1988, and has explored the sea to depths of 1,700 meters during its nearly 13-year operation by MBARI. Ventana and its support ship, the R/V Point Lobos, operate nearly every weekday on research missions in Monterey Bay. The vehicle and ship have also contributed to extended research expeditions as far south as the Santa Barbara Basin and north to Oregon. Living up to its name as a window to the deep ocean, Ventana is equipped with lights, a broadcast-quality video camera, sensors, sampling tools, and specialized equipment for deep-sea research.

When it reached this latest milestone, MBARI scientist Jim Barry was using Ventana to investigate seafloor animal communities in Monterey Bay. On its 2,000th dive, Ventana carried a benthic respiration system to measure the oxygen consumption of sediment-dwelling organisms and collected push cores of sediment from the Monterey Canyon.

More information about ROV Ventana, including vehicle specifications and history of MBARI research explorations, can be found on the MBARI web site at www.mbari.org.