A new camera system developed by MBARI’s engineers gives us a glimpse into the secret lives of ocean predators such as tunas, sharks, seabirds, and marine mammals. These marine predators play an important role in ocean ecosystems, but are challenging to study because they spend much of their time far from shore and dispersed across remote stretches of the global ocean. MBARI’s innovative Piscivore system combines advanced robots, cameras, and AI to observe ocean predators and document their dynamic surroundings.

During a recent deployment, Piscivore observed a large female white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). We spotted several diving seabirds on camera, including common murres (Uria aalge) and cormorants (Phalacrocorax sp.). Piscivore also gathers visual data about the “neighbors” that live alongside ocean predators like sea nettles (Chrysaora fuscescens).

Piscivore has already shown great promise as a platform for observing marine life. In 2023, MBARI had 10 Piscivore deployments, sampling an estimated 1,800 kilometers (about 1,100 miles) in the Monterey Bay area and encountering 10 species of fish, four species of marine mammals, and six species of seabirds.

MBARI researchers envision Piscivore joining a fleet of advanced robotic technologies that work together to study the ocean and report real-time data so resource managers can assess and track ocean health.

Learn more: https://www.mbari.org/news/innovative...

Watch a video about the Piscivore system and the team that works on it:    • Meet MBARI: Autonomous robots help te...  

Video producer/editor: Kyra Schlining
Science advisor: Jared Figurski
Video production team: Lonny Lundsten, Raúl Nava, Susan von Thun
Music: Saturate by Dimitrix (Artlist.io)