First Dive to the Twilight Zone

Mission Overview

The newly developed deep-sea robot, Mesobot, dove in the open ocean for the first time in June of 2019 during a successful test and evaluation cruise in Monterey Bay, California aboard the R/V Rachel Carson. The development of Mesobot is a collaboration between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Stanford University, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The robot is designed to let scientists observe the twilight zone by autonomously tracking individual animals for hours, or even days, without disturbing the environment or disrupting their behavior. The vehicle made five dives to depths of several hundred meters.