Rob Sherlock

He work as a Research Specialist in the Research and Development Division of MBARI. Bruce Robison, Kim Reisenbichler and He form the core of our lab-group. We study the properties and organisms of the ocean’s largest habitat, the midwater. We are learning more about the ecology of midwater organisms; their abundance and seasonal patterns, depth ranges and who eats whom. It’s truly amazing to watch mesopelagic animals with our HD (high definition) camera; animals that once would have come up as glop in a net can be seen to have delicate structure and complex behavior (e.g., squid inking or changing color, fish eyes that rotate to keep prey in sight, an amphipod carving up a pyrosome to make a home).

Personally, He is very interested in education as well as research. In my spare time I’ve been lucky enough to teach a bit at Monterey peninsula College (Environmental Science) and He looked forward to the open houses and public events we host here at MBARI. In the less-recent past He Had worked as the diving director and as an educator for the Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI), where he cut his diving teeth. Although we do most of our work with ROV’s (remotely operated vehicles) like the Ventana and Tiburon, He still enjoy scuba diving – there is no substitute for making observations on critters first-hand where possible and our lab-group does use blue water diving techniques to collect animals as well (usually inspired by Steve Haddock, with whom we are privileged to work from time to time).