Ocean Exploration

The drive to discover fueled the founding and development of Harbor Branch, and the engineers and scientists who built and used the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles made the institution world-renowned for ocean exploration. Their pioneering work established a culture of scientific inquiry that includes:

Coral reef discovery, characterization, and conservation

Discovery ofÌý Oculina Ìýcoral reefs off Florida’s east coast by our researchers in 1975 led to the world’s first Marine Protected Area for deepwater coral. More recent study ofÌý Lophelia Ìýreefs as fragile, essential fish habitat was instrumental in NOAA’s designation of more than 23,000 square miles of Deepwater Coral Habitat Area of Particular Concern (right). Research in these and other coral reef habitats continues through theÌý Robertson Coral Reef Research & Conservation Program Ìý and the NOAAÌý Ìý (CIOERT).

Marine biomedical and biotechnology research

Because many medications have natural origins, we have been collecting sponges and other organisms during ocean expeditions for decades. OurÌý Specimen Collection Ìý , which includes an extensive array of frozen invertebrates from various depths and more than 19,000 different marine microbes, is at the heart of efforts by the Ìý Marine Biomedical & Biotechnology Research Program Ìý to discover marine natural products with utility as medicines or as tools to probe the molecular basis of disease.