Usa Marine Biological Institute

The Usa Marine Biological Station was founded in 1953 as an independent research institute by the Japanese Government. In 1978, its name was changed to Usa Marine Biological Institute.

Usa Marine Biological Institute researchers, 1963

Under the directorship of Professor Masao Ohno, the institute established a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) training program in marine biology, since when a large number of foreign researchers have come to the institute to pursue short-term research projects. The current director, Professor Izumi Kinoshita, supervises and coordinates the JICA training program.

In 2004, UMBI started a new graduate program, Kuroshio Sciences, jointly with Kochi University, to study the Kuroshio Current from an interdisciplinary perspective.

UMBI graduate students are supported by various financial aid schemes, especially the Monbukagakusho MEXT International PhD Program.

Capt Yano on board R/V Hamayu

UMBI operates several manned research vessels and vehicles, owned by Kochi University or the Japanese Government

• R/V Yutaka Hata Maru
• R/V Neptune
• R/V Hamayu
• R/V Triton

UMBI current and past directors

• Early life-history of fishes
• Zooplankton Ecology
• Crustacean Ecology
• Marine Phycology

Phycological research

Ulva prolifera Scale-up photobioreactors installed at Muroto facility.

Mr Ooki, a seaweed farmer cultivating Monostroma latissimum in the Shimanto estuary

Usa Marine Biological Institute is renowned for marine phycological research. Emeritus Professor Masao Ohno was the first person in Japan to use an artificial seeding method for the commercial cultivation of green algae. The institute is one of the pioneer research institutes in the world for the study of Ulvophycean algae and has state-of-art facilities for marine phycological research.

Contemporary marine phycology research in the UMBI focuses on culture studies to establish life-histories of Ulvophycean algae (Ulva and Monostroma), tank cultivation of Ulva using deep seawater (conducted jointly with the Deep Seawater Research Center, Muroto, Japan) and the ecology of Ecklonia and Sargasm species in the Pacific Ocean.

• Masao Ohno
• Professor Nakauchi
• Professor Yamaoka

• The Scripps Institution of Oceanography is a similar research facility located in La Jolla, California.
• The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a similar oceanographic facility located at Woods Hole in Massachusetts.
• The Institute of Algological Research is a similar phycological research institute also located in Japan
• The Friday Harbor Laboratories in the United States conducts similar research in marine biology.

• Usa Marine Biological Institute