Dirk Rosen

Dirk founded Marine Applied Research and Exploration (MARE), a non-profit organization dedicated to filling the knowledge gap on the continental shelf, below scuba depths, tracking deep sea communities over time and protecting hotspots of biodiversity and abundance. 

Dirk is an ocean engineer with 35+ years of deepsea equipment design, build and operations experience with Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), manned submersibles and tow sleds. He’s led or co-led 42 ocean expeditions assessing Marine Protected Areas, and National Marine Sanctuaries, performing fish stock assessments, documenting shark species, mapping coral disease, recovering lost equipment at sea, and removing derelict fishing gear.

Previously, Dirk was president of Deep Ocean Engineering, test pilot for all three Deep Rover 1,000m manned submersibles, and co-designer of many ROVs. Later at Hawkes Ocean Technologies he managed the build of Deepflight Challenger, an 11,000 meter rated manned submersible designed to explore the Marianas Trench. Prior to that he worked with NASA for 5 years, helping implement robotic standards now used on the International Space Station. Dirk has a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Santa Barbara.