Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute

Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, doing business as Hubbs Sea World Research, is a San Diego-based non-profit marine research and aquaculture organization that operates as a federal grant recipient and occasional service contractor, delivering marine mammal stranding response, aquaculture research and facility access, and fisheries science analysis to NOAA and Navy customers. The organization does not compete under SBA set-asides; it operates as a full-and-open, tax-exempt research entity funded primarily through NOAA project grants and supplemented by Navy task orders and occasional NOAA service contracts.

NOAA's Marine Mammal Data Program (CFDA 11.439) dominates Hubbs-Sea World's grant footprint. The organization has received four project grants under this program since 2022, including a $339,584 award (August 2022–July 2023) and a $244,854 award (January–December 2025) to enhance data collection, diagnostic analysis, and reporting of stranded marine mammals across the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, with particular focus on post-Unusual Mortality Event surveillance in the Indian River Lagoon and mid-Atlantic regions. Two additional Marine Mammal Data Program grants ($158,972 for August 2023–July 2024) address similar stranding-response and cetacean-monitoring objectives. Beyond marine mammal work, Hubbs-Sea World holds NOAA grants for white seabass hatchery genetics research (award date September 2023, completion February 2026) and developing west-coast aquaculture techniques for white sea cucumber (award date September 2023, completion February 2026). The organization subcontracts to University of California San Diego on aquaculture broodstock and larval rearing research, contributing $537,693 (with $314,141 in-kind support) to a three-year white sea cucumber development effort. Most recently, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center issued a $24,000 sole-source purchase order (August 2026) for logistics and facility support for the 5th Seriola Workshop in January 2027; market research documented that Hubbs-Sea World is the only facility on the contiguous U.S. West Coast operating large-scale Seriola aquaculture at commercial scale with over 20 years of operational experience.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward NOAA: 44 of 79 total awards (78% of awards by count, but only 35% of combined potential value) fund NOAA programs. Navy customers contribute the largest dollar share—Navy Information Warfare Systems Command (3 awards, $1 million combined potential value) and Naval Sea Systems Command (2 awards, $999 thousand combined potential value)—via task orders under indefinite-delivery contracts (IDC N6600108D0070 carries 3 task orders totaling $1.9 million). The Air Force accounts for 7 awards with no dollar figures disclosed; additional Navy organizational units and the National Park Service round out the customer base.

Award activity is sparse in recent years: one award each in 2025 and 2026, following three in 2023, two in 2022, and one in 2021. Combined obligated dollars across the entire portfolio ($20.9 million) substantially exceed combined potential value ($6.6 million), indicating mature, invoiced awards with long operational history dating to 1982. Only one award (the $24,000 NOAA Seriola Workshop contract, completion February 2027) reaches ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months. NAICS distribution emphasizes research and development in physical, engineering, and life sciences (7 awards); PSC distribution emphasizes endangered-species and fisheries special studies and analysis (12 and 5 awards respectively). The organization operates nearly exclusively as a prime recipient (99% of awards); sub-award activity is minimal, consisting of a single sub-grant to UC San Diego on aquaculture research.