---
id: data-sources/griidc
about:
  label: GRIIDC (Gulf science data repository)
  description: >-
    The data repository for Gulf of Mexico research at Texas A&M
    University-Corpus Christi, built on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative's
    archive; free to download, each dataset under its own DOI.
  tags:
    - Gulf of Mexico
    - ocean data
    - oil spill
    - repository
    - DOI
datasource:
  homepage: 'https://www.griidc.org/'
  coverage: 'the Gulf of Mexico region, coastal and marine'
  cadence: datasets added as research groups deposit them
  access: >-
    free search and download at data.griidc.org/search; storing data there costs
    a fee
  format: 'varies by dataset (NetCDF, spreadsheets and instrument files among them)'
  cost: free to download
domains:
  - water
  - ecology
open:
  source: unknown
  data: open
  api: unknown
  participation: open
  note: >-
    Anyone can deposit data, for a fee. The terms of use were not read for this
    entry.
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: 'GRIIDC: Gulf Science Data Repository'
      url: 'https://www.griidc.org/'
    - title: 'Immense but not immutable (PNAS), data availability statement'
      url: 'https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2616554123'
    - title: >-
        data.gulfresearchinitiative.org, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative
        data address, which redirects to griidc.org
      url: 'https://data.gulfresearchinitiative.org/'
  created: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
GRIIDC, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative, keeps the data from research on the Gulf's coasts and open water.[^1,2] It sits at the Harte Research Institute of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and the old Gulf Research Initiative address now leads to it.[^1,3] Searching and downloading are free. Groups that want to store data there pay a fee.[^1]

Each dataset has its own DOI, which makes it citable down to a single cruise.[^2] The 2026 [study of the Gulf's midwater collapse](/articles/immense-but-not-immutable-deep-pelagic-decline/) lists 27 of them: raw echosounder recordings, the logs of the net's sensors, species counts with weights and measurements for each cruise from 2015 to 2023, and the genetic sequences.[^2] Anyone building a model of the Gulf after [an oil spill](/questions/after-an-oil-spill/) can test it against those records.