Abstract
The Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) is structured around a thoughtfully crafted set of sustainable practices, or culture of care, which includes equal partnership among its members and member organizations and a collaborative decision-making process. MARINe prioritizes the use of rigorous, standardized protocols, maintains a shared central database, and keeps costs low and consistent through a diversified funding approach. Because long-term sustainability was MARINe's goal from the beginning, every aspect of the program was established to ensure continuity. MARINe's founders understood the importance of long-term, continuous ecological data, and today this thirty-year-old network is invaluable for informing management decisions and alerting scientists to changing conditions in rocky shore habitats along the Pacific coast of North America.