2010 Expedition Team

Ed Bowlby is a marine biologist who works for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. He has a M.S. in Marine Biology from Humboldt State University and over 30 years experience working in marine environments.

His professional background has consisted of marine ecological investigations around the world, from Arctic and Antarctic environments, to tropical seas. In his current position as Research Coordinator for the sanctuary, he coordinates or participates in diverse research projects on nearshore ecosystem investigations and at-sea surveys for pelagic species and oceanography.

Ed has worked as Chief Scientist or co-Principal Investigator during many NOAA sponsored cruises off the Olympic coast. This has included missions involving submersibles and/or remotely operated vehicles (ROV) surveys of benthic habitats, particularly deep-sea coral and sponge communities. Ed considers himself an old-time naturalist in its broadest meaning.

As a Marine Biologist, Jennifer serves as a team member with various research and resource protection programs. She is responsible for analysis and identification of fine scale habitat characterization in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary to determine areas of species richness, ecological diversity and unique habitats and determine abundance and distribution of invertebrates including deep sea corals.

Jennifer graduated with an M.S. in Earth and Environmental Science from Washington State University. Her graduate research documented the abundance and distribution of benthic invertebrates, and their association with demersal fishes. Her research site was located in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary at the "Footprint" off the southern coast of California. One of her main species of interest was the large, deep sea black coral, Antipathes dendrochristos.

Sean first became involved with Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary while working with NOAA's office of Coast Survey to map the sanctuary's seafloor habitats. He has since gone on to earn his M.S. in Fisheries for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where his research focused on characterizing the associations between groundfish communities and their benthic habitats. Sean is currently a Ph.D. student at Washington State University-Vancouver where he is studying the distribution and ecology of structure forming invertebrates, including deep-sea corals. His research takes him wherever these animals live, from the high arctic to southern California, using SCUBA in shallow waters or submersibles and ROVs at deeper depths.

Curt Whitmire received a B.S. in Biology from Arizona State University in 1997 and a M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University in 2003. Shortly after completing graduate school, Curt joined the Fishery Resource Analysis & Monitoring Division (FRAM) of NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Curt provides technical support for programs in FRAM, conducting spatial analyses of various data associated with west coast groundfish surveys and assessments. Recently, Curt joined the Center's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) team that is developing survey methods for habitats not accessible to traditional sampling gears. Curt also maintains a database on occurrences of deep-sea corals and other biogenic structure-forming invertebrates off the west coast of the U.S. In 2007, he co-authored the West Coast chapter of NOAA's first status report on deep-sea coral ecosystems.

Jeff Anderson is a Marine Ecosystem Research Specialist with NOAA Fisheries' Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) where he is a member of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) team and conducts benthic habitat surveys collecting coral reef ecosystem data for long-term monitoring and research. Prior to joining CRED, he worked on NOAA's Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's Damage Assessment and Resource Protection (DARP) team stationed in Key Largo, FL. In that role, Jeff specialized in conducting benthic habitat surveys to document injuries to natural resources and to collect data for the long-term monitoring of vessel grounding restoration sites. Additionally, Jeff helped the Sanctuary maintain a network of 35 subsurface water temperature monitoring devices.

In addition to his work with NOAA, Jeff, a lifelong naturalist, is a freelance underwater photographer and has lived, worked, and dove throughout the southern Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea region. Highlighting nature's stirring beauty, his text and photographs have been featured in national and international SCUBA diving magazines and ad campaigns. Jeff shares his passion for the outdoors with others, narrating his experiences in multimedia presentations to photography, nature, and SCUBA diving clubs. With over 19 years of active SCUBA diving experience, he has been instructing others about the beauty of the underwater realm and led several dive charters. Jeff has volunteered repeatedly with the Cayman Islands' and State of Florida's Departments of Environment to assist their marine turtle migration studies as well as monitoring active marine turtle nesting beaches.

Jeff has been a NOAA Working Diver since 2008, NOAA Scientific Diver since 2000, and a PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer since 1997.

Mr. Taylor is the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) project manager for the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center(PIFSC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division(CRED). For the past year and a half CRED has been working with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Northwest Fisheries Science Center towards developing a working AUV program for monitoring coral reef system in Hawaii and ground fish in the northwest US and northern California. His studies at Cornell University in the fields of marine science and computer science have lead him to five years as survey technician for the NOAA fleet and now to the emerging technology of AUV's.

Peter Etnoyer is a marine biologist with NOAA Coastal Center for Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR) in Charleston, SC and a Schmidt Research Vessel Institute (SRVI) Research Fellow at Harte Research Institute (HRI) in Corpus Christi, TX. Peter earned a PhD in Coastal and Marine System Science from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2009, and a Master's in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University in 2001. He studies the taxonomy, biology, and ecology deep-sea corals, particularly the octocorals. Peter's duties aboard this expedition are to perform quantitative video transects for coral abundance and diversity and to guide the ROV team during deep-sea coral collections.

Janet Lamont is the Volunteer Coordinator and Manager of the Olympic Coast Discovery Center located near the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary headquarters in Port Angeles. She coordinates and trains the dedicated volunteers in the discovery center as well as interacts with the general public. Janet also helps connect volunteers and researchers at the sanctuary.

In an earlier life Janet was a classroom teacher and library media specialist for the Edmonds School District. A graduate of the University of Washington, she has always been an outdoor enthusiast enjoying hiking, mountain climbing, boating and fishing, scuba diving and nature photography.

Janet began working at the Olympic Coast Discovery Center as a volunteer docent in July, 2004. She has greeted visitors from around the world and enjoyed introducing them to the National Marine Sanctuary program and the Olympic Coast. She recently spent ten days on the NOAA research vessel McArthur II photographing seabirds and marine mammals in sanctuary waters.

Erica Fruh began working for the Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring Division of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 2001 as a member of the survey team. She spends the majority of the field season aboard chartered commercial fishing vessels conducting surveys of the groundfish resources on the West Coast as a field party chief. Erica researches the distribution of marine debris in the waters of the West Coast and life history characteristics of West Coast groundfish. Erica is also a member of the Division team developing AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) technology for monitoring groundfish in rocky habitats on the West Coast. She earned her B.S. in Marine Biology from Auburn University, and her M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University.

Colby graduated with a B.S. from the Evergreen State College, with dual majors in marine biology and pre-medical sciences. Before working with the Makah, Colby worked for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) as an onboard biological observer in numerous fisheries. He has worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as a biological observer within the Hawaii tuna and swordfish long-line fisheries, and with the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery surveying by-catch biodiversity. Colby's professional interests are the emerging paradigm of ecosystem based fisheries management and the protection of tribal access to treaty guaranteed resources.

Elizabeth Clarke is the director of the Fishery Resource Analysis & Monitoring Division of NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Her interests are in fisheries and fisheries-oceanography, particularly in understanding the environmental factors that affect fish populations. Elizabeth joined NOAA Fisheries in 1998 in the Office of Science and Technology where she focused on developing new science quality assurance and fisheries oceanography programs. Before joining NOAA Fisheries, she was on the faculty of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. During sabbatical leave from the University in 1996-1997, she was the associate director of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council (NRC), National Academy of Sciences where she was also the study director for several congressionally mandated NRC studies including the Review of the Northeast Groundfish Stock Assessment. Elizabeth has a Ph.D. from UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography, an M.S. in fisheries biology from the University of Alaska and a B.S. in biological science from the University of California, Irvine.

Guy received a MS degree in oceanography from the University of Washington, and a PhD in earth science from the University of California Santa Cruz. Guy specializes in seafloor mapping using a combination of swath sonar and sea-floor video and is the chief of the USGS sea floor mapping and benthic habitat studies project. The project focuses on regional mapping of the seafloor and the development of interpretive products that are designed to facilitate sea floor resource management, with an emphasis on benthic habitat. Guy has published habitat studies for areas ranging from southern California to southeast Alaska, and is a member of the California Sea Floor Mapping Program.

Kaitlin earned her Master's from Washington State University in 2008. For her thesis research, she processed many hours of underwater video (collected using the Delta submersible) to document the abundance, distribution and size of "structure forming" invertebrates (i.e. corals and sponges) on the continental shelf off central California and assess the ecosystem-level impacts of bottom contact fishing gear. She also assisted in identifying invertebrates for the 2007 Central California MPA submersible baseline study. Kaitlin's duties on this expedition include compiling educational outreach content, video tape management and processing coral specimens.

Dan Howard is the superintendent for Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary and manages all site activities and staff. Responsibilities include policy development, interaction with local, state, and federal agencies and serving as a member of the National Marine Sanctuary Programs' Leadership Team.

Dan has been studying the marine environment in northern California since 1980 when he worked as a research biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service studying kelp bed ecology, predator/prey relationships and juvenile rockfish recruitment in a coastal upwelling system. In 1995, he started working for the Sanctuary program as an assistant manager for Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary and became the superintendent in 2003.

Dan is the Chief Scientist on Leg 2 and will be coordinating scientific operations characterizing deep coral communities and ocean chemistry in and around the sanctuary.

Jeff earned his PhD from the University of Rhode Island in 1981. His research interests include marine benthic ecology, deep-sea coral ecology and stressor impacts, animal-sediment-pollutant interactions, integrative assessments of coastal ecosystem health and linking ecosystem change to human disturbance.

Adrian is a geological oceanography graduate student at Texas A&M University where his research focuses on the use of isotopes in corals to quantify environmental conditions of the past. This cruise is especially pertinent to his interests as deep sea corals are also useful for similar studies. During this cruise Adrian will assist with water sampling and CTD operations.

Dr. Roark is a paleoceanographer whose research emphasis is in stable isotope biogeochemistry, trace metal analyses, and geochronology using radiocarbon and U/Th dating methods to study climate variability over the last 50,000 years. He has been doing research on proxy development and age and growth rates studies in deep-sea corals for more than seven years as part of his dissertation, post-doctoral and current research initiatives. Additionally, Dr. Roark has participated in four submersible and ROV research cruises in the Pacific Ocean, including 11 submersible dives to study and collect deep-sea corals. With his knowledge of deep-sea corals, physical and chemical oceanography, stable isotope and trace element biogeochemistry, and field experience, he is uniquely suited to his role as the leader of the paleoecology, paleoceanographis, and paleoclimate research for this expedition.

Dale studies the community ecology of marine fishes by monitoring investigations of the Sanctuary's rocky and soft bottom habitats using manned submersibles and towed camera systems. Dale is interested in producing a complete description of the sanctuary ecosystem which should allow management to differentiate the changes of marine ecosystems between natural and anthropomorphic influences.. This cruise will provide him with an opportunity to investigate deep-sea corals as fish habitat. In his free time, Dale enjoys Whac-A-Mole and Transcendental Meditation.

Jan's responsibilities include research design, and development and implementation of the GFNMS Conservation Science and Management Plans. Jan's primary responsibilities include promotion of the sanctuary as a sentinel site for research, monitoring, and developing and implementing damage assessment and restoration projects following injuries from natural or human causes. As Research Coordinator, Jan encourages researchers to target projects that will address current and future management needs. As Research Coordinator for the GFNMS, Jan Roletto will be working with deep sea coral experts on this cruise to help identify targets areas related to management concerns, cataloging benthic habitats, data management, and assisting with the daily blogs to the Expedition page.

Sarah is a physical oceanography graduate student at Texas A&M University studying the circulation in the northwest Indian Ocean. During the cruise she will be assisting Dr. Brendan Roark in collecting water samples and operating the CTD.

Tom Laidig works in the Habitat Ecology Team of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service at the SWFSC Fisheries Ecology Division. Tom earned his BS in Aquatic Biology at University of California, Santa Barbara and his MS in Marine Biology at San Francisco State University before beginning his career with NMFS in 1988. Tom began working with underwater vehicles in 1991 conducting an ROV and trawl comparison. Since then, he has been involved with numerous studies using a variety of underwater vehicles including ROVs, laser line scan, camera sleds, and submersibles. Tom has examined hundreds of hours of video tape from these cruises and has become accomplished at deep sea fish and invertebrate identifications. In 2000, he joined Mary Yoklavich in the new Habitat Ecology Team here he studies community based fisheries issues.

Dani Lipski works as the Research Specialist at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary where her responsibilities include field work, research coordination, research permits, research outreach, and data processing and analysis. Dani received her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and master's degree in ecology from San Diego State University. This is the first Deep Sea Coral cruise that Dani has participated in and she will be responsible for water chemistry sampling and she will serve as the science liaison to the education and outreach team.

Mary Yoklavich is the chief scientist during Leg 3 of NOAAs 2010 Deepsea Coral Cruise onboard the McArthur II off the U.S. West Coast. Mary is a supervisory research biologist and leader of the Habitat Ecology Team for NMFS SWFSC Fishery Ecology Division in Santa Cruz, CA. She has conducted research from California to Alaska for more than twenty-five years, and has received numerous awards, including NOAAs Bronze Medal, for her innovative research to characterize and protect West Coast deepwater habitats and demersal fish assemblages. Mary has produced over seventy scientific publications, and is a co-author of "The Rockfishes of the Northeast Pacific". She and her team conduct coastwide visual surveys of demersal fishes, cold-water coral communities, and their habitats in deep water. Mary serves as chair of NMFS' newly launched Habitat Assessment Improvement Plan, and she advises the Pacific Fisheries Management Council on Essential Fish Habitat. Mary was a longtime member of California's Marine Life Protection Act Master Plan Science Advisory Team, whose efforts resulted in a comprehensive system of MPAs for California's central coast. outreach team.

Dr. Love has conducted research on the marine fishes of California for over 40 years. He is the author or co-author of over 80 publications on the fishes of the Pacific Coast and has written the books Probably More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast and The Rockfishes of the Northeast Pacific. For the past 15 years, and using a manned research submersible, Dr. Love has carried out surveys of the fish populations living around natural reefs and oil/gas platforms throughout the southern California Bight. Dr. Love has been a recreational angler since 1955 and was briefly a commercial fishermen in Santa Barbara. He has written over 100 articles for the general public on various aspects of marine biology. In 2007, the American Fisheries Society awarded Dr. Love the Carl R. Sullivan Award for Conservation Resources.

Lisa earned her BA in Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her MS in Marine Biology at San Francisco State University. She was a California Sea Grant Fellow with the MPA Center and has been with the Santa Cruz lab since 2007 working with the Early Life History Team and is now with the Habitat Ecology Team. As an active scientific diver she worked in Baja, Australia, the Bahamas and all along the coast of California. She is using her extensive underwater experience to help in the identification of benthic fish and habitat types.

On almost every expedition that I've participated in we have found many new species of corals, sponges, worms, and sea stars - I expect that we'll find many new species on this cruise as well. The most exciting part of a research expedition like this is exploring an unknown area for the first time and, also, seeing organisms that no one has ever seen before. I received a B.S. in Marine & Coastal Ecology from CSU, Monterey Bay and an M.S. from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. My thesis work at MLML described the biological communities found at three seamounts off the coast of California. On this cruise I will be assisting with biological sample collection and identification.

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