Davidson Seamount 2006 Explorers
Penny Allen
Producer
BBC
Penny Allen studied for a BSc in Applied Biology at Imperial College, London and then went on to gain a PhD from the University of Cambridge, studying grey seal breeding behaviour. Penny joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1996 as a researcher on 'The Blue Planet', a landmark series on the natural history of the world's oceans. After almost five years of research and filming worldwide for this series, Penny moved on to work on the 'Blue Planet Challenge' - an interactive website. After completing the Blue Planet series, Penny worked as an Assistant Producer on 'The Abyss - Live', which allowed millions of people in Europe and England to watch a live broadcast of an ROV dive in Monterey Bay. Penny is now working on two new projects; 'Journey of Life', a series on evolution, and 'Planet Earth', another major landmark natural history series.
Allen H. Andrews
Radiochemist
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
California State University
Allen Andrews is the radiochemist for the Davidson Seamount Expedition 2006. His duty is to perform age determination for bamboo coral found on Davidson. He earned a Master of Sciences in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), California State University in 1997. His thesis involved validating the life span of Pacific grenadier, a deep sea fish found along the west coast of the USA. He is currently working on a Ph.D. in Ichthyology and Fisheries Science at Rhodes University in South Africa. His involvement with age determination of fishes and deep-sea corals began in 1992 and has confirmed high life-spans, some more than 100 years. Work with deep-sea corals began with ageing red tree coral from Alaska, which led to work on deep-sea coral from Davidson Seamount and New Zealand. He currently manages the radiochemistry laboratory at MLML. Recent awards have been to validate age of orange roughy and black cardinalfish from New Zealand, and the age of red and white abalone from California. In addition, a preliminary investigation of age is being made for Christmas tree coral recently discovered off the Channel Islands.
James P. Barry
Associate Scientist
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Jim Barry's research focuses on the biology of deep-sea benthic communities. His research over the past decade has included studies of 1) chemosynthetic biological communities in the eastern Pacific and Japan , 2) benthic-pelagic coupling in polar and temperate continental shelf and slope habitats, and 3) the consequences of increased ocean carbon dioxide concentrations on marine biota. Much of his research has examined the influence of physical processes on populations and communities. Jim's studies of chemosynthetic marine studies have focused on the influence of pore fluid chemistry on the biology of vesicomyid clams, a dominant animal at central California chemosynthetic communities, including their physiology symbiotic relationships with sulfide-oxidizing bacteria. His community studies on the Antarctic continental shelf involved studying biological communities in relation to physical processes and bathymetry, as well as upper ocean productivity. He is currently performing similar studies of pelagic-benthic coupling in Central California , and studying the influence of Monterey Submarine Canyon on benthic community patterns and processes. Recently, he has been looking at the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels in the ocean on marine ecosystems. He has run experiments to determine the impacts of deep-sea carbon dioxide sequestration (a climate warming mitigation option presently under consideration) on the survival of deep-sea biota from bacteria to fish. Increasing carbon dioxide can make seawater more acid, which could have important implications for organisms such as deep-sea corals, which have skeletons made of calcium. Almost all of his research has involved remotely operated vehicles or manned submersibles. He has also helped develop advanced tools for deep-sea ecological studies, including benthic respirometers, deep-sea camera systems, and deep-sea fish traps.
Lisa Borok
Web Coordinator
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Lisa is one of two communications officers for MBARI. She assists TV, radio, and other media reporters in developing news stories about the MBARI's amazing deep-sea research. She also writes web articles for the public and assists with other MBARI publications. Lisa earned an MS in marine sciences and a BA in biology from University of California , Santa Cruz . Her scientific interests include plankton studies and invertebrate biology. Prior to coming to MBARI in early 2005, she managed public education programs at the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab, at UC Santa Cruz. In her varied career, Lisa has cataloged museum specimens, taught community college classes, managed an electron microscope lab, and directed the Otter Bowl (a high school marine science competition).
Erica Burton
Marine Scientist
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA
Erica Burton is a marine scientist and research specialist for NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Her work for the sanctuary includes biological site characterizations, marine reserve issues, damage assessment surveys, and submerged cultural resource investigations. Erica earned a BS in marine biology at Long Beach State University, and an MS in marine science at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. She has conducted research on radiometric age and longevity determination of long-lived fishes including the giant grenadier, bocaccio rockfish, Atlantic tarpon, and Atlantic sturgeon. On this expedition, she will assist with species identifications, video annotation, and coral collections. She also participated in the 2002 Davidson Seamount OE Expedition, and is compiling a taxonomic guide of the Davidson Seamount.
Andrew DeVogelaere, PhD
Marine Scientist
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA
Andrew DeVogelaere is the chief scientist for this cruise, Exploration of Ancient Coral Gardens, and considers himself fortunate to be working with such an outstanding group of scientists and educators. His role in the cruise will be to balance the different project goals for optimum overall success.
Dr. DeVogelaere is the research coordinator for NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, responsible for all aspects of the sanctuary research program. This includes facilitating collaboration among more than 20 research groups in the region, providing technical information to decision-makers, and developing research on sanctuary resource management issues. He is also the director of the Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network, a program to assess Sanctuary health using collaborative regional monitoring programs. Using science to develop sound resource management decisions is his main interest.
Dr. DeVogelaere earned a BA in biology from the University of California at Berkeley, an MS in marine science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and a PhD in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Chad King
Marine Scientist/Data Analyst
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA
Chad King is a marine scientist and data analyst for NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN). With SIMoN, he is responsible for the collection, analyses, and dissemination of spatial data relating to long-term monitoring projects. Chad also actively participates in the field as a part of the MBNMS research team. Chad earned a BS in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MS in marine science at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. His graduate research focused on how the genetics of an algal symbiont and substratum instability affect the reproductive behavior of a sea anemone from the Gulf of Mexico. His previous research focused on kelp forest ecology. On this cruise, Chad is responsible for documenting metadata, or "data about data" for all science activities.
Lonny Lundsten
Research Technician
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Lonny Lundsten received a B.S. in Marine & Coastal Ecology at California State University, Monterey Bay and is currently pursuing an M.S. at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, where he is studying the biology of several seamounts off the coast of California. On this cruise he will be managing video data collection, utilizing MBARI's Video Annotation Reference System. This system allows researchers to take digital notes that are keyed to the videotape of each date. Lonny and others will use this system to record and identify unique biological and geological features seen during each dive. He will also help process biological samples collected during the cruise, preparing them for identification and further analysis by MBARI and NOAA scientists.
George Matsumoto
Senior Educational and Research Specialist
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
George Matsumoto received his Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1990. Since 1996, he has been Senior Educational and Research Specialist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Dr. Matsumoto's research interests include open-ocean and deep-sea communities; ecology and biogeography of open ocean and deep sea organisms; functional morphology, and natural history and behavior. In addition to being an active researcher at MBARI, he manages several education and outreach efforts, including collaborations with MBARI's sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Dr. Matsumoto is very active in promoting earth-science education and is currently chair of the Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks (ORION) Education and Public Awareness Committee.
Huff McGonigal
Environmental Policy Specialist
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA
Mr. McGonigal joined the Sanctuary in 2002 as an Environmental Policy Specialist with the Resource Protection Team. He works on a variety of issues related to biodiversity and ecosystem protection and water quality. Huff has a Bachelor's Degree in Aquatic Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and received a J.D. in Environmental Law from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon in 2002. His previous work experience includes efforts to evaluate proposed rules related to the Clean Water Act and work with the California Department of Fish and Game on the status of nearshore rockfish populations.
Warwick Sloss
Freelance Cameraman
Warwick Sloss is a freelance cameraman with over 10 years experience working in natural history and documentary films. He works mostly for the BBC and various independent companies who produce shows for broadcast on the Discovery and National Geographic networks. His work has taken him to over 40 countries and he has worked on dozens of shows over the years. He is officially recognized as the tallest cameraman in the UK at 6'6'', and generally regarded as one of the most pleasant. He holds a degree in biology from Edinburgh University and his interests include photography, movies and playing guitar (quite badly).
