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Scientists' Biographies SCIENTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES Dr. Sylvia Earle Renowned US oceanographer and environmentalist, Dr. Sylvia Earle is Executive Director of Conservation International’s Global Marine Division and Explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society. She also serves on various boards, foundations and committees relating to marine research, policy and conservation, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Duke University Marine Laboratory, World Wildlife Fund, and The World Resources Institute. Dr. Earle received her B.S. from Florida State University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University, and also holds numerous honorary degrees. She has pioneered research on marine ecosystems and has led or participated in more than 50 expeditions representing 6,000 hours underwater, including a record-setting solo descent to 3,000 feet in a submersible craft. She also holds a depth record for solo diving (1000 meters). In 1970, Dr. Earle led a team of women aquanauts who lived underwater for two weeks in an expedition known as Tektite II, Mission 6. From 1980 to 1984 she served on the President's Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere and in 1990 was appointed Chief Scientist of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where she served until 1992. Concerned to raise public awareness of the damage being done to the aquasphere by pollution and environmental degradation, Earle is the author of more than 130 scientific and popular publications, including the National Geographic Atlas of the Ocean and the 1995 book Sea Change, in which she argues against the use of deep sea bottom trawlers that destroy habitats and sweep up non-target fish in the process. Peter Etnoyer Peter Etnoyer is a marine ecologist with a background in biogeography, octocoral systematics, and physical oceanography. His most recent investigations explore deep bamboo coral communities on seamount peaks in Pacific North America. Peter earned his degree from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, where he researched the biogeography of shallow-water scleractinian corals in the Philippines and the Caribbean . Since then, he has been investigating deep coral communities in the Northeast Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. He also studies pelagic habitat for whales, marlin, and swordfish, coupling satellite remote sensing data with fisheries landings and animal tracks. Peter owns Aquanautix Consulting (www.aquanautix.com), a Los Angeles based environmental project and data management company. He advises governments, companies, and NGOs on marine and freshwater data management for a more sustainable ocean future. Kristina M. Gjerde, J.D. Kristina M. Gjerde is high seas policy advisor to IUCN - the World Conservation Union. A graduate of New York University School of Law and past Marine Policy Fellow of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Kristina Gjerde is a recognized expert in the legal aspects of marine biodiversity conservation. She currently focuses on the deep oceans and high seas beyond national jurisdiction. In 2003, Gjerde received a three-year Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation to promote an improved legal regime for the oceans beyond national jurisdiction. Her work as high seas policy advisor includes representing IUCN (an intergovernmental organization whose members include 82 governments, 111 government agencies and 836 non-governmental organizations) at major global and regional meetings, such as the United Nations, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on Fisheries. Gjerde has also authored or co-authored a wide variety of publications and reports. Most recently she has been Guest Editor (together with David Freestone, Deputy General Counsel of the World Bank) for a special issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law on Deep Sea Fisheries and the Conservation of Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction. Dr Elliott A. Norse Dr. Elliott A. Norse is President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI) in Redmond, Washington USA, President of the Society for Conservation Biology's Marine Section and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. After earning his B.S. with honors in biology, geology and music from Brooklyn College, he studied the ecology of blue crabs in the Caribbean for his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California and his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Iowa. To catch more blue crabs for his dissertation research, he went out on trawlers off Mexico and Colombia in the early 1970s, thus witnessing firsthand the extraordinary amount of bycatch from trawling operations. In 1978 he began working on ocean policy at the US Environmental Protection Agency, then the President's Council on Environmental Quality (where he defined biological diversity as the goal of conservation), the Ecological Society of America, The Wilderness Society and The Ocean Conservancy, before founding MCBI in 1996. His 130+ publications include Conserving Biological Diversity in Our National Forests (1986), Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest (1990), Global Marine Biological Diversity: A Strategy for Building Conservation into Decision Making (1993), the seminal paper on "Disturbance of the seabed by mobile fishing gear: A comparison with forest clearcutting" in Conservation Biology (1998), and Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea's Biodiversity (2005, in press). Professor Callum Roberts Callum Roberts is Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York in England. His research focuses on threats to marine ecosystems and species, and on finding the means to protect them. His work includes studies of the profound historical and recent alteration of marine ecosystems by fishing, on the extinction risk of marine species and on global conservation priorities for coral reefs. Recently, he has highlighted the imminent danger from fishing to life in the deep sea – the Earth’s final wilderness frontier. His best-known work is on the performance and design of marine reserves, areas that are protected from all fishing. His studies show that marine reserves can be effective both as conservation tools and can enhance fish catches outside their boundaries. Professor Roberts is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. In 2002 he won the Marsh Prize for Conservation Biology from the Zoological Society of London for his work on marine reserves. Dr Alex Rogers Dr Alex Rogers is Prinicipal Investigator in Biodiversity Research at the British Antarctic Survey. Dr. Rogers studied for his first degree in Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool and completed a Ph.D. in the taxonomy and genetics of marine worms in 1992. He then moved to the Marine Biological Association (MBA) of the UK in Plymouth to undertake a fellowship in the systematics and population genetics of marine animals. It was while he was at the MBA that Alex became interested in deep-sea biology and undertook his first work on the genetics of deep-sea animals. In 1997 Dr. Rogers moved to the University of Southampton on an advanced fellowship to continue his studies on the genetics and ecology of deep-sea animals, in particular cold-water coral reefs. During this period he acted as an expert witness in a Judicial review on the application of the EU Habitats Directive to deep-sea ecosystems, especially those associated with the coral Lophelia pertusa and he demonstrated that these corals are, like their shallow-water relatives, reef-forming. Dr. Rogers is now the Principal Investigator of the biodiversity and evolution programme at British Antarctic Survey (BIOFLAME). He has published over 40 papers on marine ecology, population genetics and phylogenetics, including a book on the marine animals and plants of Britain. Professor Ricardo Santos Professor Ricardo S. Santos is Director of the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries (DOP) and Dean of the University of the Azores, Vice-Chair of the Institute of Marine Research (IMAR), Chair of the Fisheries Observers Program of the Azores and Chair of the Observatory of the Sea, also in the Azores. Professor Santos has a doctorate in biology and is Principal Investigator of the University of the Azores. He is a leading authority in marine biodiversity and ocean ecosystems, with more than 200 hundred published works of which around 60 papers in scientific journals and books. For five years Professor Santos co-ordinated the work leading to the management plans for the marine network of Natura 2000 in the Azores (17 SCI and 13 SPA), which entered public discussion for implementation in 2005. He is the co-ordinator and/or partner of several national, European and international scientific projects with extensive experience on scientific ocean cruises, including the use of submersibles (Nautile, MIR, VICTOR, Aglantha, Bathysaurus). His current main interests and activities include marine conservation of habitats and biodiversity of both shallow and deep-sea ecosystems of the Azores Triple Junction and MAR, implementation of MPAs and experimental evaluation of their benefits. Professor Santos is a member of several international Steering Committees including the MarBEF (European Network of Excellence on Marine Biodiversity), and two Census of Marine Life programs: MAR-ECO and ChESS. He is a member of the Scientific Council for Marine Sciences and Environment (FCT-Portugal), Portuguese Delegate at the Committee of Research Infrastructures at the European Commission and at the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures. Professor Santos is also a member of ICES working groups, co-chair of the Monitoring and Observatories WG of InterRidge and co-chair of the WG on Deep Sea Research (COI-Lisbon). He is a member of the Intersectorial Oceanographic Commission (Lisbon), and has been a member of the Strategic Commission for the Oceans (Lisbon). In 2002 Professor Santos was awarded a Gift to the Earth by WWF..
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