John Calambokidis is a Senior Research Biologist and co-founder (in 1979) of Cascadia Research, a non-profit organization. Since 1986, Cascadia researchers have conducted a long-term study of the humpback and blue whales along the California coast, and since the 1990’s the study has expanded to include whales off Mexico and Central America. Besides blue whales, his research has evaluated contaminant impacts on marine mammals and examined the biology of humpback and gray whale. He has been principal investigator of the Costa Rica humpback whale research program since 1996
Demian Chapman Ph.D., is an internationally recognized shark expert with almost a decade of experience working on sharks in Belize. He is co-principal investigator for the Pew Institute research on shark conservation in Belize. He is a molecular ecologist and field biologist who specializes in integrating diverse new technologies including DNA analysis, acoustic and satellite tracking in conservation oriented studies on sharks.
Nicole Crane is currently a faculty member in the Biology Department at Cabrillo College, Aptos California. She received a Master's degree in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and a Master's in Science Education Research from the University of California Santa Cruz. She has conducted reef monitoring programs and research on fish population dynamics in both tropical and temperate seas including Honduras, Belize, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. She also has experience working with communities and agencies in developing and implementing management plans for marine protected areas. She is former Department Chair of the Marine Science and Technology Program at Monterey Peninsula College, and former Director and founder of the National Science Foundation Marine Advanced Technology Education Center. She has worked as a marine biologist and naturalist for the Oceanic Society since 1994, and is co-principal investigator for the Belize coral reef health project, and lead investigator for the community-based Ulithi Reef Project.
Katherine Cure holds an M.S. in tropical marine ecology and fisheries biology from James Cook University in Australia. Her specialty is tropical reef fish, their ecology, population dynamics and fisheries. She worked as an assistant in reef monitoring surveys of the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Knowledgeable in coral reef species in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indo-Pacific, familiar with worldwide conservation issues and experienced in living at remote locations, Katherine brings a wealth of experience to every expedition. She currentyly serves as our marine biologist at the Society's research station in Belize, and as a naturalist on our iinternational expeditions.
Annie Douglas earned her B.A. degree in science at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and has been working with Cascadia Research Collective as a cetacean researcher since 1997. She has conducted photo identification studies on blue and humpback whales as well as beaked whales and various dolphin species along north, central and South America. She has conducted marine mammal research in Costa Rica since 2008.
Dr. Nicole Duplaix is an Ecampus instructor at Oregon State University in global resource ecology. and is Vice-chairman of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature - Otter Specialist Group.
Virginia Fuhs M.S., Western Illinois University also holds an M.A. in Science Education. Her thesis projects addressed spinner dolphin spacial relations. She previously conducted dolphin research for Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida. She also served as as a sea turtle research assistant for the IUCN, Suriname.
She works as a seasonal field research biologist for the Oceanic Society in Belize and Suriname.
Daisy Kaplan, M.S.Daisy Kaplan, M.S. University of Massachusetts and doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. The Bahamas dolphin project served as part of her M.S. thesis project. Her doctoral thesis is on bottlenose dolphin acoustics, based at the White Sand Ridge field site in the Bahamas. She has spent of number of years working as a biologist at the University of Hawaii's Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory studying dolphins.
Michelle J. Paddack, Ph.D. has been investigating coral reef fish ecology in the Caribbean since 1999. She earned her Ph.D. in 2005 at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, conducting her dissertation research on the ecological interplay between herbivorous fishes and the changing coral reef environment.
She earned her Master's degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz by conducting one the first studies evaluating the effect of marine reserves for kelp forest fishes; a project that benefited from the assistance of Oceanic Society participants on Monterey Bay expeditions that she co-led with Nicole Crane. Prior to this, she worked for California Department of Fish and Game, where she was strongly involved in the science and policy of implementing marine protected areas along the California coast. She currently teaches biology at Santa Barbara City College. She is co-principal investigator for the Belize coral reef health project.