Conservation Vol. 1

Eric Zahn, a local salt marsh ecologist and avid botanist, is a co-principal for ‘Tidal Influence' a company he founded to aid community groups and municipalities with their wetlands restoration efforts. Zahn is a lecturer in the Environmental Science and Policy Program at CSULB who has been one of the leaders focused on conserving coastal wetlands in Long Beach.

Dr. Barbara Taylor is a Supervisory Research Fish Biologist with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. She was the U.S. lead scientist on a tri-nation 2008 expedition designed to develop new acoustic monitoring methods and population estimates intended to assist Mexico in conservation efforts to save the vaquita. Taylor has been researching marine mammals for over 30 years.

Since 1998 Jeffrey Gallant and Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark, Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG) shark researchers, have pursued a mythical creature-the Greenland shark. These researchers use a multimedia presentation to tell the story of how two diving scientists searched for and ultimately found a population of Greenland sharks. Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark is the director of Geerg‘s Pacific region and director of the animal care center at the University of British Columbia.

Professor Zender is an atmospheric physicist and educator. He leads the Climate, Health, Aerosols,Radiation, and Microphysics (CHARM) group in the Department of Earth System Science at UC Irvine. CHARM studies the distribution and fluxes of energy and trace species in Earth's atmosphere. Prior to joining UCI in 1999, Zender received degrees from Harvard, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Dr. Jeffrey Graham is a research physiologist and senior lecturer at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. His research has expanded from studies on the physiological and biological perspectives of sharks to include shark ecology and habitat research. In 2006, the Southern California Bight Elasmobranch Consortium was created and headquartered in his laboratory. Dr. Graham holds a PhD from the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Russ Parsons is the food editor and columnist of the Los Angeles Times. He has been writing about food for 25 years, including almost 20 years at The Times. He is the author of the cookbooks ‘‘How to Read a French Fry’’ and “How to Pick a Peach.” Parsons has won every major American food journalism award, including those from the International Association of Culinary Professionals the Association of Food Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, and the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards.

Dr. Gregor Cailliet received a doctorate in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972. That same year, he became a faculty member at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and has been there ever since. Dr. Cailliet presently serves as the Program Director of the Pacific Shark Research Center. He has served as an advisor to 100 masters students in the field of marine fish ecology and has also been very active in central California reserves or sanctuaries.

Dr. Welland, is the founder and director of Orogen Ltd., a consulting company based in London, England. He has been face-to- face with geology around the world from the Arctic to the dunes of the Gulf Kebir (Great Barrier) in the Western Desert of Egypt. He holds a PhD in geology from the University of Cambridge. He and his wife divide their time between London and France.

Chris Lowe has been studying sharks for over 20 years and currently runs the Shark Lab at CSULB where he was recently awarded Professor of the Year. Dr. Lowe’s research interests include the physiological and behavioral ecology of elasmobranchs and other gamefishes, as well as the role of marine refuges in fisheries conservation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in marine biology at Barrington College. He went on to get his masters in biology at CSULB. And he holds a PhD in zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

As president of The Chronicles Group, Thebaut is dedicated to providing visual and education records for the general viewing public about profound issues facing the 21st century. Throughout his career, Thebaut has written, produced, and directed an array of prominent socially significant productions. His mission is for all people to have access to safe, affordable and sustainable drinking water and adequate sanitation in an attempt to save lives now. Thebaut is currently at work on a new film about the water crisis in South Africa titled “Running Dry – South Africa.”