@Sea - Florida's Deep Water Oases - Exploration of a Deep Reef Ecosystem

	SCIENTIST/MEDIA BIOS John Reed - Senior Research Specialist, DBMR, HBOI Dr. Tracey Sutton - Fish and Plankton Ecology, Division of Marine Science, HBOI Dr. Tamara Frank - Visual Ecology, Division of Marine Science, HBOI Dr. Marsh J. Youngbluth - Water Column Ecology, Division of Marine Science, HBOI Mark Schrope - Science Writer, Media Lab, HBOI Brian Cousin - Video Production Specialist, Media Lab, HBOI Dr. Charles Jacoby - Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences - University of Florida Dr. Charles G. Messing - Professor of Oceanography, Nova Southeastern University Robert N. Ginsburg - Professor of Marine Geology - University of Miami Chris Langdon - Research Associate Professor - University of Miami Tina Udouj - Assistant Research Scientist, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Mark Carroll - @Sea Correspondent - Outerside.com John K. Reed Senior Research Specialist, Division of Biomedical Marine Research Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution John Reed is Chief Scientist on this HBOI's Deep Ocean Expedition: "Florida's Deep Water Oases - Exploration of a Deep Reef Ecosystem." John is Senior Scientist at DBMR and heads the Sample Acquisition and Taxonomy Program for biomedical research to discover pharmaceutically active compounds from marine organisms. He has organized >60 worldwide collection expeditions for biomedical research with HBOI's research vessels, submersibles, and land-based expeditions. He is curator of 30,000 specimens of marine organisms in DBMR's museum collection. John is also the Diving Safety Officer for all diving activities from Harbor Branch vessels and by a staff of 60 research divers. He has logged 35 deep-water lockout dives with helium-oxygen from Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles, logged >2000 scientific scuba dives, and >150 scientific dives in the Johnson-Sea-Link and Clelia submersibles. John's research on the deep-water Oculina coral reefs off Florida since 1976 has resulted in over 60 publications and has helped to establish the first deep-water coral Marine Protected Area in the world. His recent research on Florida's deep-water Lophelia coral reefs has resulted in the new discoveries of nearly 300 reefs to depths of 2600 ft which have been proposed as protected marine areas by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. John received his B.S. from the University of Miami and M.S. specializing in marine ecology from Florida Atlantic University in 1975. Tracey Sutton, Ph.D. Fish and Plankton Ecology, Division of Marine Science Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Tracey Sutton is a native Floridian, born in the panhandle town of Milton. He was raised in Mobile, Alabama, but somehow managed not to pick up the accent. He received his B.S. in Zoology from the University of South Florida (Tampa). Wanting to conduct research in the Gulf of Mexico, he relocated to the USF College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biological Oceanography. Tracey then moved north to accept a Postdoctoral Scholar position at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he participated in research with WHOI, the NMFS Northeast Fishery Science Center, and the National Systematics Laboratory (National Museum of Natural History). Despite enjoying the challenges and resources of Woods Hole, his thin Florida blood beckoned for a return to the Sunshine State. Tracey came to Harbor Branch in May 2003, and promptly disappeared for the next 2 months at which time he sailed on research cruises off New England and Iceland. Tracey is now investigating the ecological structure of various oceanic ecosystems, including the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the West Florida shelf, the deep Gulf of Mexico, and the northeast U.S. continental slope. Tamara Frank, Ph.D. Visual Ecology, Division of Marine Science Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Dr. Tamara Frank is currently the head of the Visual Ecology Department in the marine science division at HBOI. Her research focuses on how light controls the daytime distributions and vertical migrations of mid-water animals. Her work combines in situ studies from the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible to quantify animal distribution patterns, with shipboard-based laboratory studies on the photosensitivity of animals brought up with mid-water trawl nets. She is particularly interested in animal-eye adaptations to dim light environments. She has participated in over 70 research cruises, both as chief scientist and lucky hitchhiker. She received a BA from California State University, Long Beach; an MA and PhD from University of California, Santa Barbara; and postdoctoral fellowships from the University of Connecticut Medical School, the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Oregon, and HBOI. Marsh J. Youngbluth, Ph.D. Water Column Ecology, Division of Marine Science Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Dr. Marsh Youngbluth received his Master's degree in Zoology in 1966 from the University of Hawaii, and his Ph.D. in Biology in 1972 from Stanford University. He is a Senior Scientist with the Division of Marine Science at Harbor Branch Oceanographic institution. He has served as a visiting scientist at the University of Bergen, Norway, the Japanese Center for Promotion of Science, and National Center for Scientific Research in France. Dr. Youngbluth has also served as NSF Biological Oceanography Program Director, and as Program manager for the NOAA National Undersea Research Program. Dr. Youngbluth's research in the field of biological oceanography is currently focused on in situ investigations of mesopelagic zooplankton, particularly gelatinous fauna. With respect to siphonophores and medusae, Dr. Youngbluth is interested in their ecological roles as predators in deep-water coastal regimes. Other active projects include studies of large appendicularians as mediators of particle flux and transport in midwater and benthic boundary habitats. Much of Dr. Youngbluth's work employs the Harbor Branch JOHNSON SEA-LINK research submersibles. A firm believer in employing "the right tools for the job," Dr. Youngbluth continues to utilize innovative technologies in the ongoing exploration of the mid-ocean realm. Mark Schrope Science Writer, Media Lab Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Mark Schrope is the science writer at Harbor Branch Oceanographic. During the cruise he will be responsible for photos and regular dispatches that will appear on Harbor Branch @Sea expedition website as well as editing materials written by scientists during the cruise. Before coming to Harbor Branch Mark worked full-time as a freelance writer and president of Open Water Media, Inc. His articles have appeared in such publications as Nature, New Scientist, Popular Science, and Outside. He received a BS in Biology from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and an MS from Florida State University in Chemical Oceanography, before working for several years as a research technician at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point, Virginia. To transition into a writing career, he completed a one-year graduate program in Science Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. As both writer and researcher, Mark has taken part in research cruises to the Southern Ocean, the North Pacific, the Gulf of Maine, and the Bahamas, among other areas. Brian Cousin Video Production Specialist, Media Lab Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Since 1993, Brian Cousin has been Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution's video production specialist. He has documented leading-edge scientific research and development at the institution and on various missions to the Bahamas, the Galapagos archipelago, the Gulf of Maine and Mexico. While his name is rarely seen in the credits, Brian's video footage has been included in television documentaries produced around the world. In addition, Brian has produced award winning video programming for Harbor Branch, including a 26-minute program entitled "Marine Bioluminescence: Secret Lights in the Sea". Produced in collaboration with Harbor Branch's Dr. Edith Widder, the video provides an excellent background on the phenomenon of marine bioluminescence, and features previously unseen footage captured by Dr. Widder and her colleagues across the country. Brian is a certified Harbor Branch scuba diver and a member of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. His diving experience ranges from cave-diving - perhaps the ultimate in confined-space diving - to blue water diving - essentially open-ocean diving in a referenceless enviornment, often likened to space walking. On this mission Brian will be the at-sea web coordinator and videographer providing still and video images to the NOAA OE web site. Charles Jacoby, Ph.D. Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences University of Florida Dr. Chuck Jacoby received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biology from Illinois State University in 1974 and 1976, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University in 1980. Since then, he has held research positions at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, the University of Queensland in Australia, and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Dr. Jacoby joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, where he led research teams for a decade and provided expert advice in four multi-million dollar, multidisciplinary, environmental studies. Dr. Jacoby is currently an estuarine and coastal specialist in the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Florida. Dr. Jacoby has investigated estuarine, coastal and deepwater marine systems in the tropics, subtropics and temperate zones of the United States, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand. His scientific pursuits have appeared in peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on sediment porewater, water quality, benthic microalgae, seagrasses, saltmarshes, zooplankton, meiofauna, macroinvertebrates and fishes. Dr. Jacoby has collaborated with Dr. Youngbluth since 1980. They have conducted studies of gelatinous zooplankton, particle flux and demersal zooplankton. On this cruise, he will join Marsh in exploring feeding and physiology of Oculina. Charles G. Messing, Ph.D. Professor of Oceanography Nova Southeastern University Charles G. Messing, Ph.D., is Professor of Oceanography at Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, FL. He has been part of the South Florida marine biological community since 1970, when he began graduate work at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. While completing both M.S. (1975) and Ph.D. (1979) degrees there, he accompanied several deep-sea dredging and coral reef research expeditions around the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. A Smithsonian post-doctoral research fellowship on the systematics and ecology of crinoids (sea lilies and featherstars) followed. Prof. Messing's subsequent field research on crinoid ecology, biogeography and systematics has taken him to the Bahamas, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Micronesia, Australia and Malaysia, and he is the author or co-author of 39 scientific articles. He has been using research submersibles, including both Alvin and Johnson Sea Link, since 1975 to study the distribution of deep-water invertebrates and the ecology of crinoids. As part of the latter work, he was the first to measure the growth of stalked sea lilies in situ. In addition to his research, he is a scientific illustrator and teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses at NSU, including biology and invertebrate zoology. He is also an actor of some experience, having written and performed a one-man show as Michelangelo. Robert N. Ginsburg Professor of Marine Geology University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Robert N. Ginsburg is Professor of Marine Geology in the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. One of the Post WW II pioneers in research on fossil and living coral reefs and their associated calcareous sediments, he has been fortunate to have spent some decades in hand to hand combat with their geology in Florida, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Belize. He and his students led the development of rock coring to understand reef history, the use of research submersibles to examine and sample reef walls to depths of 1200 feet and pioneered the identification of the skeletal sources of individual grains of reef sand. About ten years ago he turned his special energy to organizing health assessments of Tropical Western Atlantic coral reefs. Joined by Philip and Patricia Kramer, Judith Lang and others he helped develop a novel approach to the condition of reef corals and the associated algae and fishes, much like our physical examinations. Now, thanks to teams of eager young reef scientists from around the region, the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment Project has examined some 800 reef sites in 20 different areas extending from South America to the northern Bahamas and including reefs in the Gulf of Mexico as well as those in Brazil. Chris Langdon Research Associate Professor University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Chris Langdon is currently a research associate professor at the Uni. of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. He got his PhD in biological oceanography from the Uni. of Rhode Island. He has been working for over ten years on how the increasing acidity of the ocean is affecting the ability of tropical, shallow water corals to build their skeletons. Deep-water corals are of interest because they are naturally found in waters with much lower pH than shallow water corals. Do deep water corals grow very slowly because of the unfavorable chemical conditions or have they evolved a way of calcifying rapidly under low pH conditions? Do the deep water corals possess genes that could help save the shallow water tropical corals from ocean acidification? Tina Udouj Assistant Research Scientist Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Tina Udouj (u-dodge) is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tina has worked at the Institute's Center for Spatial Analysis since August 2002. Her first GIS projects included creating manatee speed zones and mapping mercury concentrations of fish in Tampa Bay. Soon thereafter, she assumed the responsibilities of administering and developing Internet Map Server (IMS) applications. This role required a whole new suite of skills but also provided new opportunities to collaborate with various departments in the Institute and external agencies. She is very excited to serve as a GIS Specialist on the Exploration of a Deep Reef Ecosystem cruise. Mark Carroll @Sea Correspondent Outerside.com Mark Carroll's photographs have appeared in such magazines as Smithsonian, Backpacker, and Sea Kayaker and in conjunction with USA Today and Discover Channel while his short films have been well received at galleries and festivals around the globe. Mark has worked on assignment for explorer Robert Ballard's JASON Porject and at sea as an online correspondent for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and ABCNews.com. He studied at Boston University, earning degrees in both marine biology and photojournalism and had worked in television with National Geographic, History Channel and PBS's science series NOVA.