programs blog

Chelsea Bennice is a marine biologist and science communicator. Her research interests include animal behavior and ecology, with an expertise in octopus biology. She earned a B.S. from The Ohio State University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University. She is a postdoctoral research fellow at Florida Atlantic University’s Marine Lab and serves as a lead scientific diver and board member for the Scientific Diving and Boating Safety Committee. Chelsea collaborates with scientists around the world on octopus projects to advance basic and applied sciences. 

Her “octo-topics” include the octopus skin microbiome, behavior, genetics, and morphology. Chelsea uses innovative science tools such as a 24 hour camera, the octopus monitoring gadget (OMG), and a floating lab to aid in answering research questions. Her research is highlighted in popular articles and scientific publications, on podcasts, and in ocean documentaries. She has been studying and photographing octopuses for over 10 years, and with over 1000 hours of underwater research, she has been dubbed “Octo-Girl” by the local diving community. Chelsea is an advocate for bridging scientists and the community. Her responsibilities at the FAU Marine Lab also include overseeing public education/outreach projects and mentoring students in the Glenn W. and Corneila T. Bailey Marine SEA Scholars (Science, Education and Arts) program. She serves as the lead scientific advisor for the nonprofit, OctoNation®, whose mission is to inspire ocean exploration and conservation by understanding octopuses. In her free time, Chelsea likes to get outside, get in a good workout, SCUBA dive, and practice underwater photography. She is  also enjoying her newfound hobby of tropical plant keeping. At the top of her bucket list is swimming with sperm whales!

Shana Phelan, owner/operator of Pura Vida Divers in Riviera Beach, holds degrees in both Marine Biology and Environmental Science from the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and a Masters Degree in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University.  Shana’s passion for protecting marine life extends far beyond diving. She served as a Marine Biologist and Researcher at the Loggerhead Marine Life Center, studying endangered and threatened sea turtles, including the elusive Leatherback.  In 2002, Shana was interviewed by The Discovery Channel in regards to her research, and in 2005 she worked with WIDECAST to create a Sea Turtle Trauma Response Field Guide, which is now used throughout the Caribbean.  

Currently, Shana is the Administrator of the Palm Beach County Diving Association.  As part of her efforts to promote marine conservation, Shana volunteers as the Diving Vice Chair for the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative, and previously served as an appointee to Palm Beach County’s Artificial Reef and Environmental Enhancement Committee.  In 2022, Shana was awarded the Marine Conservationist of the Year by the Florida Wildlife Federation and the November Seiko Sea Hero of the month for her efforts in Goliath Grouper conservation.

Growing to more than 8ft and 800lbs, the Goliath Grouper is the largest grouper species in the Atlantic ocean.  Historically overfished, the Goliath Grouper fishery was closed for harvest in 1990 in an effort to let stock levels rebuild.  For more than a decade, Shana and other diving community members have worked to keep the FWC from reopening the Goliath Grouper fishery to harvest.  Tune in to learn more about this ocean giant, its history and management in Florida waters, where conservation efforts are today, and how you can be involved.

Carole Marshall has been collecting shells since she was a young girl. Digging in the mud on the Rock River in Newville, Wisconsin she found snails she now knows are Viviperous georgiana. Her mother introduced her to sea shells after a stay on Fort Myers Beach and though it was not quite love at first sight, it became so, when she found her first shell on the beach. A baby’s ear, lying on the sand. Carole thought her mom had put it there for her to find.

Her quest for knowledge came with a share day at a club meeting in Schaumburg, Illinois. A lady who was a guest at the meeting asked if she knew of the Chicago Shell Club. Her surprised response was “There are clubs for people who collect shells?!!! That was in 1965 and her mom, dad and she all joined that club.

After planning a move to the West Palm Beach area in 1970, Carole wrote a fond goodbye to her Chicago friends and hoped there would be a shell club in Florida.

Within a few weeks, a note came from the Palm Beach County Shell Club letting her know they were there and looking forward to her becoming a member.

Carole would later become President of that club as well as President of two other shell clubs, the Broward Shell Club and the Treasure Coast Shell Club. Two special highlights of shell club participation and service was when she became an honorary member of the Broward Shell Club and when she was a recipient of the Neptunea award from the Conchologists of America in May of 2022.

Her main passion is Worldwide Scallops, having won many awards with her exhibits. Her second passion is collecting money both paper and coins, as well as exonumia, with shells depicted.

For the last 15 years, Carole has been writing a book about the seashells of the Lake Worth Lagoon. She complains the scientists keep moving the bar: changing names, genus and species, sometimes families and resurrecting old names and synonymizing others. She really hopes to finish this this year.

Today, Carole will talk about mollusks, habitats, lifecycles and some interesting finds at the Lagoon.

Carole will also bring two posters. Both are from poster sessions for the Lake Worth Lagoon Symposium. One was from 2012 and the other from 2022. There is additional information included in the posters.

Karen Fuentes is the founder and director of the Manta Caribbean Project (MCP), established as a non-profit in 2015 in Isla Mujeres, México. Our collaborative work focuses on studying the devil and manta rays in the Mexican Caribbean through research, conservation, and awareness we aim to contribute to the health of mobulid species in our region.

The MCP work with local communities, and regional government on different projects related to management, fisheries, marine debris, and environmental education in the northern tip of the Yucatan peninsula.

The MCP is an affiliate project for The Manta Trust, Karen is also a member of the Global Ghost Gear Initiative an initiative to address ghost fishing in the oceans furthermore MCP contributed to the microplastic research projects back in 2017 with the 5Gyres Trawl share program and other management projects.

Active Projects:
Monitoring mobulid rays
Fisheries: Bycatch
Tourism Management

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Located in the northern region of the Yucatan Peninsula, within the Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve, lies the transitional area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican Caribbean where every year from May to September, upwellings of nutrient and plankton rich waters attract many hungry filter feeders, including manta rays, West Atlantic pygmy devil rays and one of the largest known aggregations of whale sharks in the world!

Current legislation forbids the landing of manta and devil rays in this region, however there are not sufficient management measures in place to enforce this ban across such a large area. Unfortunately, this manta population is under threat from fisheries that are targeting them primarily to use as bait for shark fishing. Additionally, it is feared that many manta and devil rays are also caught and killed incidentally as bycatch by fisheries targeting other species in the region.

The MCP is a Mexican-registered non-profit organization, based in Isla Mujeres. Founded in 2013 by Karen Fuentes, to conduct research on and describe the local manta ray species, promote awareness in the local communities through educational programs, and to attain knowledge and data that can be used to develop sustainable models for the conservation of this species.

Why is this manta population so important?

MCP believes the manta population seen in the Mexico Caribbean to be a third, putative (yet undescribed) species of manta ray that is sympatric to the oceanic manta ray in this region. This ‘Caribbean’ manta ray appears to occupy a similar niche to the reef manta ray and is similar in size, but its dorsal colouration is a cross between oceanic and reef manta rays.

January's speaker is Shelby Thomas. Shelby is the Founder and CEO of the Ocean Rescue Alliance, a marine conservation and restoration nonprofit organization, that implements innovative techniques to restore marine environments. She is an expert in marine restoration and conservation, receiving her master’s in Marine Ecology and currently completing her PhD in Marine Biology with the University of Florida. She is an environmentalist and marine conservation advocate who hopes to inspire others to protect our environments. She has worked with various restoration projects including coral, seagrass, oyster, sea-urchin, and scallop restoration.

Shelby is passionate about preserving our natural ecosystems and creating a foundation for their appreciation. Her nonprofit combines art to aid in communicating science to the public in impactful ways. The Ocean Rescue Alliance artificial reefs create complex habitat space, enable species specific restoration and serve as ecotourism destinations that combines art and culture to connect the communities they serve. She now has worked with over 25 different restoration projects and continues to conduct research in this field. Through her research and outreach, she plans to assist in conserving, restoring, and better managing our ecosystems. She would like to make a lasting impact, conserving our environments while also improving peoples lives around the world.

Stephanie Schopmeyer has a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Biology from Georgia Southern University where her interest in studying the ocean and coral reefs began and she’s been a diver since 1998. Currently, she is an Associate Research Scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Research Institute’s (FWRI) Coral Program in St Petersburg, FL. Her main roles at FWC are monitoring coral reef resources and coral health in the state of Florida, impact assessment, disease, and disturbance response monitoring, and coordinating genetic banking of Florida coral species in response to stony coral tissue loss disease. Previously, Stephanie has managed and conducted coral propagation and restoration activities at the University of Miami, assessed coral reef health in Hawaii and US Pacific territories with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and investigated the impacts of environmental stressors on seagrass species in Florida Bay while working at Florida Atlantic University.

Coral diseases are poorly understood on coral reefs as they often include multiple pathogens and vectors. In addition, the prevalence and severity of coral diseases interact with other stressors on reefs such as climate change, water quality and biological interactions. The Caribbean is a hot spot for coral diseases and in 2014 an unprecedented disease called stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was identified near Government Cut in Miami.

SCTLD has spread through the entire Florida Reef Tract, affects over 20 species of Caribbean coral and has species specific rates of progression and mortality. Efforts to slow the progression of the of SCTLD include extensive research, communication and education, forms of antibiotic and probiotic treatments, and genetic rescue. Coral rescue has removed over 2500 colonies of susceptible corals and placed them under expert care in zoos, aquariums, and research facilities around the country where they will be bred to increase genetic diversity and offspring will be used for future restoration of the Florida Reef Tract.

Shark Behavior and Identification

Sharks have survived on Planet Earth for 400 million years. What makes them such successful survivors? Dr. Gary Rose will discuss the basic facts about sharks in our waters. He will teach you a simple technique to easily distinguish the different species of sharks from each other – in clear or murky water. As a shark diver and photographer, he will also give you an entertaining overview, with plenty of personal anecdotes, about what makes sharks such great survivors and how their multiple senses are so different than our own.

Bio

Gary Rose MD has been a certified diver for over 45 years and is a PADI Open Water Instructor. As a Plastic Surgeon and former Associate Professor of Microbiology and Surgery at the College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, he has fulfilled his life passion as a marine biologist with his research on marine microorganisms, as well as large ocean apex predators. Dr. Rose lectures all over the world on “Shark Identification and Behavior” and gives seminars on “Updates On Diving Medicine”. An avid underwater photographer, his articles appear in Alert Diver and X-RAY magazine. Dr. Rose is a member of the Divers Alert Network and The Undersea And Hyperbaric Medical Society. You can find him on weekends diving our local waters and photographing our plentiful and diverse sharks. You can reach him at garyrosephotos@gmail.com

Since 1999, Duane Silverstein has been the executive director of Seacology, an international non-governmental organization with the sole focus of preserving islands—their fragile habitats, vanishing species and historic cultures—throughout the globe

Before heading Seacology, he was the executive director of the Goldman Fund, one of California’s largest philanthropic foundations, for 18 years. Duane was instrumental in creating and heading the Goldman Environmental Prize, which has been dubbed the “Nobel Prize of the Environment” by National Geographic and news media around the globe. Over his career he has visited more than 200 islands in 86 nations.

Widely considered one of the world’s foremost experts on islands, he is a National Fellow of The Explorers Club and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In 2018, he accepted the United Nations Momentum for Change climate action award on behalf of Seacology. In 2019, Duane was named a Go Blue Award Lifetime Achievement Honoree. Under his leadership, Seacology was nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2021, he was named an Ocean Hero by The Salty Hands, a Canadian marine conservation organization.

About Seacology

While islands take up only five percent of Earth’s land, they are home to an estimated 20 percent of the world’s bird, reptile, and plant species—and almost 40 percent of critically endangered animals around the globe. Many of the world’s most vulnerable islands are small, remote, and often overlooked. All Seacology projects help protect island species, which include some of the world’s rarest plants and animals.

Seacology’s mission is to protect threatened island ecosystems all over the world by working directly with communities, helping them to preserve their culture and improve their lives while saving precious island habitats. Island communities are under constant pressure to boost economic development, even at the cost of environmental damage. Seacology’s win-win approach recognizes the efforts of indigenous communities and gives them an economic incentive to preserve their natural resources. It also recognizes that local communities—who are often ignored by decisionmakers—can be the best stewards of the environment.

Will Schrier has been a recreational diver for about 14 years, approaching 500 dives.  Being a native of Pittsburgh, PA, his early dive experience was limited to a dive trip or two per year to various Caribbean locations (we won't really count the training/certification dives in a lake in West Virginia - and no, there really isn't any diving in the three rivers of Pittsburgh!).  Prior to the pandemic, Will took some time away from his career in the Information Technology sector to simply travel and spent extended stays in Madagascar and Timor Leste doing voluntourism expeditions with a conservation group called Blue Ventures, as well as a couple stints in Bali exploring the Amed and Tulumben dive areas.  When the pandemic squashed his plans to return to Bali for an another six months to work as a dive master, Will returned to his tech career but decided to become a digital nomad and continue exploring domestically while working.  Many of you may have met Will during his stay in Florida where he joined USA Dive Club and participated in a number of local dives as well as plenty of dives at the Blue Heron Bridge.

Eventually, Will decided it was time to move on and circuitouslyy made his way up to Washington state to check cold water diving off his bucket list.  He had completed his drysuit certification in the summer of 2019 - though an ill-fitting rental drysuit for his course meant he did not stay dry for a single dive during the course.  The certification was intended to facilitate a couple dives with a friend in Plymouth in the United Kingdom, but after arriving there again found rental drysuits a complication and was eventually given a 7mm "semi-dry" wetsuit which he spent the weekend shivering in to explore the waters off Plymouth.

One might question why a self-professed "easily chilled" diver would head to the waters of Puget Sound in the autumn of 2021, but after 60+ dives over the course of a few months, Will is convinced that the Pacific Northwest does indeed offer some  world class diving and he'll be sharing the experience of a warm water diver going through a conversion to cold water and an overview of the highlights of PNW diving... oh, and he'll explain why he headed there to dive through the coldest months of the year!

Shelly Krueger is the Florida Sea Grant  agent for the University of Florida IFAS Extension,  Monroe County since 2013. Shelly is part of the UoF Extension faculty.   Florida Sea Grant is a UF-based program that supports research, education and extension to conserve coastal resources and enhance economic opportunities for the people of Florida.  In 2019, Shelly wrote the Sponge Restoration module for the new UF/IFAS Florida Master Naturalist Program Marine Habitat Restoration and she is the outreach and education lead for the Florida Keys Community Sponge Restoration program, a multi-agency collaboration led by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to restore sponge communities. 

Sponges are essential for healthy ecosystems because they continuously filter large volumes of water while feeding on phytoplankton, viruses, and bacteria. Sponges also transform water chemistry by cycling nutrients and provide essential nursery habitat for important fisheries species such as spiny lobster, stone crab, and bonefish.  The loss of such an important component of nearshore habitats has prompted calls for sponge restoration.  By transplanting sponges onto experimental sites, researchers are evaluating how to ensure sponge transplants become self-sustaining and help restore the health of Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay.   With Florida Sea Grant and EPA-funding, researchers are now testing transplant techniques to see if they can accelerate the restoration process.

Plan to attend and welcome back Shelly after she spoke to the club in March on Sargassum.