Taking advantage of a break in the fog, the science team gathers around Jason II August 6, just before the last dive of the Dutch Harbor-Adak leg of the cruise. In front, seated, are Sean Rooney, Lena Krutikov, Doug Woodby, Gordon Hendler. Standing, from left, are Jennifer Reynolds, Jon Heifetz, Les Watling, Dayton Dove, Bob Stone, Sarah Gerken, Phil Rigby, Chris Wyatt, Scott France, Brian Jicha, and Gene Yogodzinski. Not pictured: Gary Greene. Photo by SONYA SENKOWSKY

Robert Stone
Fishery Research Biologist
National Marine Fisheries Service
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratory, Juneau
Bob.Stone@noaa.gov
Role on the cruise: An expert in seafloor habitat, deep-sea life and the effects of fishing disturbance on them, Robert Stone is the chief scientist responsible for field research and coordinating the activities of the science team. He has been the chief scientist on eight research submersible cruises in Alaska, including the three previous Delta cruises to the central Aleutians, and will be the lead scientist involved with seafloor video interpretation.

Jon Heifetz
Fishery Research Biologist
National Marine Fisheries Service
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratory, Juneau
Jon.Heifetz@noaa.gov
Role on the cruise: An expert on deep-sea environments who has been studying the effects of fishing gear on seafloor habitat, Jon Heifetz will participate in field operations and project administration. He will also be responsible for assessing the relationship between coral distribution, geologic features and fishing intensity.

Doug Woodby
Chief Marine Fisheries Scientist
Alaska Department of Fish & Game
doug_woodby@fishgame.state.ak.us
Role on the cruise: Alaska fisheries expert Doug Woodby will lead the creation of a model (using information collected from this cruise and others) to help predict under what conditions coral habitats are likely to occur.

Jennifer Reynolds
Science Director
West Coast & Polar Regions Undersea Research Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
jreynolds@guru.uaf.edu
Role on the cruise: Geologist Jennifer Reynolds oversaw the task of mapping the ocean floor and, along with Gary Greene, is responsible for interpreting the geologic maps in terms of seafloor habitat to guide the dives. The information will help researchers explore relationships between corals and surrounding substrate (the rocks and other material making up the seafloor).

Gary Greene
Professor of Marine Geology
Head of the Center for Habitat Studies
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Role on the cruise: Gary Greene was instrumental in developing the methods the science team will use in relating geology to habitat. He has more than 15 years of experience in constructing habitat schemes and co-authored "A Classification Scheme for Deep Seafloor Habitats," a much-cited standard among fisheries biologists.

Scott C. France
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Role on the cruise: Scott France, who has studied the evolution of deep-sea invertebrates since 1986, is collecting coral tissues for genetic analysis that will aid in the identification of these species. He has visited the deep-ocean floor off the Mariana Islands, Hawaii, Galapagos, California, and in the North Atlantic. Dr. France’s current research focuses on patterns of genetic variation in deep-sea octocorals and black corals.

Sarah Gerken
University of Alaska, Anchorage
Department of Biological Sciences
Role on the cruise: Biologist Sarah Gerken is spending much of her time on this cruise in the lab, where her role is to preserve specimens for electron microscopy for investigations into coral reproduction.

Gordon Hendler
Curator of Echinoderms
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Role on the cruise: Marine biologist Gordon Hendler is working in collaboration with Bob Stone, Les Watling and Scott France to study the biology of the invertebrates that live symbiotically with deepwater corals. The biology of sea stars and related animals has been the subject of his research for 30 years. "Fieldwork has taken me wherever these animals live," he says, "from the Antarctic to the tropics, SCUBA-diving in shallow water and using submersibles in the deep sea." He has published books and papers on all aspects of their natural history, including their taxonomy, ecology, behavior and physiology.

Phil Rigby
Groundfish Program Manager
National Marine Fisheries Service, AFSC, Auke Bay Laboratory
Role on the cruise: "Basically, this cruise is a chance to go to sea and help out and an opportunity of a lifetime. Species new to science are being discovered, while we have a chance to view them in their natural habitat. Understanding the links to habitat, the basic biology of corals and sponges, and their species associations will add to our limited understanding of the marine ecosystem."

Les Watling
Professor of Oceanography
University of Maine's Darling Marine Center
Role on the cruise: Les Watling is generally interested in benthic communities and the smaller invertebrate fuana that lives there. He has published more that 100 scientific papers and previously traveled the world in search of new species of crustaceans; he is now working with octocorals. This is his first research cruise in Alaskan waters. His role on the cruise is to provide tentative identifications for octocorals that are collected, and to describe the small invertebrates living as commensals on the corals. His work with respect to the impacts of mobile fishing gear on the benthos won him a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation in 1998.

Graduate students

Lena Krutikov, graduate student  (M.S. candidate)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Role on the cruise: Geology graduate student Lena Krutikov is developing a thesis project topic. Her main role during the cruise is to assist with the creation of diveplans and navigation.

Sean Rooney, graduate student
University of Alaska Fairbanks (fisheries program, Juneau campus)
Role on the cruise: Sean's main role during the cruise is to lead the mapping portion of the cruise. His interests include habitat mapping, and how habitat impacts fish populations. Prior to the cruise, he worked for the 6 years in NOAA's nautical charting program.

Adak Canyon/geology science team:

Gene Yogodzinski
Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences
University of South Carolina
Co-Chief Scientist in Charge of Adak Canyon Dives
Role on the cruise: Gene Yogodzinski is chief scientist for the "geology science team" aboard to study Adak Canyon. His research interests are in the origin of magma and the evolution of subduction magmatic and tectonic systems.

David W. Scholl
Geophysicist / Geologist
Stanford University and Moss Landing Marine Laboratory
Role on the cruise: A member of Gene Yogodzinski's science team, David Scholl's main role on the cruise, he says, is as "pathfinder," to locate and sample the oldest exposed rocks constructing the Aleutian Islands. "What it is all about for me is determining the birthday of the Aleutian Ridge or arc and reconstructing the conditions and setting of the birthing. In brief, how come there's an Aleutian Arc way up here in the North Pacific?"

Graduate students

Dayton Dove
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Role on the cruise: Dayton Dove describes his role aboard as "watchstanding, bathymetry data post-processing and rock-smashing." His goal, he says, is to learn as much as possible from the geologists on board.

Brian Jicha
University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D. candidate)
Role on the cruise: Brian Jicha will be determining the ages of the volcanic and plutonic samples collected during the Adak dives. New age determinations will hopefully provide constraints on the timimg of Aleutian arc formation as well as indicate the "true age" of some of the oldest material in the arc.

Chris Wyatt
University of South Carolina
Role on the cruise: Responsible for Multibeam sonar mapping and Jason II sampling of the geology of Adak Canyon. Chris Wyatt is a graduate student at the University of South Carolina,
where he will study with Gene Yogodzinski. He completed an M.S. in geology at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he works as a remote sensing and GIS
technician at the Geophysical Institute.