Keynote speakers
Mr. Denis St. Claire, Archaeologist, ethnographer, educator, owner of Coast Heritage Consulting.
Keynote Address: The Last Forty Years And The Next Two Decades
Dr. Mairi M.R. Best, Associate Director (Science), NEPTUNE Canada.
Interactive Keynote Address: Live Data from the Coast to the Deep Sea: NEPTUNE Canada
Dr. Mairi Best is a marine scientist interested in biological, physical, and chemical factors that control the preservation of calcium carbonate skeletons: our primary source of paleo-biological information and the primary way carbon is transferred from the atmosphere-ocean to the crust in the carbon cycle. Production and preservation of calcium carbonate is affected by ocean “acidification”. After her B.Sc. honours in Geology from Laurentian University, including scuba-based research on reefs of St Lucia, Mairi worked on fossil and modern reefs in Papua New Guinea through the Australian Institute of Marine Science. From there she did a PhD at the University of Chicago with fellowships at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. As assistant professor at McGill University, she continued to expand her NSERC-funded research program, including experiments deployed on the VENUS cabled observatory. She continues this research as an Adjunct Professor in the University of Victoria’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. Mairi fosters and facilitates the efforts of a growing community of NEPTUNE Canada scientists – those designing the pioneer suite of instruments and experiments deployed in 2009, and developing approaches to data analysis and integration. She also manages the integration between the vision of the scientific community and the engineering and information technology infrastructure.
Dr. Terrie Klinger, Associate Professor, School of Marine Affairs and Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, University of Washington
Keynote Address: The San Juan Islands and Puget Sound planning experiences
Dr. Terrie Klinger is Associate Professor of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington where she studies marine ecology and marine policy. Klinger holds a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her research has included investigations of nearshore intertidal and subtidal communities and their response to disturbance, biological invasion, and climate change. She serves as Chair of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, Governor's Appointee to the Northwest Straits Commission, and as a lead author of the Puget Sound Science Update.
Dr. Jane Watson, Professor, Vancouver Island University
Keynote Address: Sea otters, history and natural variation: the importance of having a baseline
Jane Watson has been observing, measuring, and studying the underwater ecosystems of Barkley Sound for nearly 30 years. She is interested in how marine vertebrates affect and interact with coastal ecosystems. Her current research is on sea otter community ecology, and she is particularly interested in how sea otter predation affects the biological communities of underwater rocky reefs including the life history strategies of sea otter prey species.
Dr. Louis D. Druehl, Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre
Keynote Address: Marine algae and ecological change in Barkley Sound and west coast of Vancouver Island
Dr. Louis Druehl has taught marine botany at Simon Fraser University and various marine stations for over thirty years. His ongoing research advances understanding of kelp ecology, evolution and cultivation, and his doggerel amuses. Louis and his partner, Rae Hopkins, have operated Canadian Kelp Resources (www.canadiankelp.com) out of Bamfield for over twenty-five years. CKR has a line of sea vegetables (Barkley Sound Kelp), provides kelp for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, and champions kelp farming and the development of kelp-based cottage industries locally and abroad.
