Andrea and Wilfried Steffen
live in Schwalmtal, Germany near the Dutch border.  The Steffen's have been avid divers for more than 30 years.  Together they successfully managed the campaign against a planned desalination plant in the nursery area of California Grey Whales in San Ignacio Lagoon, Mexico for the German "Society for Dolphin Conservation".  For the past eight years Andrea and Wilfried have studied Sperm Whales off the island of Dominica, an island in the Lesser Antilles about 200 miles southeast of Saba.  Their work in Dominica has involved research and the excavation of sperm whales beached in 2001.  The picture to the left shows them in front of one of their projects: the first reconstructed sperm whale skeleton in the Caribbean.  Their most recent accomplishment is the co-authoring of a book on their work with whales off Dominica.  Saba and Dominica share the same migratory paths for humpback whales.  Join Andrea and Wilfried to discuss the gentle giants of this region, what influences our sightings each year and what individuals can do to influence decisions on international whaling rights.  Read more about their work on these websites:  www.wale-delfine.de  and www.pottwale.de
Presentations October 1-9, 2005; Join the Steffans on a snorkel trip to learn more about whales while on the water.
 

Jennifer Rahn
lived on Saba and worked as a divemaster for a Saba dive shop between her undergraduate and masters programs, both in cartography.  During her time on Saba she produced the first mapping of Saba's deep water pinnacles.  Jennifer has been an Assistant Professor teaching Geographical Information Systems and Cartography classes at Baylor University.  She is presently doing coastal research for Rutgers University Institute of Marine Sciences in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  Her dissertation work studying the human influences on physical processes of barrier islands and beaches gives her the background for her most recent field work in Dominica, an island 200 miles southeast of Saba.  Like Saba, Dominica is a volcanic island with a verdant rainforest topside coupled with a dramatic coastline which have created a popular scuba diving destination.  Ms. Rahn and her students studied the shorelines of Dominica to explore reasons for beach degradation or erosion problems.  Join Jennifer as she re-discovers Saba's pinnacles, updating and enhancing her original map and observing Saba's few seasonal beaches and the causes and effects of this phenomenon.
Presentations and field work about coastal erosion, underwater mapping, and potential for tsunamis on Saba and in the Caribbean:
October 15 with her field project set up for October 17, 2005.

Chris Parsons
is currently teaching Oceanography, Marine Conservation and Marine Mammal Biology and Conservation at George Mason University in Virginia.  Chris Parsons was the Director of the Research and Education Departments of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) from 1998 to 2003.  Parsons is also a research associate at the University Marine Biological Station, Millport.  Chris's involvement in whale and dolphin research has been ongoing for more than a decade spanning the globe from South Africa, India, China and the Caribbean as well as the U.K.  Prior to working at HWDT, Parsons was involved in research on Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and finless porpoises in Hong Kong and China which involved studies on the behavior and ecology of Hong Kong's cetaceans, marine pollution and its effects on marine life.  Parsons will be on Saba with his wife, Naomi Rose, also a marine mammal scientist and fellow member of the International Whaling Commission.  Join this dynamic team to better  understand these fascinating animals and the perils facing them in our region.
Join Chris, his wife Naomi Rose and The Steffens for an interesting afternoon on the ocean and his presentation that evening: October 8 '05
 

Tom van t'Hof
is a marine biologist recognized worldwide for his designing of marine parks. Tom is to be given credit for the design of Saba and St. Eustatius's (the more common name for our neighboring island St. Eustatius is "Statia") marine parks but also for Bonaire, Curacao and other parks from Kenya to Indonesia. Choosing Saba as his home since 1986, Tom was the original director of Saba's Conservation Foundation for its first ten years. As an active environmentalist, author and consultant, Tom is never at a loss for something to do. The Nature of Saba, Guide to the Saba Marine Park, and Guide to Saba's Nature Trails are just the books about Saba which Tom has written or co-authored.  He and artist wife Heleen own Saba's Eco-lodge Rendezvous.  Meet Tom on Wednesdays throughout the year for a pre-dinner slide presentation about Saba's rainforest given at The Rainforest Restaurant.   At Sea & Learn 2005, join Tom will unveil his new presentation on cloud forests.  Join Tom for a hike to Saba's cloud forest areas and understand its past traumas, the recovery process and its unpredictable future.  
Join Tom for his Cloud Forest Talk October 17 '05 --which should convince you to join him the next day for an intriguing guided hike.

Kenny Buchan
is a Marine Biologist and Coastal Manager.  Kenny was Saba's Marine Park Manager from 1994-1997. From Saba he traveled to San Salvador in the Bahamas where he was director of The Bahamian Field Station.  He then went to work with the Smithsonian Institution developing a marine ecosystems exhibit in Fort Pierce, Florida.  Currently living back in his native country Scotland, his work involves the development of Integrated Coastal Zone Management plans for the West Coast of Scotland.  Kenny's main interests include:  the behavioral ecology of juvenile reef fish in nursery habitats, the effects of anthropogenic and natural impacts on coastal ecosystems, and the sustainable management  of tropical and temperate coastal and marine resources.  At Sea & Learn in 2005, Kenny will present an overview of impacts on tropical marine ecosystems with a focus on hurricane impacts and will coordinate survey dives on Tent Reef to explore the effects of sedimentation and recent (1998 & 1999) hurricane activity.  He will also make a presentation comparing and contrasting coastal management issues in the Caribbean and Scotland.
Welcome back Kenny and learn more about Tent Reef Oct 13; survey dives conducted throughout the week with a follow-up presentation of the results October 18, 2005.
 

Dan Bisaccio
is the founder and director of HabitatNet an organization dedicated to teaching and training students, teachers, and nature guides global conservation through active and intensive field programs. Dan has been teaching biological field research courses for over 20 years.  While utilizing students, nature guides and teachers as researchers, he has developed field tropical ecology courses in Costa Rica, Belize, the Caribbean, and Mexico. As an adjunct researcher for the Smithsonian Institute, Dan and his participants conduct primary biological diversity monitoring research and submit annual field reports to the Smithsonian.  Dan and his affiliated high school have received a number of state and national awards.  In January 2005 Dan led 3 Saba youths and a chaperone together with students from around the world for a biodiversity summit in Mexico.  Join Dan and the Saba team as they do annual survey work in the cloud forest of Mt. Scenery.  His presentation on the finding follows a few days later:  
Mt. Scenery field trip October 9; his presentation October 11, 2005

Andy Caballero
manages Saba's neighboring St. Maarten Marine Park.   The organization is faced with the huge task of preserving what remains of St. Maarten's fragile natural environment while most of the island is more focused on continuous development.  The island of St. Maarten can serve as a case study for the adverse effects which occur when there is disregard to coastal development, lack of zoning laws, destruction of mangroves and the list goes on.  An ideal candidate for the job, Andy was raised on St. Maarten but studied marine biology in Miami, Florida.  As St. Maarten's first marine park manager he has made magnificent progress with the installation of moorings and the framework for protecting certain areas from fishing and anchoring.  Andy's background in corals and sea grasses has well prepared him to address the Foundation's  latest project of mangrove protection and restoration.  Mark a presentation with Andy on your calendar to learn more about the significance of mangroves in the region and what we can do to save what's left of St. Maarten's mangrove areas.   
Join Andy on October 28 for an interesting presentation on mangroves,

Gad Perry
obtained his initial science degrees in his native country of Israel.  His PhD work brought him to Austin, Texas with post doc work in Wisconsin and Guam.  Today Gad calls Lubbock Texas home  where he is an Assistant Professor at the Texas Tech University.  As a conservation biologist/ecologist, Gad works primarily on reptiles, amphibians and invasive species issues.  Since 1993, his projects have taken him to the Caribbean destinations of Curacao, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands--the latter just 90 miles northwest of Saba.  Perry's focus has been on introduced and invasive species and their effect on indigenous creatures on these island nations.  Explore Saba with Gad to look specifically at introduced plants, critters and creatures which threaten Saba's native flora and fauna.  Issues will range from feral rabbits, goats and cats to the coralita vine, mealy bugs and the 'white worm moth', at present an 'undescribed' species that feeds on and kills Saba's white cedar tree. 
Join Gad on Monday evening Oct 3 and his field project Oct 5 '05

Bert & Lucy Williams
make their home on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico where they have easy access for their research of parasites and diseases on coral reef organisms.  Together they have made over 14,000 dives and have been published more than 500 times including books, articles and publications.  The Williams' honors cover pages but two distinctions are Lucy's induction in to the Women's Diving Hall of Fame in 2005 and the naming of 7 species of parasites in her honor.  Their scientific research of coral bleaching proved the problem was worldwide but also cyclical.  In the 90's, Bert and Lucy's work with sea turtles was instrumental in bringing to light the epizootic (wildlife epidemic) of superficial tumors known as Fibropapilloma.  From 1982 onward, fibropapillomas rapidly increased in abundance around Florida, Hawaii, and beginning abruptly in the mid-1980's, throughout the Caribbean.  Go diving with  Bert and Lucy as they explore Saba's reefs identifying parasites and diseases on coral reef organisms October 9-14 2005; their presentation is scheduled for October 10, 2005.

Juergen Laudien
is a marine biologist specializing in the study of mollusks in habitats ranging from polar regions to tropical areas.  Juergen is employed as a project manager at Stiftung Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Germany where his focus is the study of Phylum Mollusca which  includes gastropods, shell-less snails like sea hares, slugs and nudibranchs as well as chitons, bivalves, octopi and squid.  Juergen's work has been in the Arctic fjords, Chilean upwelling ecosystems and Peruvian Humboldt current where he has studied the succession of marine bottom-living animal communities and individual growth of benthic invertebrates.  This work has provided the basic understanding of ecosystem functioning and the prediction of the system's development.  While on Saba for Sea &  Learn, Juergen will work with the Saba National Marine Park to sample hard substrates for comparisons to other ecosystems.  Laudien will collaborate with park manager David Kooistra to work toward the installation of recolonisation panels to be fixed directly to vertical walls and sloping reefs.  These panels will be monitored by Saba's volunteer network, including Saba Sea Scouts in order to study seasonal and annual differences in primary succession.  Once in place, this project can provide data to calculate the biomass and provide baseline data for future educational and research needs. Join Juergen for presentations about tides and their effects on marine life.  
Juergen will first give a presentation on tides October 19 and his next presentation on ocean productivity October 22, 2005.  

John Magor
is a familiar face to those who have already visited Saba.  An owner of Sea Saba Dive Center, John has dived the waters around Saba since 1989.  Time off of Saba is often spent muck diving strange waters around the globe.  John will give an entertaining presentation explaining "muck" with fabulous photography from the Lembah Straits to South Australia, British Columbia, Papua New Guinea and of course, Saba.  An avid wild life photographer and animal lover, John has been traveling the world since his teens and diving it for more than 25 years. Enjoy John's presentation at varied venues throughout the month.  If you would like to dive some of Saba's more obscure areas, this can be arranged with Sea Saba Dive Center for planned afternoon diving.  Resident muck creatures vary with the seasons!
Presentation October 26 '05; Muck Diving throughout the month.

Matthew Potenski
is currently a graduate research associate with the Guy Harvey Research Institute at the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach, Florida.  Matthew is currently the co-principal investigator for the Cayman Islands Stingray Ecology and Conservation Project.  His masters thesis focuses on the effects of supplemental feeding by humans on stingray biology and ecology.  In the past seven years, Matthew has done marine biological work in eight countries and encountered over fifty species of sharks and rays.  Although his primary interests are sharks and rays, much of Matthew's work involves full ecology of the study organism.  This approach demands a scientist to have a good comprehension of entire marine systems so Matthew's varied background from seagrasses and coral to invertebrates, telost fish and even water chemistry are most helpful.  Join Matthew to look at Saba's stingray population and discuss how this natural environment compares to that of Cayman where they receive supplemental feeding.
Presentations on stingrays and fish behavior Oct 14 & 20 '05.  See the S&L 2005 Calendar for his field projects.
 

Pedro Rivera
is a 3x return lecturer to our Sea & Learn program.  Pedro was born in Tegernsee, Germany but has made Puerto Rico his home since childhood.   A professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Pedro also works as an environmental consultant as well as owning his own nursery.  Most people think of Puerto Rico as a bustling metropolis; but, there's also fabulous nature.  Pedro pursued his interest and completed his BS in Agricultural Sciences, MS in Forestry, PhD in Tropical Forest Ecology.   Pedro is also a Smithsonian Institution Research Associate and has done research and training in Gabon, Nigeria, USA, and throughout the Caribbean.  While in Western Africa, he studied the forest structures and composition of Congolian forest.  Pedro's Caribbean work includes structure and composition of forests in the islands and its relationship to natural disturbances like hurricanes, droughts and  fires.   Join Pedro and his wife Karin for their presentation on "Native Plants of the Lesser Antilles".  Participate in a unique field trip as they explore Saba's varied ecosystems to collect, press and dry plants for Saba's Herbarium. Volunteers are needed to collect samplings for this new long term program which will serve as a database to Saba's future decision makers as well as a great addition to visitors of our eco-tourism destination.
Other professional obligations caused a last minute cancellation.  Look for Pedro on next year's schedule.

Read the Daily Herald article written on Pedro's assessment of Saba's first recorded leatherback turtle nesting site during his 2004 visit.

Allyson Walsh
is a leading bat conservation biologist – with over 15 years experience in bat research, conservation and education. In the UK, her PhD thesis focused in identifying the habitat needs of bats across different landscapes in Britain, providing useful advice for land managers on how to manage habitats for bats. In 1997, she initiated a National Bat Monitoring Program for the Bat Conservation Trust, which now involves over 1000 citizen scientists taking part in surveys for bats across the country. The program provides vital information on the changing status of British bats, so the government can act to protect and conserve bat populations. Her work took her overseas to Bat Conservation International, where she was Director of Science programs, including programs on bat houses, bats and forests, bats and mines/caves, and the North American Bat Conservation Partnership. Her passion for bats has led her on trips to the jungles of Belize, Australia, and the Brazilian Amazon in search of rare species. Dr Walsh is a member of the IUCN Survival Specialist Groups, professional fellow of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and Courtesy Associate Professor at the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department of Florida University, Gainesville.  Currently in her role as Director of the Lubee Bat Conservancy, her research and conservation focus is on fruit and nectar feeding bats. She runs the Conservancy’s Tropical Bat Conservation Center, looking after a collection of 300 fruit bats.  She manages conservation and research programs worldwide, research on bat biology at the center, and center and outreach education programs. Like many small islands, bats are the only land mammals native to Saba. Come and join Allyson as she discusses the bat species found on Saba and the important roles bats play in ecosystems. Learn about threats to their survival and how to turn on and tune in to bats with bat detectors.  

Learn more about the importance of bats on October 12 followed by her bat detection to study bats' echo abilities October 13, 2005.  

Joe Wunderle
has now lived in the Caribbean for more than 30 years.  His first research project was on the island of Grenada as a PhD student doing his dissertation research on the behavior and ecology of the fairly common Banaquits.  Prior to moving to Puerto Rico, Joe taught and conducted research with the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica as well as at North Carolina State University.  Wunderle was a professor in the Department of Biology in the University of Puerto Rico for eight years before joining the USDA Forest Service's International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico in 1988, where he is the Wildlife Team Leader and Research Wildlife Biologist.  Joe's current field research is conducted in the Bahamas where he studies resident and migrant birds, as well as training local students in the field biology and conservation techniques.  Joe is the past president of the Society for Caribbean Ornithology and now is President-Elect of the Neotropical Ornithological Society.  Join Joe on Saba and learn basic banding methods as Joe expands his morphometrics catalog of Caribbean birds.    
Joe is Sea & Learn's Opening Night Speaker on October 1; his bird walk is set up for October 3.
 

Jean Lodge
Jean is a tropical forest mycologist who has worked on tropical mushrooms for 30 years throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America.  She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology at Kent State University in Ohio and received her M.S. and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University.  Jean has worked in Puerto Rico for 24 years, initially working as a scientist focusing on ecological interactions of fungi at the University of Puerto Rico and more recently as a scientist working primarily on fungal taxonomy with the U.S. Forest Service.  Her most recent mycological work has involved a comparison of the fungi of the Dominican Republic and Belize, which has involved an international team of mycologists, which she led.  In her work she has discovered a number of new species and has greatly expanded the list of fungal species known from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.  She maintains her ties with the University of Puerto Rico and actively advises graduate students in mycology.  Join Jean for a walk on the Sandy Cruz trail to identify Saba's mystical mushrooms and learn the role they play in this fragile environment.
Yes, Jean promises to make fungi interesting--October 4 followed by her field project on October 7 on Saba's beautiful Sandy Cruz Trail.

Robert Powell
is professor of biology at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri. He has conducted fieldwork in México, Brazil, and the Hawaiian Islands, but has focused most of his attention on West Indian lizards since the mid-1980s. He is particularly interested in population and community ecology and how native species are responding to human alterations of their habitats.  Robert is author or co-author (often with his students) of well over 200 scientific publications, including four books.  Powell has collaborated on more than 30 publications with his colleague Robert Henderson, curator of herpetology at the Milwaukee Public Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2004, many Saba residents and visitors had the pleasure of enjoying Powell’s talk, entitled "West Indian Lizards and the Snakes that Eat Them."  This year, join this charismatic speaker for an interesting evening AND the official launching of his book on Saba and Statia's Reptiles during Saba's grand finale evening (Oct 31).  Take a hike with Bob to understand more about Saba's racer snake, indigenous to Saba.  To read more about Bob's work, go to: 
http://www.avila.edu/departments/biology/Bobweb/1powhome.htm
Presentation October 30; his book signing at the Grand Finale Evening.

Michelle Hester
is a marine ecologist who studies the lives of seabirds, focusing on their relationship to the ocean, the land and other species.  Her passion is islands and all the elements which interact to make each island unique.  Michelle's career started with a college summer internship on the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. Fifteen years later Michelle is still studying seabird island colonization and foraging ecology in locations ranging from South Africa and Antarctica to the Caribbean. She presently works as a research biologist with EPIC, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean.  EPIC's mission is to 'Protect the Caribbean environment through research and community based action".   Her time on Saba will be working with Saba's Tropicbird research project helping us to better understand why the Lesser Antilles is an important area for marine birds and how these habitats can be protected.  By using satellites, computers and the sun to spy on seabirds, participants will be able to track tagged birds to better understand their time at sea. 
Professional obligations caused Michele to cancel in late September.
 

Peter Schnabel
was a professor of medical pharmacology at the Saba University School of Medicine since 2003.  Peter is still teaching pharmacology but has moved to the nearby island of Nevis where he is pursuing his M.D. at this sister school to Saba.  During his graduate work as a California Sea Grant Fellow at the University of Utah, he investigated anticancer medicines derived from marine invertebrates, specifically sponges and ascidians. Since then he has worked as an in-house pharmacology consultant in Washington, DC for law firms assisting pharmaceutical companies in development of new medicines.  Over the past three years, Peter and co-author Suzanne Nielsen have compiled information for their book about the ethno botanical and pharmacological uses of West Indian flora.  His continued research work on the uses of the local flora will be presented at his lectures.  In addition, he will be leading guided excursions on Saba, pointing out the various fauna and their uses.  Join Peter for an evening of intrigue and entertainment.  You will be amazed by the numerous tropical plants found on Saba's paths which can be used as herbs or cures or which ones to steer clear of!  And now, the opportunity to purchase a book to use as a reference book as well as a beautiful souvenir.
 Enjoy Peter's talk on Medicinal Purposes of Tropical Plants on Friday, October 21; followed by his guided hike Saturday morning, October 22

Dean "Sharkman" Fessler
is the Education Director for the Shark Research Institute and calls Princeton, New Jersey home when not traveling.  Dean has dived and researched shark species around the world including:  Sand tiger sharks off the North Carolina coasts, Bull sharks and Caribbean reef sharks off the Bahamas, Black tipped reef sharks off Palau and White sharks off South Africa.  He has worked with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and was recently elected in to the Explorer's Club.  In his spare time, he is authoring a children's book about white sharks.  Dean will come to Saba just after his whale shark tagging expedition in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.
Join Sharkman for two different shark presentations: October 25 and 29; stay tuned for a very special field trip announcement.

Susan Perkins
is a parasitologist who studies malaria in a wide array of hosts, especially lizards.   Susan did her Ph.D. at the University of Vermont looking at how malaria parasites of the Anolis lizards have colonized the islands of the Lesser Antilles. Her favorite stop during these island travels was Saba where there is a unique species of anole with leopard spots!  After a postdoc at the American Museum of Natural History, Susan was an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder for three years.  Susan has returned to the AMNH to take a new position as curator of microbial genomics.  In addition to work on malaria, Susan also studies bacterial symbionts that inhabit blood-feeding leeches. These research projects have taken her to Costa Rica, French Guyana, and South Africa as well as to fifteen different Caribbean islands.  Join Susan and learn more about the colorful lizards of Saba and how their parasites can help humans.  For more information and her latest publications, go to: 
www.research.amnh.org/~perkins
Understand Susan's research work on malaria in lizards during her presentation October 9 followed by a hands on field project the next day on October 10

Jeffrey Bozanic
together with Steve Ormeroid and Leda Brewer explored Saba's Paris Hill Cave in an expedition sponsored by Sea & Learn in 2004.  This year Jeff and his wife Rebekkah will return to Saba to conduct its first Saba Adventure Camp.  The camp is a week long event that will work with Saba's Rangers, a youth group that meets weekly throughout the year working on skills to acquire badges, similar to Canadian Sea Scouts.  The program will combine navigation, climbing, snorkeling, scuba diving, mapping and kayaking skills as well as safety and team work while the group conducts hands on science projects.  Born and raised in Kenya, Rebekah is now a Emergency Pediatric Physician's Assistant as well as an active spelunker and diver.  Jeff is a lifetime member of both the National Speleological Society (NSS) and the NSS Cave Diving Section. He has conducted scientific research in underwater caves throughout the world, including Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Canary Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Tonga, Mexico, Cuba, and other countries. He is active in teaching cave, wreck, rebreather, nitrox, technical nitrox, and trimix diving courses as well as holding a PhD in Education. He has published extensively on diving education topics, especially cave diving safety and has recently authored Mastering Rebreathers. In addition to Jeff and Rebekah serving on several Boards of Directors, Jeff is a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club, and has received a number of prestigious awards in the diving community. And if that wasn't enough, they make their home in California where they are the proud parents of 4 children between the ages of 1 to 7 years.  Meet these intriguing explorers and delight in the work they will do with Saba kids.
Jeff and Rebekah will be on Saba October 8-20, 2005; Saba Adventure week runs October 10-15, 2005 with a public presentation Sunday, October 16 '05 at 5:30 p.m.

Naomi Rose
is the Marine Mammal Scientist for Humane Society International (HSI), the international arm of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation’s largest animal protection organization. HSI pursues animal protection activities and programs in Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, and Latin America (including the Caribbean).  The HSUS/HSI’s mission covers a broad range of concerns, including the protection of pets, wildlife (including marine mammals), farm animals, and animals used in research. Its government affairs and treaties departments lobby on behalf of animals at the international, federal, state, and local levels, while its investigators work to expose animal fighting, the fur trade, greyhound racing, and the Norwegian whaling industry, among other issues.  Dr. Rose oversees marine mammal issues and programs at HSI, including protection of marine mammals in wild and captive situations. She has been instrumental in formulating HSUS/HSI policy opposing the capture and captivity of marine mammals for public display and has been a key player in the international debate on the issue. She directs, participates, or advises in campaigns focusing on the protection of walruses, polar bears, manatees, and sea otters, as well as seals, sea lions, whales and dolphins. She is actively involved in a global campaign to address the impact of noise pollution on marine mammals and their habitat.  She has authored several articles for animal protection publications, as well as chapters in several books.  Meet Naomi and her marine mammal expert husband Chris Parsons and
Read the Daily Herald Aritcle on Naomi's visit and plan to join her for fascinating imagery and shocking information Friday, October 7 '05.  Join Naomi, her husband Chris Parsons and the Steffans for a special snorkel trip on Saturday October 8.
 

Stewart Chipka
is now a familiar face on Saba--now known as "The Orchid Guy".  Chipka's interest in orchids began at a young age.  As a boy, Stuart accompanied his Czeh immigrant grandfather on trips through the Florida Everglades to gather various specimens.  Schooled as a structural engineer, but now approaching retirement, he has developed his love of orchids into a serious avocation. He is president of Encyclia Enthusiasts, Inc., an affiliate of the American Orchid Society, publishes in lay and scholarly journals, and facilitates courses at the International Orchid Center in Palm Beach, Florida where he also has at least 250 varieties of orchids in his own garden. He is currently preparing a book on the Encyclia species of the Caribbean Basin.  Read more about Stuart's first visits to Saba and his findings on the Local News page of Sea Saba's website:  Wild Orchids of Saba.  Stuart has created a scientific map of the location of wild orchids on Saba after locating nine species representing three genera and hopes to track down many more during his orchid population survey which is expected to take three years.  In March, Chipka launched www.sabaorchidresearch.org, a website dedicated to his program now in place on Saba. 
Learn plenty about exotic orchids at Stewart's presentation October 27 '05 followed by a guided orchid hike on October 28.

Roger Hanlon
has made over 5,000 research dives during his 30 years as a marine biologist. He was inspired first when an octopus on a coral reef in Panama scared him out of his wits during his junior year in college. He survived that experience - and an athletic scholarship - to receive a B.S. Degree in Biology at Florida State University. He then served as Lieutenant in the US Army for two years before obtaining the MS and PhD degrees from the University of Miami, and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge, UK. Field work combined with laboratory experimentation has helped to satisfy his continuing curiosity about how cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus) survive and thrive in an ocean dominated by fishes and mammals. Along the way, he has been employed in academic research centers, first at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (where he achieved full professorship in the School of Medicine) and since 1995 at the nation’s oldest marine laboratory, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole on Cape Cod. Dr. Hanlon is a Senior Scientist in the Marine Resources Center at the MBL and still follows the mantra of Louis Agassiz, whose famous quote hangs in the library in Woods Hole: “Study nature, not books.” Roger's first trip to Saba in December 2004 served as a reconnaissance trip for the first octopus monitoring work in the Caribbean by Hanlon.  He has already identified 5 species of octopus around Saba and is looking to document the mimicking behavior thus far only done so in Pacific waters.  Join Roger and become part of the Saba research team. 
Join Roger to learn more about octopus and his work October 24; his first survey dive with tourists is scheduled for October 25.
 

Tadas Birutis
first became interested in birds as a child studying all of nature's creatures.  He considers his transition to a 'true birder' about 20 years ago after exploring Florida and Arizona in the same month and fully realizing how vastly and wonderfully different the species were from one habitat to the next.  His underlying passion is studying how ecosystems/habitat attract specific denizens.   Tad's ornithology education has been informal but he constantly asked "Why?". His relentless pursuit of a greater understanding of birds has been accomplished by field exercises, participating in scientific projects, reading ornithological texts and articles.  Tadus's pursuit has been to share his vast knowledge of birds as an obvious, accessible and beautiful barometer of change in habitat and ecological health of a community.  While doing so, he has been able to continue his unquenchable, childlike amazement about their grace, beauty of form, color and voices.  Tad also is involved with Lifebird, a touring company that joins bird lovers with other nature enthusiasts, including scuba divers, to unique destinations.  Join Tadus on Saba to learn more about the island's bird population and to better understand the connection of birds and nature's signaling devices.
Tadas's presentation is October 23 with his bird walk the following morning October 24, 2005.