Mike Beck is a Senior Scientist with the Marine Initiative of The Nature Conservancy and a research associate at the University of California Santa Cruz. He works in the interface between marine science and policy. His present work includes research on (i) marine regional planning, (ii) the nursery role of nearshore habitats such as kelp forests, (iii) tools for ecosystem-based management and land-sea integration, (iv) the conservation and restoration of nearshore habitats including shellfish reefs and beds, and (v) marine proprietary rights including the lease and ownership of submerged lands

Steve Lonhart is the Senior Scientist for the Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. He is involved in multiple research and monitoring projects in the sanctuary, with an emphasis on nearshore kelp forests and the rocky intertidal. His research interests include invasive species and their impact on native ecosystems and the response of marine organisms to climate change. Steve has three degrees in biology: a B.S. from UCLA, M.S. from CSU Long Beach, and a Ph.D. from UCSC. In addition to working for the sanctuary since 2002, he is a Research Associate with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UCSC.

John Pearse was raised in Tucson, Arizona where he worked at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, working on the reproductive ecology of Antarctic sea stars. After teaching at the American University in Cairo, and doing research on kelp forest ecology at the California Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he taught courses in invertebrate zoology, kelp forest ecology, and intertidal biology for 26 years. After retiring he helped develop an intertidal monitoring program that has been adopted by the National Marine Sanctuaries in California, LiMPETS (http://limpets.noaa.gov). He is the author of numerous research papers, edited a multivolume treatise on the reproduction of marine invertebrates, and he and his wife were coauthors of the textbook "Living Invertebrates." He is past president of the Western Society of Naturalists, Santa Cruz Natural History Museum Association, and the California Academy of Sciences, and is currently president of the Society for Comparative and Integrative Biology.