San Diego Chapter - 2025 First Quarter Log
- plselby
- May 8
- 4 min read
Updated: May 9
San Diego Chapter
MARTHA J. SHAW LF’06. (optional)
The San Diego Chapter has elected new 2025-26 officers to the Executive Committee: Co-chairs Martha Shaw LF’06 and Timothy Radke, MD, MN’13 (TEC Board Member); VC Membership Paula Selby MN’18; VC Programs Mary Coakley Munk MN’17; Secretary Sara Shoemaker Lind MN’99; Treasurer Judith Radke, MD, MN’17. A shout-out to the intrepid Cdr. James Skelly MN’97 for 24 years of service as Treasurer, and to past Chairs Charlene Glacy MN'09, Nancy Nenow ME’04, and David Dolan MED’03, Chair Emeritus.
In the Fall of 2024, Walter Munk Day brought members together from far and wide to raise awareness about the fragility of our ocean, inspire stewardship, and showcase the heritage of the Kumeyaay. Blue Tech Week ocean innovation events also drew together many members. Rodney Moll MN’17 hosted a chapter dinner at San Diego Yacht Club featuring Rocky Mountain Chapter wildlife biologist Jim Williams FN’19 working among communities to conserve mountain lions and other large carnivores. Exceptionally fun and informative, the Texas Chapter hosted LTAD in Austin, attended by members including David Dolan, Nancy Nenow, Mary Coakley Munk, Martha Shaw, and Timothy Radke and Judith Radke who had just returned from Raja Ampat.
Walter Munk Day Exhibitor, UC San Diego CReaTe
Children dance to "Under the Sea" on Walter Munk Day in Kellogg Park, La Jolla
2025 begins with The Explorers Club (TEC) Board of Directors holding its meeting on January 11, 2025 in San Diego, with several gatherings planned where TEC Directors, VPs, Chapter Chairs, SD Chapter Executive Committee, and local members will have a chance to meet, share field experiences, and explore local landscapes, wildlife, and attractions. As we create our 2025 calendar, Greg Reitman MN’23 has announced the 2025 Blue Water Film Festival on March 20-23 in San Diego and all are invited.
The chapter is teeming with TEC members who share a passion for field exploration, from outer space, Earth’s atmosphere, aviation, cultural heritage, wildlife conservation, geology, archaeology, coastal science, the ocean top to bottom, to the core of the planet.
San Diego Chapter members in motion:
Greg Rouse, PhD, FN’16 of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) has returned from studying methane seeps with a team aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute R/V Falkor (too), at the juncture of tectonic plates off the coast of Chile where new species were discovered by advanced ROV technology. Christian MacDonald FN’18, SIO Diving Control Board Officer, has been leading technical diver training off the Scripps Pier, and participating in Scripps SCUBA DIVERSity Program, designed to recruit new students to scientific diving. Dimitri Deheyn, PhD, FN’17 (SIO) is studying dazzling neon-colored displays in sea anemones among other projects including the effect of textile trash on the environment, and the intricacies of Lake Altaussee, Austria, where he carried Flag #238 with the Walter Munk Foundation. Tom Levy, PhD, FN’09 carried Flag #151 in an underwater archaeology expedition to Israel’s Carmel coast to explore maritime economic networks during the Iron Age (ca. 1200 – 500 BC).
SIO graduate student Loren Clark and marine archaeologist Dominique Rissolo, PhD, FN’13, who is a researcher at UCSD Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI), Qualcomm Institute and Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA), are exploring and 3D mapping ancient submerged cave complexes in Quintano Roo, Yucatan, finding evidence of ochre mining by Paleoamerican and Archaic peoples, over a ~2000-year period between ~12 and 10 ka.
Dominique Rissolo, scanning an entrance to Cenote Outland in Yucatan, part of Sac Actun-Nohoch-Dos Ojos, the world’s second-largest underwater cave system with 234 miles of underwater lines.
TEC Board Member Paul Baribault MN’21 welcomed pandas this year to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance among many global conservation efforts, including those of Ekwoge Abwe, PhD, EC50, co-leader of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, from Cameroon. SIO doctoral candidate EC50 Sateesh Venkatesh is off to Sri Lanka on a Fulbright Fellowship to research human-elephant conflict. Charlene Glacy has been exploring the birds of Morocco, Great Britain, and Ramona right in our own backyard. Photographs by Sara Shoemaker Lind won Budapest International Foto Awards, while her local photos offer a glimpse of the fascinating creatures living in the shallows of La Jolla Cove. Brent Stewart, PhD, FN’91 and Pamela Yochem, PhD, FN’09 continue 20 years of research in Channel Islands studying elephant seals and other wildlife.
Gerald Kooyman, MD, FE’78 (SIO), who studies behavior trends in marine vertebrates, and conservation of marine reptiles, birds, and mammals was off to Madascar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Seychelles. James “Rocky” Contos, MD, FN’18 continues exploring rivers around the world. Doc White FN’95 is tracking and documenting the 12,000-nautical mile migration route of humpback and gray whales from Bering Sea to Baja for upcoming publications.
Pilot training pioneers Martha King FN’08 and John King FN’08 continue to develop their renowned multi-media programs for aviation skills and risk management, while TEC Board Member Paul Tanghe FN’16 takes to the skies of San Diego for advanced aviation certifications. Martha Shaw was honored by US Coast Guard for 7 years of auxiliary service in the San Diego Harbor Flotilla 114, focused on marine protection. We will miss Cynthia Matzke FN’18, who has moved to Lummi Island, Washington, as remote ROV pilot gathering data for NOAA via Liquid Robotics.
One of the San Diego Chapter’s earliest members, Bonita Chamberlin FN’98, has kindly offered to chronicle the chapter’s remarkable and colorful history as we strive to grow and build fellowship among other chapters, including members up and down the Pacific Coast of the Americas. Please join us and reach out when visiting the area to sandiego@explorers.org.
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