TEC Log, Winter 2025

Submitted by Martha Shaw LF’06

On Saturday January 11, The Explorers Club (TEC) held its board meeting at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) Safari Park. On the agenda was a vote for a new TEC President, and other topics. The meeting was preempted by a lovely Friday evening cocktail party, hosted by Judy Radke, MD, MN’17 and Tim Radke, MD, MN’13. On Sunday, all local TEC members were invited to a traditional long-table TEC brunch in La Jolla Shores, followed by activities including kayaking, hiking, and a visit to The Map on Walter Munk Way which depicts the offshore submarine canyon, a popular local dive site. Highlights of the brunch included fellowship and anecdotes, with a heartfelt invitation to San Diego Chapter Members to visit New York headquarters, anytime and often. The upcoming TEC membership app was announced which will connect our 3500+ members worldwide.

In both February and March, the San Diego Underwater Photo Society invited chapter members to its monthly meeting. On March 13, a happy hour and chapter meeting at Sandpiper Grill welcomed new members Lou Cooperhouse MN’24 and Isabel Rivera Collazo FN’25. Guests from Lindbergh Foundation proposed collaboration on the 100th anniversary of the Spirit of St. Louis in 2027, while researchers from the Cultural Heritage Engineering Institute (CHEI) at UCSD invited members to experience 3-D photogrammetry of submerged Mayan cave complexes at Qualcomm Institute. Members agreed on a Roar and Snore camp-out to Safari Park in September, and suggested new happy hour venues throughout San Diego. On March 20-23, the Blue Water Film Festival drew members to films, lectures, book signings, workshops, parties and an awards dinner with musician Taj Mahal.

Members in the field…

Nancy Nenow ME’04 traveled to Somaliland in March to volunteer for Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) rescue facility, working alongside founder Laurie Marker, PhD, FI’06 and her team. CCF works with government to intercept baby cheetahs illegally smuggled through their country from various regions of Africa to the Emirates, and to keep the vulnerable cubs alive and healthy.

Brent Stewart, PhD, JD, FN’91 carried TEC Flag 84 for continued research of penguins and seals on Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and Falkland Islands, and has returned from carrying Flag 84 to the Channel Islands to resume research on the breeding and population biology, foraging ecology, genetics, and disease of northern elephant seals.

Peri Klemm, PhD, FN’21 is premiering her film The Siinqee Sisterhood in Los Angeles in April. Affiliated with African Art History CSUN, World Arts Council Mesa College and UCLA African Arts Journal, professor Klemm spent 2024 on sabbatical in Arsi zone, Ethiopia, documenting an Oromo women’s Ateetee ritual. She welcomes club interest in a film screening.

Peri Klemm with Oromo colleagues from Oromia, Arsi region, Ethiopia, after filming the women’s Ateetee ritual. Photo: Rodney L. Moll

Robert de Laurentis MN’18, aka Zen Pilot, launched his film Peace Pilot on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google TV. A narrative of human fortitude, survival and flying skills, it follows his quest from Gillespie Field to over both the South and North Poles in a modified Turbo Commander 900 in 2019 on peace mission, "One planet. One people. One plane." In 2023, he was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at San Diego Air & Space Museum.

Other aviation pioneers and air acrobats in the chapter, Michael Hennessy FN’23 and Suzanne Dixon FN’23 returned from an expedition to revisit their ascension of two peaks in Ecuador. Mike has studied high altitude effects on vision. Suzanne has participated in an anthropological study of children of the Gusii tribe in Kenya, and just published the 5th edition of her pediatric textbook.

On March 26, San Diego Maritime Museum welcomed the restored seiner Western Flyer of the 1940 Sea of Cortez research expedition of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. It was enroute from Monterey to the Sea of Cortez where it will fly the Explorers Club flag thanks to Tom Keffer FN'25.

John Steinbeck’s Boat Western Flyer  was transformed Into a floating classroom to connect with the environment . Photo : San Diego Maritime Museum

Sara Shoemaker Lind MN’99 explored the very northern Great Barrier Reef and met the Lizard Island Research Station director about recent coral bleaching events and

recovery. An award-winning underwater photographer, her photos inspire awe, and protection of our magnificent blue planet.

Sara Shoemaker Lind observing an experiment tank at Lizard Island Research Station, Australia. Photo: Kevin Lind

For two weeks, Charlene Glacy MN’09 island-hopped ten islands in the Lesser Antilles in search of endemic birds, including critically endangered Granada Doves on Granada. Among other rare sightings and sounds was the stunning parrot Whistling Warbler found only on St. Vincent, and threatened by the exotic bird trade.

Greg Rouse FN’16, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) led researchers to document deep-sea species in methane seeps off Costa Rica’s west coast. They identified 488 distinct species in collected specimens, photographs and DNA sequences, the highest biodiversity count ever recorded in a single seep or vent region discovered on 5 expeditions and 63 submersible dives. At least 58 are new to science, while others have taxonomic uncertainty likely representing more undescribed species.

A seadragon named Dewysea was so named for Dewy White MN’14 who worked with others, including Greg Rouse, to found SeadragonSearch to harness the power of citizen science and machine learning to photograph, identify and track wild seadragons that live exclusively on the south coast of Australia. ruby seadragon - Google Search

Our newest chapter fellow, Isabel Rivera-Collazo, PhD, FN’25, director of Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA) explores the dynamics of social resilience, vulnerability, and adaptation to climate variability in the Caribbean, collecting and analyzing sediment samples for paleo landscape reconstruction in Puerto Rico.

Dominique Rissolo, PhD, FN'13 joined colleagues at the National Zooarchaeology Lab in Mexico City to scan fossils from Hoyo Negro, the submerged Late Pleistocene cave site in Quintana Roo, Mexico, including bones from giant ground sloths and Ice Age bears. Next, he joins an expedition led by Bruce Milkin, PhD, MN’98 to Cebada Cave in Chiquibul National Park, Belize.

Paula Selby MN’18 returned to the northeast side of Viti Levu in the Fiji Islands, one of her favorite underwater photography destinations due to its biodiversity, the myriad of colorful soft corals, and schooling Anthias fish on the reefs. She encountered a Blacktail snapper spawning event under a full moon, and a male Long-snouted seahorse laden with eggs in murky shallow water.

Male Long-snouted seahorse, Hippocampus reidi, carrying eggs in a special brood pouch. Photo by Paula Selby, Fiji

Martha Shaw FN’06 met with Dos Mares Biosphere marine conservation leaders in La Paz and Cabo Pulmo Mexico protecting over 19 million hectares of ocean surrounding Baja California Sur.

Lou Cooperhouse MN'24 founder of BlueNalu cell-cultivated seafood. spoke at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore on the future of food, at Meat Evolution Summit on global protein supply, and attended Future Investments Institute conference, Impact on Humanity.

Christian McDonald FN'18, director of diving, small boating & marine field safety programs at SIO is pleased to announce that American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) symposium will be hosted in San Diego in 2026, the birthplace of American scientific diving, celebrating 75 years of achievement in underwater scientific

James “Rocky” Contos FN’18 has led river trips on Grande-Colorado in Argentina, Usumacinta and Jatate in Mexico, Cachimayo-Pilcomayo in Bolivia, Maranon and Pampas in Peru, Nujiang in China, Babine-Skeena, Quesnel-Fraser and Stikine in Canada, and LaVenta in Zambia. He hopes to organize a TEC river expedition to Usumacinta, aka Sacred Monkey River of the Maya, in southern Mexico.

Photo courtesy of James “Rocky” Contos

Photo courtesy of James “Rocky” Contos