The CenSeam Team

New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) hosted the CenSeam Secretariat, responsible for overseeing the project. Malcolm Clark (Principal Investigator; NIWA) led the secretariat, which also included Ashley Rowden (Principal Investigator; NIWA), Karen Stocks (Principal Investigator; University of California: San Diego) and Mireille Consalvey (Project Coordinator; NIWA). CenSeam was guided by a Steering Committee of 13 members from 11 countries bringing together expertise on seamount ecology, taxonomy, genetics, geology, and oceanography.

CenSeam Steering Committee

• Amy Baco-Taylor, Florida State University, U.S.A. (deep-sea corals, genetics, hydrothermal vent fauna)
• John Dower, University of Victoria, Canada (biophysical interactions)
• Baban Ingole, National Institute of Oceanography, India (benthic ecology)
• Gui Menezes, University of the Azores, Portugal (fisheries biology)
• Tina N. Molodtsova, P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russia (ceriantharians and antipatharians)
• Bertrand Richer de Forges, formerly IRD Nouméa (benthic ecology and biodiversity of seamounts)
• Alex Rogers, University of Oxford, U.K. (deep corals, polar systems, genetics)
• Thomas Schlacher, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia (biodiversity/trophic ecology)
• Tim Shank, WHOI, U.S.A. (population and evolutionary genetics)
• Shinji Tsuchida, JAMSTEC, Japan (deep-sea biology, hydrothermal vent fauna)
• Martin White, University of Galway, Ireland (Oceanography)
• Alan Williams, CSIRO, Australia (fisheries biology, fish taxonomy)
• Ian Wright,NOC, U.K. (seamount geology and geophysical processes)

Under the banner of CenSeam two smaller working groups were also established to help drive the CenSeam research effort. A Standardization Working Group (SWG, co-facilitated by Malcolm Clark and Mireille Consalvey) and Data Analysis Working Group (DAWG, facilitated by Ashley Rowden) have convened a number of workshops to tackle specific research questions and challenges e.g. standardizing survey design, sampling and analysis techniques. Each group had a core membership of drivers, and to use a vehicular analogy colleagues were invited to jump on and off depending on the research activity and their area of interest.

The wider CenSeam community encompassed several hundred researchers, students, stakeholders and conservationists.

CenSeam Steering Committee at the Census Finale in London 2010.