Samantha Birch has a Master of Applied Science in Marine Protected Area Management, specialising in community-level management and coral reef monitoring. She has years of experience on a research vessel for PCRF in Asia and the Pacific, managing the scientific program to collect data and liase with communities in many island cultures. She was project officer for Reef Check Australia, managing research studies, monitoring a nd providing educational materials. More recently she co-founded OEDSI, an organisation focusing on sustainable education. Here she was the scientific project director, managing video documentation of scientific projects for students, linking schools through technology, working with students in the Pacific and designing educational material for schools. She co-founded Seasphere to support communities worldwide to manage their marine resources.
Andrew Walsh has extensive experience working as an educator at field schools in the Caribbean, specialising in teaching marine ecology, resource management, research, natural history and species identification. In addition to teaching, he has carried out extensive research in the Caribbean, including assessing the status of Queen Conch in The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, exploring methods to ensure a sustainable Conch fishery, sustainable aquaculture and the implementation of Marine Protected Areas. He is a PADI scuba instructor, photographer and videographer, having produced images and videos in southern Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. He is an experienced web-site and graphic designer and co-founded Seasphere to combine his scientific, educational and technical experience to work with marine communities on resource issues.