Kirk Connally: President and Executive Director
Retired Master Mariner, Senior Ocean Engineer at L-3 Communications Maripro. One of the founders of TMRE. Also, Island Packers Company in 1968. Over 45 years experience as master of a variety of vessels worldwide from tall ships to factory trawlers, and 20 years experience as an ocean engineer installing underwater systems for the scientific, military, and communications industries. Captain and organizer on most of the TMRE research voyages, and project leader and fund raiser for many of TMREs other endeavors.
e-mail: kirk@tmre.org
Tuck Donnelly, Director:
Founder and Executive Director of SeaShare since 1993, providing over 20 million pounds of seafood for distribution to hunger relief organizations. Tuck has designed and implemented fisheries projects intended to provide alternative resource and management options. He has been an advisor to the National Marine Fisheries Service Prohibited Species Bycatch Program in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska; International Pacific Halibut Commission; and North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Tuck has been an operations manager for large trawlers in the Bering Sea, Chief Mate on research vessels, and owner/operator of an 85 ft schooner offering educational voyages to the California Channel Islands.
e-mail: tuck@tmre.org
Joe Gnagey, Secretary/Treasurer:
Environmental Technologist, Edmonds, Washington. B.Sc. Fishery Science, Oregon State University. Cofounder and Development Manager, Mariculture Systems Inc (sargo.net), Lynnwood, Washington. Formerly Vice President and Director of Northwest Food Strategies, a TMRE affiliate; U.S. Coast Guard service on two icebreakers with biological research assists in Antarctica (National Science Foundation, University of Idaho & Minnesota) and the Chukchi Sea and Arctic Ocean (Smithsonian- WEBSEC, University of Alaska, and Sun Oil Corp.); and vessel operations manager in the west coast and Alaskan fishing industry.
Jay Carroll, Director:
Senior marine biologist at Tenera Corporation, an environmental services company in California. MS University of the Pacific. Jay has over thirty years of professional experience on large-scale environmental monitoring programs for Pacific Coast utilities, and state and federal agency projects; project manager and field supervisor for marine biological surveys, water quality monitoring, data analysis, and reporting; over 3,500 hours of underwater sampling and observations; designs and supervises field studies in support of CWA 316(a), 316(b), and NPDES regulatory requirements. Jay is a technical editor on environmental reports, and a reviewer for scientific journal publications and grant applications.
e-mail: jay@tmre.org
Henry Chaney, PhD: Director
Chief curator of invertebrate zoology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
e-mail: chaney@tmre.org
Pancho Mayoral: Director
A native of Baja California Sur, Mexico (San Ignacio Lagoon). Pancho grew up as whale watching guide/panguero and commercial coastal fisherman at age 15. He graduated from a Nature Guide Program in ’95, and became a kayak tour guide in the Sea of Cortez (Loreto). Pancho quit fishing in ’98 and got involved with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and taught month long kayak expedition courses in Baja and Alaska’s Prince William Sound for college students. In 2004, he helped his father and family organize a whale watching operation.
Pancho is no longer involved with the family business however still organizes tour groups to take to his native San Ignacio Lagoon for whale watching in the winters. In 2006 he started his own operation in the Loreto, (Sea of Cortez) as kayak expedition week long tours. In 2009 Pancho got a special permit approved to take visitors to participate in a turtle tagging program in the Loreto Marine Park as a joint program with turtle research in the North West of Mexico.
Pancho moved to California in 2011 and works at Island Packers Inc of Ventura, California as a 100 ton licensed Captain, while also continuing his programs in Mexico.
Brent S. Stewart, PhD: Senior Research Associate
Wildlife &Conservation Scientist, Explorer, Writer, Photographer, Environmental Lawyer. Since 1977 Brent has initiated, developed, and executed applied and basic research studies of marine mammals, seabirds, penguins, sea turtles, sharks, and some terrestrial wildlife, mostly in remote polar, and temperate regions under contracts and grants to a variety of U.S. and international government agencies, corporations, private foundations, and NGOs. The objectives of virtually all of these studies has been to help identify and resolve conflicts between humans and wildlife, and visa versa, and strive to keep wildlife populations, communities, species, and ecosystems intact. Brent has also served as appointed faculty and educator at a number of U.S. and international universities, and sponsored and mentored several dozen Masters and Ph.D. students. He has also participated on many commercial ecotour expedition ships in the Artcic and Antarctic as a lecturer on science, wildlife biology, and international environmental law, and as a Scientist in Residence.