Jerry Prezioso was born on February 27, 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. He received his undergraduate degree from Northeastern University and his master‟s from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography. Jerry began working at the NOAA Laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island in 1974 and continues to work there as an oceanographer to this day. 

Jerry Wetherall was born in San Francisco. He graduated from Humboldt State University with his undergraduate degree and received his PhD at the University of Washington. His dissertation focused on salmon, downstream migration of salmon, on the Duwamish River. He served in the Peace Corps in Uganda and Kenya,and then began his career with National Marine Fisheries Service in 1974 at the Honolulu lab. Jerry has had a long and distinguished career in NOAA Fisheries and has worked all over the Pacific on a variety of topics.

Interview contains discussions of: NOAA, NMFS, ecology, marine science, fisheries science, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, ocean modeling, habitats, climate change, winter flounder, Magnuson Stevens Act. 

John Sibunka was a long time employee at the Sandy Hook Lab. His career spanned from 1966 when he joined the ichthyoplankton department to 2006 when he retired. He graduated from South Maine Vocational Technical Institute and Rutgers University where he received his bachelor's degree. During his career, John served on the R/V Delaware II, R/V Albatross IV,R/V NAUVOO and the R/V Henry Bigelow. Over his 40 year career, he spent an average of 100 days at sea per year.

Jonathan (Jon) Hare was born and raised in upstate New York. He completed his graduate work at SUNY Stony Brook. His dissertation focused on bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix). He completed his post-doctoral work at the NMFS lab in Beaufort, North Carolina working on recruitment dynamics of several species. After seven years, he moved to the Narragansett Lab in 2005 where he became head of the Oceanography Program, a position he still holds as of this interview.

Dr. Joseph Powers was born on February 19, 1949 in Gustine, California. He has earned degrees from the University of California, Davis A.B. Zoology 1971; California State University, Humboldt M.S. Fisheries Biology 1973 ; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University PhD Fisheries Science 1975. He began his career with National Marine Fisheries Service at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in 1975. He then moved to the Southeast Fisheries Science Centers in 1979.

Kenneth Sherman was born on October 6, 1932 and was raised in Boston, Massachusetts.In his early years, he would spend time with his father at the local Boston Fish Pier to observe the fishermen. He graduated from Suffolk University with the idea of attending law school. A mentor guided him towards biological sciences so he applied to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He taught in western Massachusetts for the Audubon Society before he began his career at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in 1956.

Kurt Fresh was born in 1953. He attended the University of the Pacific for his undergraduate degree and received his Master's in Fisheries Science from the University of Washington in 1979. He began his career at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1978. He moved to the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 2002. Kurt’s focus has long been on salmon life histories and ecology as well as estuarine habitats. At the time of this interview, he was the Estuarine and Ocean Ecology Program Manager at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Linda Despres was born in Brunswick, Maine and grew up on her father’s boat with her brothers learning about tuna fishing and how to navigate the sea. This ignited a passion for marine wildlife as well as being outdoors exploring nature. She graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in zoology with a minor in wildlife biology. She began working at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in 1973.  She logged over 1,200 days at sea on the Albatross IV as well as many days at sea on foreign fleet vessels.

Linda Park is a research geneticist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences and genetics from Cornell University and a PhD in population biology from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked for NOAA for 26 years, and is currently the team leader of the molecular genetics laboratory.