Tag: ECWG

May 21, 2016 dinner talk was on recovery of Civil War submarine

May 21, 2016 dinner talk was on recovery of Civil War submarine

Robert Neyland an underwater archaeologist, spoke on the archaeology of the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley at the ECWG’s May 21 dinner at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.

In August 2000, archeologists raised the H.L. Hunley from the Atlantic Ocean off Charleston, S.C.

Neyland, who has a doctorate in anthropology from Texas A&M University, was Project Director for the raising and conservation of the Hunley. He is the Head of the Underwater Archaeology Branch for the Navy’s History and Heritage Command.

He discussed the archaeology of Hunley from its discovery through recovery, excavation, and identification and reburial of the 8 crew members,   concluding with the current theories of why it was lost and the status of the ongoing conservation and analysis.

The ship had been named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Henley.

During his career Neyland has worked on a variety of shipwreck sites including:

  • a Bronze Age shipwreck in the Mediterranean
  • post-medieval wrecks in the Netherlands
  • shipwrecks in the Caribbean and North America.

As Underwater Archaeologist with the U.S. Navy he and his team also surveyed the USS Housatonic (the sloop sunk by Hunley), the Civil War shipwrecks USS Cumberland, CSS Florida, and Revolutionary War shipwrecks lost in Penobscot River, Maine.

He also studied World War 2  wrecks lost off Normandy, France, searched for Capt John Paul Jones’, Bonhomme Richard, and surveyed the lost War of 1812 fleet of Commodore Joshua Barney, which was scuttled in the Patuxent River, Maryland just days before the British burned Washington D.C.

During his career he has worked on a variety of shipwreck sites: a Bronze Age shipwreck in the Mediterranean, post-medieval wrecks in the Netherlands, and shipwrecks in the Caribbean and North America.

As an underwater archaeologist with the US Navy he and his team surveyed USS Housatonic (the sloop sunk by Hunley), Civil War shipwrecks USS Cumberland, CSS Florida, Revolutionary War shipwrecks lost in Penobscot River, Maine, WWII wrecks lost off Normandy, France, searched for Capt John Paul Jones’ Bonhomme Richard, and surveyed the lost War of 1812 fleet of Commodore Joshua Barney scuttled in the Patuxent River, Maryland just days before Washington DC was burned by the British.

The Hanley is now at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, S.C. More information about the Hanley and visiting the Center is available on the Friends of the Huntley Web site.

 

Video available on human ancestry discovery

Video available on human ancestry discovery

Lee Berger, FI’13, who is an ECWG member, made headline news in September 2015 when he announced the discovery in South Africa of a new early human-like species Homo naledi.

Berger gave ECWG members and their guests a preview of all of this in his Dec. 7, 2013 talk at an ECWG dinner at the Cosmos Club in Washington.

A DVD of this talk is one of the many available from the ECWG list of videos on the ECWG Videos page.  This talk includes a great deal of information on how Berger and his colleagues discovered the fossils. Among other things, he explains why slim, woman scientists were needed for the project’s success.

The treasure trove of fossils from at least 15 skeletons around 2 million years old was the cover story for the October 2015 National Geographic Magazine and the subject of a 60 Minutes show. This exciting discovery and collaboration with many international scientists appeared as a feature story around the world including the front page of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

It’s still being widely discussed in scientific journals and magazines.

Wildlife photographer spoke on ‘Saving the next Dodo’

Wildlife photographer spoke on ‘Saving the next Dodo’

Gabby Salazar, MN15, an acclaimed wildlife photographer, spoke on “Island Biodiversity: Saving the Next Dodo” at an Explorers Club Washington Group dinner at the Cosmos Club on Feb. 20, 2016

Jack Williams, ECWG chair, presents Gabby Salazar a certificate of appreciation after her talk. Photo by Darlene Shields
Jack Williams, ECWG chair, presents Gabby Salazar a certificate of appreciation after her talk. Photo by Darlene Shields

Tropical islands are home to some of the world’s most unique and endangered species, from giant tortoises to golden bamboo lemurs. Often restricted to a single island, these species are especially threatened by rising sea levels, invasive species, and habitat degradation. In fact, of the 724 animal extinctions recorded in the last 400 years, roughly half were island species.

The dodo, whose name is almost synonymous with extinction, was a flightless bird on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius that became extinct in the late 18th century.

Salazar’s career

Salazar became a nature photographer at the age of 11, when her father gave her a camera. After being named the BBC Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the age of 14, she went on to become a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Photography, a National Geographic Young Explorer, a member of The Explorers Club, and a part of the Emerging League of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Last year at the age of 27, she also became the youngest ever President of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA).

National Geographic Explorers biography of Salazar

Last year Salazar traveled to Mauritius, to document the island’s remaining species and its world-renowned endangered species recovery programs. Just a few decades ago, the Mauritius Kestrel, the Rodrigues mandrinette flower and the Echo Parakeet had declined to a handful of individuals and seemed destined to go the way of the dodo. Remarkably, Mauritius has saved more critically endangered bird species from extinction than any other country in the world.

In her multimedia presentation, Salazar discussed the six months she spent documenting biodiversity conservation in Mauritius and other Indian Ocean islands. Her compelling imagery illustrated some of the world’s rarest animals and the ongoing challenges of saving island species.

Documented global conservation efforts

She has documented conservation efforts around the world, from the jungles of South America to the grasslands of Southeast Asia. With support from the National Geographic Society, Salazar spent 10 months in Southeastern Peru in 2010 documenting the creation of the Manu-Tambopata Conservation Corridor along a new, transcontinental highway.

Her work from this project has been displayed in a 30-image solo exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and at the Peruvian Embassy in the District of Columbia.

Her images have been exhibited in museums around the world, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the London Museum of Natural History, and the International Photography Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

Dr. Manyak’s Feb. 28 talk based on his experiences as physician, explorer

Dr. Manyak’s Feb. 28 talk based on his experiences as physician, explorer

Dr. Michael J. Manyak, MED 92, who is a physician specializing in urology and expedition medicine, will spoke on “Travel Health and Security: Key Points to Keep You Safe” at the ECWG’s Feb. 28, 2015, dinner at the Cosmos Club.

Whether venturing deep into a rainforest or into an urban jungle in a developing country, things can go wrong, very wrong. Those going on an expedition or ordinary trips face many potential pitfalls and anticipation and preparation are important parts of remaining safe. Dr. Manyak says health and security are intertwined and travelers must consider both. Medical issues are security issues and vice versa.

Manyak_cover martiniDr. Manyak is the lead author of a new book on expedition medicine and travel safety entitledLizard Bites and Street Riots: Travel Emergencies: Your Health, Safety and Security. His co-authors are Dr. Joyce Johnson, FN 03, also an ECWG member and a former Surgeon General of the U.S. Coast Guard, and Warren J. Young, who is Director of Security for the International Monetary Fund.

In his talk Dr. Manyak  shared his experiences and lessons learned.

Dr. Manyak is Global Medical Affairs Executive Director for GlaxoSmithKline urologic products and the former Chief Medical Officer for Triple Canopy, Inc., a high-threat security company. He is also a Professor of Urology, Engineering, Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at The George Washington University.

His many awards include The Explorers Club’s Sweeney Medal and the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He is an associate editor of The Explorers Journal where his column on expedition medicine appears. He is a consultant to members of the National Geographic Society and served on the NASA Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Health Advisory Committee. He is Senior Medical Advisor to Global Rescue, Inc.

His Explorers Club activities include serving on The Explorers Club Board of Directors for a decade, serving on the Flag and Honors Committee for eight years, and chairing the Science Advisory Board.

More about Dr. Manyak

During his long career as an explorer, Dr. Manyak:

  • led a scientific expedition to the Central African Ndoki rain forest in
    Dr. Michael Manyak
    Dr. Michael Manyak

    collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund

  • dived on the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha in search of artifacts
  •  served as the ship physician on the icebreaker MV Polar Star for an Antarctic expedition with Students On Ice
  • dove to the Titanic wreck site in the Russian MIR submersible while serving as the medical director for the RMS Titanic salvage expedition
  •  was the medical officer on an expedition to the deepest canyon in the world in Peru
  • was on the first scientific dive in Mongolia in Asia’s second largest lakewas on an participated in an expedition to evaluate a new spectacular finding of early human footprints in Tanzania
  • rode camels in the Gobi Desert observing the very highly endangered wild camel.

 

 

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Forthcoming 2015 ECWG Cosmos Club Dinners, speakers not yet announced: April 4, May 16, September. 19, November 21, and December 5.

ECWG Dinner talk was on explorer’s fatal encounter with cannibals

ECWG Dinner talk was on explorer’s fatal encounter with cannibals

Since Michael Rockefeller, the son of Nelson Rockefeller, disappeared in New Guinea in 1961 his powerful, influential family and others have been guessing and advancing theories about what happened.

Carl Hoffman

At the Explorers Club Washington Group’s Jan.17, 2015 Cosmos Club dinner award-winning journalist Carl Hoffman’s talk “Savage Harvest” described the startling new evidence he found that implies that a local Asmat ethnic group killed and ceremonially ate the young Rockefeller. The Asmat are a tribe of warriors whose complex culture was built around sacred, reciprocal violence, head hunting, and ritual cannibalism.

Hoffman, FN 14,  is the author of the critically acclaimed books Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefellers Tragic Quest for Primitive Art and also The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World Via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains and Planes.

Savage Harvest debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and was named a New York Times “editor’s pick.” To untangle what happened to the son of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Hoffman learned to speak Indonesian and lived in a remote village amidst 10,000 square miles of road-less swamp with a tribe of former headhunters and cannibals on the southwest coast of New Guinea.

A contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and a former contributing editor for Wired, Hoffman has traveled to more than 75 countries on assignment for Outside; Smithsonian; National Geographic Adventure; ESPN, the Magazine; Wired; Men’s Journal; Popular Mechanics and many other publications.

Hoffman has won four Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and two North American Travel Journalism Awards. He is a native of Washington, D.C. and the father of three.