Margaret Carruthers
Margaret is a geologist whose work has taken her to many parts of North America and the Pacific and South Atlantic Ocean. As a scientist/STEM Education Specialist, she was formerly the science editor at Words and Numbers in Baltimore and is currently an independent consultant who advises on and develops science-related materials. Margaret is the author of seven science books for children and young adults. She also co-authored with Josie Iselin the best-selling book, Beach Stones. Her awards include runner-up for The Daily Telegraph/BASF Young Science Writer Awards 2000 and overall winner of the 2000 Geologists’ Association Earth Alert Rockwriters’ Essay Competition for Exploring the Longest Volcano on Earth. An avid beach rock collector, Margaret can be found traisping across shorelines worldwide with her husband and children, Abby and James, (who are great helpers at IBC's).

Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer Curt is a Washington State-based oceanographer who is one of the world's leading flotsam and wave current specialists. He has tracked ocean movement of all kinds of flotsam including Nike shoes, rubber duckies and ice hockey gloves. Pre-retirement, Curt specialized in forecasting the movement of oil spills and sewage, and worked with marine scientist, Dr. Charles Moore, about the harmful effects of plastics to ocean life. He is the publisher of the magazine, 'Beachcomber's Alert' and authored Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. Currently, Curt is using his expertise to track Japanese tsunamis debris, which is slowly making its way across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. Visit: www.beachcombersalert.org

Terri Kirby Hathaway
An avid beachcomber, committed environmentalist, and founding member of the Beachcomb Alliance, Terri Kirby Hathaway is the Marine Education Specialist for North Carolina’s Sea Grant Program. Her duties include identifying and coordinating coastal curricula for use in classrooms, organizing teacher workshops, and publishing a marine education newsletter, "Scotch Bonnet." Terri is also an education associate with the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence and has presented at conferences for various education organizations including the North American Association for Environmental Education. Prior to joining Sea Grant, she spent more than 18 years as the education curator for the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. Earlier in her career, she worked as a biological technician and researcher in Florida, Louisiana and Texas. Terri holds a master’s in science education from East Carolina University.

Josie Iselin
Josie is the photographer and author of seven books on forms in nature and, in particular, what we find at the beach. Her mission is to produce enticing, original and well-designed books that combine art and science, leaving the reader with new information and an appreciation for the world around them. The vibrant collages celebrate sand, salt and sea air, and they make us stop to wonder how we might learn not only about our beachcombing treasures but from them. Her books include: Beach Stones (with Margaret Carruthers); Seashells (with Sandy Carlson); Beach; Heart Stones; and the forthcoming Secret Garden: The Hidden Romance of Seaweed. Josie's newest project focuses on marine algae, kelp and seaweed. She lives and works on a steep hill in San Francisco. Visit: www.josieiselin.com

Richard LaMotte
Richard is one of the world's leading sea glass specialists. His book, Pure Sea Glass: Discovering Nature's Vanishing Gems, serves as a master sea glass reference for North American collectors, earning first place in non-fiction from Writer's Digest. Richard lectures widely on sea glass sources and has been featured in many magazines and newspapers, as well as on the Martha Stewart show. Along with his family, Richard has amassed an impressive sea glass collection, much of it found along the shores of Chesapeake Bay near their home in Chestertown. He is co-founder and currently the President of the North American Sea Glass Association. Visit: www.pureseaglass.com

Ed Perry
Ed Perry is a native Floridian, a park ranger at San Sebastian Inlet State Park, Fla., and an avid “sea bean” (or drift seed) collector who co-authored the book, Sea-Beans From the Tropics: A Collector's Guide to Sea-Beans and Other Tropical Drift on Atlantic Shores. Ed began collecting sea beans as a child while on the beach fishing, earning a quarter a bean from his grandmother who’d then give them to customers at her Sea Bean Boutique gift shop. As an adult, he became affiliated with a loose-knit group known as “The Drifters” who studied, collected, and wrote about driftseeds on a worldwide level. He now spearheads the 16 year old International Sea Bean Symposium and Beachcomber Festival in Cocoa Beach. He also publishes the tri-yearly “Drifting Seed” newsletter, which connects oceanographers, botanists, herbariums, libraries, surfers, beachcombers, park rangers and jewelers from across the world to sea bean news. Visit: www.seabean.com

Deacon Ritterbush
Deacon Ritterbush is a sustainable development strategist, eco-educator and beachcomb expert known as "Dr. Beachcomb." Committed to earth-care, she encourages “willing stewardship” by getting people "back outside to play" via beachcombing. She is founder of the International Beachcombing Conference and co-founder and President of the Beachcomb Alliance International and lectures across North America on sea glass, beach pottery, "beach tracking," the archaeology of beachcombing and the "plastics problem." Formerly a Research Associate with the East-West Center and Coordinator of the 2011 Kava Bowl Ocean Summit, she is the author of A Beachcomber’s Odyssey: Treasures from a Collected Past, which received the "Living Now" Book of the Year award and the Da Vinci Eye medal for Cover of the Year. She divides her time between Hawai'i and the US mid-Atlantic region. Visit: www.drbeachcomb.com