Kenneth Balcomb
Balcomb is Executive Director and Senior Scientist at the Center for Whale Research, which he founded in Friday Harbor, Washington in 1985. An innovator in perfecting non-invasive techniques to study living whales, dolphins and porpoises, Balcomb has pioneered the development of high-quality photo-identification methods in the study of killer whales, humpback whales and beaked whales. He has utilized these methods for more than 30 years during his work on the Orca Survey - an on-going study of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest. Balcomb has authored and co-authored more than thirty published research papers and five books based upon his experience in whale research. He is a Charter Member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, a member of the IUCN/SSC Whale Specialist Group, and an invited specialist on the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. Currently, Balcomb is working to determine the impacts of military active sonar on marine mammals.

Jim Darling, Ph.D.
Dr. Darling has led research programs on whales for nearly thirty years. Co-founder of the non-profit organization, Whale Trust, Dr. Darling is one of the leading authorities on gray whale and humpback whale behavior. His research led to the first description of a population of gray whales off Vancouver Island, initial descriptions on the abundance, migration and social behavior of humpback whales in the North Pacific, and the first scientific study of living whales in Japan. He has written numerous scientific articles, popular articles (National Geographic Magazine) and books including Gray Whales, With the Whales, and Wild Whales. Additionally, his research has been featured repeatedly in television and film documentaries including the award-winning documentary Island of Whales. Dr. Darling's current research focuses on understanding why male humpback whales sing songs during the winter breeding season.

David Doubilet
Since 1971, Doubilet has photographed over 60 stories for National Geographic Magazine where he is currently a Contributing Photographer-in-Residence. In addition to National Geographic Magazine, David has authored seven books on the sea including Fish Face (2003), The Kingdom of Coral: Australia's Great Barrier Reef (2002), and Water Light (1999), and is a contributing editor and feature columnist for Behind the Shot in Sport Diver Magazine (US) and Seascapes in Dive Magazine (UK). Doubilet is the recipient of many prestigious awards including The Sara Prize, The Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award, and the Lennart Nilsson Award in Photography. Doubilet is a member of both the Royal Photographic Society and International Diving Hall of Fame.

Sue Flood
Flood is a wildlife filmmaker and photographer specializing in Polar Regions and marine subjects. After graduating from college with a degree in Zoology, Flood spent 11 years working for the BBC Natural History Unit in England where she produced three films including Polar Bears on Thin Ice, A Boy Among Polar Bears, and Killer Whale Special. She was an Associate Producer on the award-winning BBC/Discovery Channel series The Blue Planet, and most recently worked on the award-winning Planet Earth series. Her underwater highlights include diving with beluga whales under the Arctic ice, swimming alongside humpback whales in the South Pacific and coming face-to-face with leopard seals in the Antarctic. She believes she is the only person to have accepted a marriage proposal from her now husband, Doug Allan, while adrift on an Arctic ice float.

Mark Ferrari
Having spent more than thirty winters in Maui studying Hawaii's humpbacks, the Ferraris have contributed substantially to our knowledge of the life history, behavior and reproductive cycles of humpback whales. Using and developing non-invasive and benign research techniques such as photography and underwater videography, the Ferrari's have helped to shed light on fundamental and critical aspects of humpback whale reproductive behavior including how to distinguish male from female humpbacks in the field, how to identify calves that have non-distinctive fluke markings, and how frequently individual female humpbacks give birth over their lifetime. The Ferrari's have been featured in numerous television, documentaries and films including Star Trek IV: The Next Generation, IMAX - Whales, Gentle Giants: Humpback Whales of Maui.

Ross Isaacs
Emmy nominated cinematographer, Isaacs has over thirty years experience as an underwater photographer, cinematographer and film maker. He has produced a number of books and documentary films on whales. Isaacs' home base is Port Douglas in far North Queensland, Australia, adjacent to the most spectacular locations on the Great Barrier Reef. His experience includes major features films, television drama, nature documentaries, as well as television commercials. Originally conceiving this film on humpback whales, since 2001 he has completed many expeditions to Hawaii and Alaska to shoot this project. Specializing in natural history, He has worked with some prestigious organizations such as National Geographic Television and BBC Natural History Unit, and has sold his own documentary films in over 50 countries. He brings a special understanding of the main subject of this film.

Meagan Jones
For the last fifteen years, Jones has worked in and between the fields of marine science and education, leading and working on cetacean research programs in Hawaii, Australia, Alaska, Canada and the South Pacific, and developing marine education and interpretation programs for schoolchildren, naturalists, and the general public. In 1997, Jones was honored with a national award from the National Marine Educator's Association for her work in marine education. She is currently the Executive Director of Whale Trust and a doctoral candidate at Antioch University New England. Her dissertation research focuses on how reproductive status affects female behavior in humpback whales on the Hawaiian breeding grounds.

Greg Marshall
Marshall is an, inventor, scientist, filmmaker and the Executive Producer and Director of Remote Imaging at National Geographic Society, but he is perhaps best known for his invention of Crittercam. Crittercam is a video camera, encased by an underwater housing system that was designed to attach painlessly to an animal to document life from its perspective, recording video, audio, depth, temperature, light and velocity. The first breakthrough images were broadcast on the National Geographic Explorer television series in 1993 and can now be seen in the series Crittercam Chronicles that airs on the National Geographic Channel. For more than a decade, Crittercam has given us insight into the lives of whales, sharks, seals, and sea lions, sea turtles, penguins, lions, tigers and bears.

Cristina Mittermeier
Mittermeier's work focuses on the delicate relationship between nature's most spectacular and endangered wildlife and Earth's vanishing traditional human cultures. Her ultimate mission is to reconnect people's lives to nature through the use of photography. Trained as a marine biologist, her work has been published in several books, including six she has co-authored with other scientists and photographers including Wilderness Areas: Earth's Last Wild Places (2002), Wildlife Spectacles (2003), and the Human Footprint with the Wildlife Conservation Society (2006). Mittermeier currently serves as the Executive Director of the International League of Conservation Photography (ILCP), an initiative aiming at using photography to further environmental and cultural conservation through photography.

Paul Nicklen
Growing up in a small Inuit community in Canada's Arctic, Nicklen spent his early years observing nature and traveling on the land. On Baffin Island, he learned from the Inuit and developed a true passion for observing wildlife and watching the light play shadow games off of the sea ice. After completing a Bachelor's of Science degree in Marine Biology at the University of Victoria, BC, Nicklen worked as a wildlife biologist with the Department of Renewable Resources in Canada's Northwest Territories. He was fortunate enough to work on such species as lynx, grizzly bears, bison, caribou and polar bears. He soon realized that he could better serve wildlife populations by becoming a wildlife and nature photojournalist. His goal is to continue bridging the gap between scientific research and the public by producing stories for magazines such as National Geographic. Since 1994, Paul has been published in most major publications and is currently working on his ninth story for National Geographic Magazine, all working towards this common goal. Paul currently lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

Flip Nicklin
Nicklin is a world-renowned underwater photographer. He has spent his 30-year career specializing in the photography of marine mammals, especially whales and dolphins. Through 18 National Geographic articles from 1982 to the present, he has worked closely with top whale researchers from around the world. From this work Nicklin brings a unique, global perspective on the study of whales and the researchers that study them.

Daniel Opitz
An award-winning independent filmmaker and founder of Ocean Mind, an independent film, photo and television production company.

Adam A. Pack, Ph.D.
Dr. Pack is the Co-founder and Director of Research and Education for The Dolphin Institute (TDI), a not-for-profit organization in Hawaii dedicated to the scientific study of whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals and to the education of people at all levels about these animals. TDI's work with whales has been featured most recently in National Geographic's "Wild Chronicles" and locally in the KGMB award winning documentary "Hawaii's Humpback Whales: Island Treasures." Dr. Pack has been studying marine mammals since 1983; focusing on humpback whale underwater behavior and social sounds, as well as dolphin sensory perception, cognition, and communication. He has co-authored 40 publications on dolphins and whales, serves as a research advisor to the American Cetacean Society, is also the alternate research chairperson for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.

Mike Payne
Payne has worked for the Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, since 1990, as both Chief of the Marine Mammal Division and currently as Chief of the Permits, Conservation and Education Division. These positions oversee all marine mammal research, management and conservation, and permitting (both research and incidental takes) for the NMFS. Between 1999 and 2003, he also served as the Assistant Regional Administrator, Protected Resources, for the Alaska Region, NMFS. Between 1980-1990, he was a researcher, contracting with NMFS and other Federal agencies, conducting research on large whale and sea bird distributions in relation to their prey and environment in the northeastern United States, and the distribution, abundance of prey of harbor seals in New England. Since joining NMFS he has been involved in most NMFS regulations to protect and conserve marine mammals under both the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Dan R. Salden, Ph.D.
Dr. Salden began his study of humpback whales in 1978, and is the Founder and Research Director of Hawaii Whale Research Foundation, and Emeritus Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. With over 6,500 hours spent observing and recording humpback whale social behavior in the waters off Maui, Dr. Salden is one of Maui's leading researchers. His research team focuses primarily on long-term social affiliation patterns, humpback whale competitive behavior with the goal of increasing our understanding of how males compete and interact with one another on the Hawaiian breeding grounds. Dr. Salden and the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation have been featured in numerous documentaries, including programs with Ocean Planet Images, Sea World, Tokyo Broadcasting System, and YNR Marketing.

Alison Stimpert
Stimpert is a Ph.D. student in the University of Hawaii at Manoa - Zoology Department and Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology; currently, she is working with Dr. Whitlow Au. Stimpert studies acoustic behavior of humpback whales using suction-cup tags. Her research takes place on the breeding grounds in Hawaii, and also on the feeding grounds of Massachusetts in the Atlantic.

Jan Straley
Straley's research began in 1979 while she was studying geese with her husband during the winter in Seymour Canal on Admiralty Island in southeastern Alaska. No geese were found, however, humpback whales were in the canal just beyond the cabin's front door. Whales became the research focus that winter and for many years since 1979. Jan worked as the Whale Biologist for Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve from 1988 to 1990 and continues to collaborate with park biologists. Recently this effort produced a joint catalog of over 1000 different whales from southeastern Alaska and a combined southeastern Alaska database on humpback whales. In 2003, Jan began a study of sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska working with the longline fleet out of Sitka. The goal of the study is to recommend deterrents for fishermen to use to reduce removal of sablefish by sperm whales off their longline gear. She also conducts research on killer and gray whales in southeastern Alaska. Straley is currently Assistant Professor of Marine Biology with the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka, where she conducts her research along with teaching an internship program on humpback whales.