Mr. Challenger is a marine ecologist with expertise in environmental resource management, coral reef damage assessment, oil and chemical spill assessment and habitat restoration. Mr. Challenger has been involved in assessing NEARLY 200 large oil spill, pipeline, railroad and ship grounding incidents in the past 30 years, working with government and industry to study impacts and find restoration-based solutions to environmental casualties. His career spans from post-graduate studies in the Prince William Sound in 1990 with the US National Marine Fisheries Service following the Exxon Valdez to being the lead investigator for the Shoreline Natural Resource Damage Assessment for BP during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico from 2010-2015.
Mr. Challenger helped form Polaris Applied Sciences in 1998 and is currently the President. Prior to forming Polaris, Mr. Challenger taught marine resource management and coral reef ecology at the Center for Marine Resource Conservation in the Turks and Caicos, BWI, the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute in the Florida Keys, and aboard the SSV Westward in the Eastern Caribbean for the Semester at Sea program accredited by Boston University
EDUCATION
Master of Science, 1990, Florida Institute of Technology, Science Education/Marine Ecology
Bachelor of Science, 1985, Florida Atlantic University, Marine Biology
MEMBERSHIPS/CERTIFICATIONS
Society of Wetland Scientists
Certified Professional Wetland Scientist
Maritime Law Association of the United States
IberoAmerican Maritime Law Association
National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) SCUBA Instructor
Society for Ecological Restoration
PUBLICATIONS
Challenger , G.E., Gmur S., Taylor., E. 2021. A review of Gulf of Mexico shoreline erosion studies following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and comparison to 4 years of shoreline loss data from 2011-2015. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 164 (2021) 111983
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33513545/
Dunford, R.W, Gmur S.G., Lynes, M.K., Challenger, G.E. and M.A. Dunford. 2019. Natural Resource Damages from Oil Spills in the United States. Environmental Claims Journal, Volume 31, 2019 - Issue 2
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://www.polarisappliedsciences.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/Dunford-et-al-2019-Natural-Resource-Damages-from-Oil-Spills-in-the-United-States.pdf
Michel J, Owens EH, Zengel S, Graham A, Nixon Z,. Andrew Graham, Zachary Nixon, Teresa Allard, William Holton1, P. Doug Reimer, Alain Lamarche, Mark White, Nicolle Rutherford, Carl Childs, Gary Mauseth, Greg Challenger, Elliott Taylor 2013. Extent and Degree of Shoreline Oiling: Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico, USA. PLoS ONE 8(6): e65087. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065087
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23776444/
Challenger, G.E., Sergy, G. and A. Graham. 2008. Vegetation response and sediment polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon attenuation in a Carex marsh in Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada Following a spill of Bunker C fuel oil. Proceeding of the 2008 International Oil Spill Conference, May 2008, Savannah, GA.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271232151_Vegetation_response_and_sediment_polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbon_attenuation_in_a_Carex_marsh_in_Howe_Sound_British_Columbia_Canada_following_a_spill_of_bunker_C_fuel_oil
Challenger, G.E. 2006. Mitigating claims for damage to coral reefs from vessel groundings, salvage and wreck removal in the US. In GARD News Issue 182 May/July 2006, Pg. 4-8. Arendal, Norway.
https://www.gard.no/web/updates/content/52224/mitigating-claims-for-damage-to-coral-reefs-from-vessel-groundings-salvage-and-wreck-removal-in-the-us
Mauseth, G.S. and G. E. Challenger. 2001. Trends in Rescinding Seafood Harvest Closures Following Oil Spills. Proceedings 2001 International Oil Spill Conference, Amer. Petr. Institute Pub. No. 14710, Washington, DC.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287706252_Seafood_Safety_and_Oil_Spills