February 2023 – Volume Twenty-Nine, Number Two
Celebrating our 28th year!
EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.
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Brazilian wildlife adventurer Karina Oliani is one of the recipients of the Explorers Club 50 award. She is the first Brazilian doctor to have the title of specialist in emergency medicine and rescue in remote areas. Oliani was the founder and first president of ABMAR (Brazilian Association of Remote Areas Medicine and Adventure Sports). Photo: Divulgacao
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EC 50 Recipients are Changing the World
The Explorers Club unveiled its annual list of the 50 People Changing the World That the World Needs to Know About – scientists, educators and conservationists whose work will unlock the secrets of the oceans, advance conservation efforts, protect rare and endangered species, and take humankind further into space.
The Explorers Club 50 (EC50) was established in 2020 to amplify the communication of science so that it is more inclusive and represents the many diverse voices in the global scientific community.
One of the missions of the EC50 Class of 2023 is to communicate their science, says founder of the program, Richard Wiese, former Explorers Club president. EC50 committee member Joe Rohde adds, “the word ‘explore’ contains within it the actions we expect from explorers. Ex – go forward and plore which is related to coming back and have something to say … it’s the obligation to communicate.”
Among this year's new EC50 awardees are:
• Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane, an archaeologist and biological anthropologist from South Africa. Most recently she was a member of the team of "underground astronauts" excavating in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa in search of fossil remains that aid in our understanding of human evolution.
• Dr. Tanya Harrison, a scientist and mission operations specialist on multiple NASA missions to Mars, including the Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance rovers, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
• Jamal Galves, also known as the manatee man, a conservationist since the age of 11, he has been working to conserve the endangered Antillean manatees of Belize. Galves is the Program Coordinator with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute Belize.
• Titouan Bernicot, the founder/CEO of Coral Gardeners, started at the age of 18 after witnessing the degradation of his home reef in the South Pacific. Together with his team, Bernicot has planted over 30,000 corals in French Polynesia and has set a goal to plant one million corals throughout the world by 2025.
The EC50 winners will receive membership in The Explorers Club, access to the Club's worldwide network of explorers, and will be promoted in a special Explorers Club's EC50 Publication, lecture opportunities, and more. The Explorers Club also allocates staff and resources to help promote and market past and present EC50 members, showcasing their achievements.
See the EC50 Class of 2023 here:
EXPEDITION FOCUS
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Cassandra Brooks and friend. |
Marine Scientist Advocates for the Ross Sea and Threatened Toothfish
When the Explorers Club 50 program launched in 2021 (see related story), the Club was looking to recognize “fifty people changing the world whom the world needs to know about.” One of those, a marine scientist from Colorado and a member of the EC50 Class of 2022, is a passionate friend of the Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish, a creature with a face only a mother toothfish could love.
According to Cassandra Brooks, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who recently addressed the Club’s Rocky Mountain chapter, the toothfish, nicknamed “white gold” and “the shark of the Antarctic,” can live upwards of 50 years.
“But like many deep-dwelling long-lived fish, they are very vulnerable to over-exploitation,” she says.
Antarctic toothfish have white, flaky, moist flesh which is highly sought after by chefs for its versatility and Omega 3 fatty acids. But since that name is rather unappetizing, it’s better known as Chilean sea bass. But don’t be fooled; its popularity is such that fish populations cannot keep up with the demand.
Brooks, 43, who earned a Ph.D. at Stanford University, is an interdisciplinary engaged scholar working across marine science, environmental policy, and science communication largely focused on Antarctic conservation. She received the National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award to study the ecology of the Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish.
This highly prestigious honor is offered to early-career faculty members who demonstrate the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education.
She has been on five expeditions to Antarctica and is working to protect the Ross Sea, the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA), critically threatened by climate change and commercial fishing.
“The polar regions are experiencing the most pronounced impacts of climate change with repercussions that include sea level rise and potential disruptions of Earth systems.
“Meanwhile, the Antarctic has emerged as a resource frontier, with international fishing operations increasingly encroaching south. We have very little time to act before changes in Antarctica become irreversible,” she says.
Brooks notes that tourism, after a lull during the pandemic, is coming back with a vengeance, attracting upwards of 100,000 visitors a year (ed. note: despite a cost that can easily top $15,000 per person for a 14-day cruise).
With visitation comes greater awareness. “Anyone who’s been to Antarctica becomes interested in helping preserve it.”
Brooks was also a core member of The Last Ocean, a grand-scale media project focused on protecting the Ross Sea and today seeks to empower the next generation of environmental leaders.
The Last Ocean was founded by Brooks’ husband, Boulder nature photographer, and writer John Weller; the two named their two children Adelie (after the penguin species) and Orion Ross (after the sea) – inspired by their love of each other, and this very special place at the bottom of the world. (www.thelastoceanfilm.com).
MEDIA MATTERS
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Paul Schurke (l), Will Steger, and their hapless publicity hound Zap.
Photo was shot in New York in the mid-1980s.
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Prince Harry’s Royal Jewels Get “Zapped”
As you can imagine, late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert was quite amused when Prince Harry reported frost nipping his “todger” during an expedition to the North Pole a month before his brother's royal wedding in 2011. Even the stodgy Wall Street Journal had a few chuckles when “Spare” reported in his blockbuster book of the same name, “My penis was oscillating between extremely sensitive and borderline traumatized.”
Helly-Hansen created a “cushion” for the Royal standard, but it failed to insulate properly creating, as Colbert joked, “a crisis at the South Pole.”
Hey, it happens to both man and beast.
In 1985, a sled dog named Zap, owned by polar explorer Will Steger, froze a similar appendage. Steger writes in North to the Pole (Times Books, 1987), he found his trusty sled dog licking his groin in a howling blizzard across Canada’s Great Slave Lake. The hapless mutt’s penis was fully extended, frozen solid.
That story became part of Zap’s legend as Steger’s publicity hound went on a press tour of New York wearing a cape, including stops at Times Square and The Explorers Club.
Watch Prince Harry share his pain on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert at approximately 30 minutes in.
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Ben Fogle wants to explore in period kit. |
Explorer Ben Fogle Recreates Antarctic Journeys the Old Fashioned Way
English broadcaster, writer, and adventurer Ben Fogle, 49, said that after racing to the pole in 2008 wearing modern equipment, he wants to experience “the harsh wilderness.”
He tells Charlotte McLaughlin of the Irish Independent (Jan. 24), that he plans to relive the Antarctic journeys of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and Roald Amundsen as part of a new TV series.
Fogel will use only the types of Edwardian equipment, food supplies, and shelter that the three adventurers used as he documents his journey to the South Pole in Endurance: Race To The Pole on Channel 5, the British free-to-air public broadcast television channel.
Fogle said: “This is a dream project for me. I have held a lifelong fascination with this period of heroic polar exploration and now I get the chance to experience immersive, living history myself by wearing the same clothes, eating the same type of food, pulling the same-style sled, and sleeping in the same canvas tent.
“This will give me a better understanding of the heroics and the sacrifices made by these brave men more than a hundred years ago in one of the harshest most unforgiving places on earth.
In the new three-part series, he will be accompanied by polar explorer Dwayne Fields as they take a look at Amundsen, Shackleton, and Scott’s contrasting expeditions.
Read the story:
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
MEDIA MATTERS
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Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby love the Arctic. |
Vogue Spotlights Extraordinary Scandinavia Women Explorers
Polar exploration has traditionally been wrapped up in machismo, but things are changing. Extraordinary women are not only making important scientific breakthroughs on climate change, they're also helping to shatter the "ice ceiling."
Vogue Scandinavia’s Siobhan Reid writes in the January issue, “… women have stepped into view as protagonists of polar exploration.
Many have set world records, collected medals, and accomplished feats that men haven’t. But what sets these female adventurers apart is their overarching mission to spur change – sometimes even beyond the polar regions – by raising awareness of climate change, contributing to scientific breakthroughs, and uplifting other under-represented groups.”
Among the ten badass women named are Norwegian-Canadian explorer Sunniva Sorby and Norwegian explorer Hilde Fålun Strøm, covered previously in EN. They are the first women to overwinter in the archipelago of Svalbard, a few hundred miles from the North Pole, without men.
In 2024, Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment will release an IMAX movie about their historic overwinter expedition called Hearts in the Ice (www.heartsintheice.com).
Read the story here:
EXPEDITION FUNDING
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Youth Ambassadors, educators, experts, and filmmakers will trek across Baffin Island, sharing a daily curriculum with students around the world on the subject of extreme weather and the human impact on the earth’s changing weather. |
Young Ambassadors Wanted for Adventure-Based Learning Program in Canada
Are you 16 to 21 years of age? Are you up for an epic adventure? Are you able to communicate your experiences to thousands of students in classrooms? If your answers come back as yes, contact the nonprofit impossible2Possible (i2P).
i2P’s 15th Youth Expedition will take place June 2023 in Nunavut, Canada, in the Canadian Arctic. The i2P team of Youth Ambassadors, educators, experts, and filmmakers will trek across Baffin Island, sharing a daily curriculum with students around the world on the subject of Extreme Weather and our human impact on the earth’s changing weather.
Over the course of the adventure, i2P Youth Ambassadors will share their expedition, live by satellite, bringing the expedition into classrooms around the world. Modules and daily content will round out the curriculum that will be shared with students, and educational challenges will be issued daily.
As with every impossible2Possible Youth Expedition, costs are covered for youth ambassadors, and the program is 100% free for schools to participate.
There will be four i2P Youth Ambassadors selected for this upcoming expedition.
For more information:
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Live Your Dreams Scholarship 2023
Applications are being accepted for KURU Footwear’s $1,000 Live Your Dreams Scholarship 2023, created to help students achieve their dreams by providing financial assistance for their college education. The winner will receive a one-time $1,000 scholarship to be applied to qualified expenses, including undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and on-campus room and board for the 2023-2024 academic year. Judging criteria is open enough to be relevant to budding explorers.
Applicants must write a 300- to 500-word essay answering the question, "If you had the authority to change your community in a positive way, what specific changes would you make?" Application deadline: July 6, 2023.
Apply here:
EXPEDITION MARKETING
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Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Keeps on Ticking
Does expedition sponsorship actually sell products? We might be a bit biased after 28 years publishing Expedition News, but the answer seems to be a resounding “yes.” That was evident recently when we witnessed a salesperson in the Omega boutique at Hyde Park Jewelers in Denver pitch the famed Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch aka “Speedy.”
The salesperson extolled the virtue of a watch that was used to time the burn of the ill-fated Apollo 13 on re-entry, and was used for EVA’s where a digital watch would freeze in frigid space. Impressive sales pitch.
Founded in 1894, the most pivotal period for Omega came in the 1960s, when NASA chose the Omega Speedmaster for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, according to Hodinkee, the online timepiece authority.
The salesperson was right, an Omega Speedmaster is credited with saving the crew of Apollo 13. Without deviating the trajectory to return to the correct course, the crew would have bounced into the atmosphere without having a chance to make a second attempt, getting lost forever in space. To get back on track, they calculated the need for 14 seconds of fuel burn, which they were only able to measure thanks to their Speedmaster.
In fact, look closely and you’ll see a Speedmaster watch worn by Tom Hanks portraying Jim Lovell in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13.
We call this the “halo effect.” If the Speedmaster performed so well in space, one might surmise, where are you going to take your timepiece that demanding? Costco on a Saturday? The kids’ soccer match? You can be assured it will certainly keep accurate time in the ‘burbs as well as in the cosmos.
Remember this story the next time you’re pitching a corporate sponsor for in-kind (i.e. product) sponsorship. Their tent, pack, boot, camp stove or whatever, could very well save the day.
We didn’t stay around long enough to determine whether the Denver jewelry store customer was ready to drop five figures, but if he did, a watch like that would certainly be a collectible. Prices typically range from $2,000 to $9,000, with some rarities reaching into the $40,000’s.
WEB WATCH
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Netflix Streams True Spirit – Solo, Non-stop and Unassisted Sail Circumnavigation
Australian teenager Jessica Watson, a sailor who attempted to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world, is featured in Netflix’s new biopic True Spirit. She is portrayed by Teagan Croft, best known for her work in DC’s Titans.
The film is based on the real-life story of Jessica Watson, as was previously covered in the documentary film 210 Days – Around the World with Jessica Watson. That documentary was filmed by Watson herself, narrated by Sir Richard Branson, and originally aired on Network 10 in Australia.
Watson also wrote a book about her experiences, which will be published later this year and is also called True Spirit.
She was born in 1993 in Queensland and currently lives in Melbourne. Watson became world famous in 2009 and 2010 when she attempted a journey to become the youngest person ever to sail solo, non-stop, and unassisted around the world, at the age of just 16. It took her 210 days on a 33-foot vessel, with her journey starting on October 18, 2009, and returning to Sydney on May 15, 2010.
Along her journey, Watson endured gale-force winds, rocky seas, and months of solitude, while also surviving seven knockdowns. She completed her circumnavigation, but her record of being the youngest sailor to do so is unofficial, due to discrepancies surrounding the exact distance she traveled in nautical miles.
Watch the trailer:
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DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Same Pole, Different Expeditions
The image of polar explorers on skis we ran in January was not from the 1989 Bering Bridge Expedition. It was a photo from explorer and guide Richard Weber taken a year earlier during the 1988 Polar Bridge Expedition – a journey from Russia to Canada across the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole.
Weber, from Vernon, B.C., runs a family-owned and operated travel company for 30+ years that specializes in all things Arctic. Visitors sign up to experience the Northern Lights, observe polar bears, caribou, and muskox, world-class fishing, kayak with beluga whales, or ski the northernmost heli-skiing in the world. (WeberArctic.com)
Watch the sizzle reel here:
ON THE HORIZON
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Explorers Cubs Program Resumes Feb. 26, 2023, The Explorers Club, New York
The Young Explorers Program is back. Join Club President Richard Garriott de Cayeux as he shares tales of exploration from his expeditions to the deepest part of the ocean, outer space, and places in between. He will use his experience in the field to help Young Explorers plan and prep their own expeditions. Pint-sized pioneers will get hands-on experience packing for different types of adventures, map out various routes and possibilities, and learn what it means to put curiosity in action.
Through fun and interactive sessions with field explorers, the Young Explorers aims to foster future citizens of the planet and strengthen the relationships between Explorers Club members, the community, and the next generation of changemakers.
Cost: $25 per student, ages 7 to 12
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Former Vice President Al Gore |
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American Alpine Club Annual Gathering and Gala, Mar. 10-11, 2023, New York
Transforming the Conditions for the Send: An Evening with Former Vice President Al Gore and the Full Circle Everest Team
The American Alpine Club’s annual gathering will feature keynote presentations by former Vice President Al Gore and the Full Circle Everest Team, both of whom have transformed the conditions for the send, the circumstances that influence our ability to climb, in unique ways.
From making history as the first all-Black team to summit Everest to educating millions on climate change, these speakers are change-makers. The event will also celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1963 first American ascent of Everest.
The weekend will include climbing, discussion, celebration, and festivity, old friends reconnecting, new friendships made, and fundraising to support the Club’s work.
The gala will take place at the Conrad New York Downtown, North End Avenue.
Tickets start at $300.
For more information:
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Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld – Travel has come roaring back and so has voluntourism. Be ready to lend a hand wherever you go. How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? Read excerpts and “Look Inside” at: tinyurl.com/voluntourismbook
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Get Sponsored! – Need money for your next project? Read about proven techniques that will help you find both cash and in-kind sponsors. If the trip is bigger than you, and is designed to help others, well, that’s half the game right there. Read Jeff Blumenfeld’s "Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers." (Skyhorse Publishing).
Buy it here:
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2023 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments are accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com.
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