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Katujjiqatigit / Working Together: The all-female Sedna Epic Expedition brings a changing ocean to eye level for coastal Inuit communities
BANK TO THE LEFT, bank to the right. Tethered to diver propulsion vehicles, the women flew through emerald-green waters at six kilometres per hour, dodging sculpted ice formations off the northern coast of Labrador. They soon discovered that snorkelling in pack ice is a contact sport. After several star-inducing head bumps, the team’s dive physician determined that helmets would be standard gear for future expeditions.
Bringing the Ocean to Eye Level for Inuit in the Arctic
Bank to the left; bank to the right: Tethered to a diver propulsion vehicle, I flew through emerald-green arctic waters at six kilometres per hour, dodging sculpted ice formations off the northern coast of Labrador, Canada.
Susan R. Eaton
A geoscientist, journalist and explorer, Susan R. Eaton studies the interplay of plate tectonics, oceans, glaciers, climate and life in polar regions.
A Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Susan explores the world’s oceans—from Antarctica to the Arctic—in the snorkel zone, a unique land-sea-ice-air interface where charismatic animals and snorkelers comingle.
In 2018, Ocean Geographic named Susan one of the “Ocean’s Best” 18 most influential women leaders in ocean conservation.
Twelve years ago, Susan suffered a scuba diving trauma that landed her in a hyperbaric chamber for three days, ending her 30-year diving career. Undaunted, her up-close-and-personal relationship with the ocean—which had included studying marine biology and teaching scuba diving—didn’t end in the hyperbaric chamber…
Redefining her relationship with the ocean, Susan has snorkeled with thousands of chatty belugas Hudson Bay and with docile manatees at Crystal River, Florida. She’s snorkeled in the Galapagos Archipelago where sea turtles, sea lions and nurse sharks outnumber snorkelers. In Haida Gwaii, she’s assisted the Haida Nation, snorkeling northern rivers to count salmon migrating to their ancestral spawning grounds. Susan has come face-to-mask with charging 1,400-pound leopard seals in the Southern Ocean—so close, in fact, that she could count the freckles on their upper palates and inspect their tri-serrated teeth which dispatch 30-pound penguins in mere minutes.
On Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, Susan was honoured to be included in the book by Paulina Cameron, entitled “Canada 150 Women: Conversations with Leaders, Champions and Luminaries.”
In 2015, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society named Susan one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trailblazers. A year later, the same organization named her one of Canada’s 25 greatest female explorers.
Sedna Epic Norway 2019: Women’s Leadership & Winter Snorkel
Please consider supporting a portion of my personal costs to lead the Sedna Epic Expedition’s women’s leadership program and winter snorkel expedition to Norway in November 2019.
Every donation is welcome and accretive to my bottom line.
Warm regards, Susan
VIDEOS
Martial Glacier, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Garmin Women of Adventure: It’s Up to Us, with Susan R. Eaton
Sedna Epic: Seawomen To Snorkel Northwest
SOCIAL MEDIA
A collection of fluorescent #minerals under ultraviolet UV-A, UV-B and UV-C light: Chemicals in the rocks absorb UV light and emit visible light of various colours, a process called #fluorescence. Photo © Hannes Grobe/AWI #geologypage #geology @GeologyPage
Fluorescence : Why Minerals Fluoresce? | Geology Page
Why Minerals Fluoresce? Many types of calcite and amber will fluoresce under shortwave UV, longwave UV. Rubies, ... Check Out For More Info.
www.geologypage.com
Sea ice in 2020 is being kind to polar bears in Hudson Bay. The bears are still on the ice & being there in mid-July is good news. Some recent years, they've been on land for over a month already. Longer term, however, climate change remains the #1 threat.
"Belugas are gregarious, they're usually together in groups, "says Kristin Laidre, a principal scientist @UW Polar Science Center. "To have one individual so far away from the core range of the beluga—I can't even wager a guess why it swam to California."
Beluga whale sighted off San Diego coast mystifies scientists
It's thousands of miles from the nearest beluga population, and no one knows where it came from or why.
www.nationalgeographic.com
Home to the world's highest tides, an unrivalled record of the Earth's history and the story of Mi'kmaq traditions and sacred culture, Nova Scotia's Cliffs of Fundy become a @UNESCO Global Geopark #pangea #geotourism #geopark @VisitNovaScotia @TourismNS
Cliffs of Fundy set to become UNESCO Global Geopark this month | CBC News
The Cliffs of Fundy is expected to become a UNESCO Global Geopark on July 10. Those who have been calling for the designation say they hope to boost ...
www.cbc.ca
The #GulfStream is one of the largest drivers of climate and biological productivity from Florida to Newfoundland and up the western coast of Europe: University of Maryland study says mixing has important implications for weather, #climate and fisheries https://t.co/BeIH3hOSh7
Happy #NunavutDay2020! The sea women @SednaEpic concluded their polar scuba diving & snorkeling expedition with an overflight of Frobisher Bay's coastline and glaciers, landing on a glacial outwash plain in a #TwinOtter equipped with #tundratires @arctickingdom @ExplorersClub
Let’s Celebrate Nunavut Day!
ᓇᓪᓕᐅᓂᖅᓯᐅᖅᑕ ᓄᓇᕗᑦ ᐅᓪᓗᖓᓂᒃ!
Nunavut Obloa Koviahokvigitigo!
The @SednaEpic's ocean knowledge sharing & mobilization program used touch aquariums & underwater robot building workshops to reach hundreds of youth in Iqaluit #NunavutDay
Happy #NunavutDay2020! Wishing our friends, alumni, team members, advisors & expedition partners from Nunavut a wonderful day! This photo of Team Sedna was captured during a polar diving & snorkelling outing in Frobisher Bay #Nunavut #Inuit #WomenoftheArctic #Arctic #NunavutDay
From Plastic Teeth to Soap Stripes: Tracing the Recent History of Inlay in Inuit Art
What do soap, record vinyl and beads all have in common? They are all materials Inuit artists have used for inlay in stone sculptures. Mark London investigates at Inuit Art Quarterly online.
From Plastic Teeth to Soap Stripes
www.inuitartfoundation.org
How have Inuit artists approached inlay?IT WAS A balmy Friday morning in June when Domenic Biagini, whale-watching tour captain and wildlife photographer, steered his 25-foot boat out of San Diego's Mission Bay with six clients on board. The plan was to find some whales—perhaps a migrating blue whale—so he radioed Lisa LaPointe, another tour captain, to see if she’d seen any that day.
“Dom, we just saw a pearly white, 15-foot animal that didn’t have a dorsal fin,” he recalls her saying over the radio. “This is the pearliest white you can imagine.”
While uncommon, it isn't unheard of for belugas to venture away from their polar habitat. In the spring of 1940, a beluga was spotted off the coast of Washington State. In the Atlantic, they've been seen as far south as Massachusetts and New Jersey, while belugas from Russian populations have been spotted as far south as Japan. And in 2018, a beluga nicknamed Benny found himself in the Thames River swimming toward London.
Still, it's surprising for a beluga to turn up in Southern California. In recent years, those waters have seen an increasing number of unexpected species, but they’re typically visiting from the warmer tropics, such as yellow-bellied sea snakes and hammerhead sharks driven north by a combination of climate change and El Niño.
It's not known what inspired this creature to set off on such an unexpected journey. Maybe “it decided to go on a road trip and it's extra curious, or it could be sick and disoriented,” says Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a research associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
Based on Biagini's drone footage, however, she and other experts say the animal looks to have good body condition. As a generalist predator, it would have no problem finding enough to eat, even if the Californian menu looks a little different than it does back home. “I'd like to think that it's on a grand adventure,” she says.
Beluga whale sighted off San Diego coast mystifies scientists
www.nationalgeographic.com
It's thousands of miles from the nearest beluga population, and no one knows where it came from or why.We're celebrating #NunavutDay2020 with the première of a new Sedna Epic Expedition video!
"During the Sedna Epic dive and snorkel expedition to Greenland and Nunavut in August 2018, team members Alexia Galloway-Alainga and Kristen Maria Ungungai-Kownak discuss the significance—as young Inuit women—of making their first polar dive in their home territory, Nunavut, Canada. Videography by Sedna's incomparable Becky Kagan Schott. We thank our expedition partner, Adventure Canada, for their generous support."
youtu.be/6n1jOkUXImM
SANTI Diving Halcyon Dive Systems Adventure Canada Marine Institute Scuba 2000 Dive Brockville Adventure Centre & Abucs Scuba Charters Travel Nunavut Destination Nunavut Canadian Geographic Canadian Geographic Travel The Explorers Club The Explorers Club- Canadian Chapter #NunavutDay #SednaEpic #Seawomen #WomenoftheArctic #Inuit #InuitWomen
