Sailboat’s ocean health expedition reaches Tuktoyaktuk

Members of a science expedition sailing around North and South America have reached Tuktoyaktuk.

The Around the Americas expedition is a 14-month voyage focused on scientific research, education and community outreach to raise awareness about ocean health.

Crew members aboard One Ocean, a 14-metre sailboat, set sail from Anacortes, Washington in May and arrived in Tuktoyaktuk on Monday.

“We’re trying to do a bit of outreach to really share our message about caring for the ocean,” project director Jennifer Dalton said of their plans while in the community.

Captain Mark Schrader said the current expedition follows a voyage he took in 2009-10 and project members are noting changes to the environment since then.

Schrader said, for example, that measurements of seawater temperatures between Herschel Island and Tuktoyaktuk are now around 10 degrees warmer than they were 15 years ago.

“It’s pretty startling,” he said.

He added that coastal erosion has changed things “dramatically.”

“Communities are being swallowed up because of sea level rise,” he said.

That has been an issue in Tuktoyaktuk, which recently completed a shoreline revetment project in an effort to protect the community.

Inspiring the next ocean stewards

Members of the Around the Americas expedition are conducting what they have said is the first comprehensive pole-to-pole study of giant and bull kelp, which are forms of seaweed.

They are also carrying out atmospheric and oceanographic research, meteorological studies and examining seawater and whales.

Researchers are sharing the data they collect in real time on the expedition’s website and social media, as well as with community members, particularly youth.

“The idea here is we’re giving information to schools, teachers at no cost – interesting oceanographic information and environmental information,” Schrader said.

Schrader said sharing this kind of information is important because the ocean “drives the bus” in terms of environment and climate change.

“For farmers, for everybody, we need to know more about the ocean because it affects everything we do every day. And that message, we think, should be in classrooms,” he said.

Dalton added they are hoping to “ignite and inspire the next ocean stewards.”

‘People want to share’

Dalton said the expedition has received a warm welcome in the communities where it has travelled so far.

“People want to share and tell their stories and they’re very interested in what we’re doing,” she said.

“The journey has been truly welcoming and fantastic, and we tend to keep hearing the same message over and over again, that a lot of towns along the North here are going to have to shift and move. And they’re worried about their culture, they’re worried about their way of life living on the ocean.”

The expedition is currently waiting for ice to move before setting sail for Cambridge Bay and then Pond Inlet.

In total, the expedition has 50 planned stops across 12 countries.