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SEDNA EPIC This short film by Joanna Lentini of Deep Focus Images highlights the all-women expedition team, Sedna Epic, along with Inuit elders and young women as they explore the frigid waters of Frobisher Bay, Nunavut. Through their ocean educational outreach programs including mobile aquariums and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) operations, the team helps to bring the ocean to eye level for the youngest members of Iqaluit’s community in the summer of 2016.
Hello and thank you for visiting my #GoFundMe page!
My name is Susan R. Eaton, and I'm a geoscientist, journalist and conservationist who 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 co-mingle.
Based in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, I study the interplay of plate tectonics, oceans, glaciers, climate and life in polar regions.
I'm also the leader of the Sedna Epic Expedition, which is comprised of an incredibly talented and passionate team of women ocean scientists, explorers, movie-makers, photographers, artists, educators, Inuit advisors, and polar divers and snorkelers from Canada, Mexico and the USA.
The Sedna Epic’s sea women scout, document and record disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.
Everyone knows something about climate change. But, few people are familiar with the term "ocean change."
In the Arctic, ocean change involves melting glaciers, disappearing sea ice, warming waters, ocean acidification, and shifting sea life populations.
Since 2014, Sedna’s sea women have mounted two snorkel and dive expeditions (2014 and 2016) in the Arctic, conducting ocean research. In consultation with their Inuit advisors, the sea women have delivered their innovative ocean education mobilization program in Inuit communities in Nunavut and northern Labrador.
Sedna's sea women bring the ocean to eye level for Inuit (many of whom don't swim) via: Mobile touch aquariums that temporarily house sea critters; by running underwater robot-building camps for youth; and by leading Inuit girls and Elders on snorkel safaris to see the marine biodiversity in their own back yards, so to speak.
But, our ocean work in the High Arctic is not finished...
Building upon our successes, Sedna's sea women return to the High Arctic in early August.
During August 4-18, 2018, the all-female Sedna Epic Expedition will unfold aboard the comfort and safety of the MV Ocean Endeavour, a 137-metre ice class vessel that's capable of exploring arctic waters in the summer. Team Sedna is travelling with polar outfitter and expedition partner Adventure Canada, a company with decades of expedition experience in Canada's High Arctic.
Katujjiqatigiit
Katujjiqatigiit is an Inuktitut word that means working together, shouldering the burden together, side by side.
Johnny Issaluk, Sedna’s esteemed Inuit advisor and community leader in Iqaluit, Nunavut, named Sedna’s expedition Katujjiqatigiit, because of its North-South relationship-building efforts and its cross-cultural ocean educational mobilization.
Team Sedna has been building a relationship of trust with Inuit leaders in northern communities since 2014, enabling it to deliver hands-on ocean programming for Inuit youth and Elders—at the community level and with Inuit in leadership and mentorship roles.
Sedna’s sea women collaborate with their Inuit advisors to create citizen ocean scientists in Nunavut.
Arctic Safari Expedition, August 4-18, 2018
Sedna Epic's Sailing/Scuba Diving/Snorkeling Route, Arctic Safari Expedition, August 4-18, 2018
During August 4 - 18, 2018, Team Sedna will mount an action-packed, Arctic safari expedition to Nunavut and Greenland, to document the impacts of global warming in the Arctic. Our program is ambitious, and we intend to make full use of the midnight sun!
As in 2014 and 2016, we'll deliver our ocean knowledge mobilization program, engaging Inuit youth, girls and Elders in Resolute and Pond Inlet, Nunavut, and in one community in Greenland.
The Sedna Epic has no paid staff. The sea women are volunteers, and we're all self-funded.
With your support and generosity, I'm hoping to raise $16,000 CAD (or approximately 75 percent of my personal costs for the August 4-18 expedition) via my #GoFundMe page.
Some of you have supported me and the Sedna Expedition in past expeditions. And for that, I'm eternalty grateful.
In the photo, text and videos below, you'll see the huge impact that your support has had on Inuit youth, girls and Elders in these remote communities.
The Sedna Epic's ocean mentorhsip program, established in the summer of 2016 for girls and young women (ages 16 to 24), was very well received in Iqaluit. I'm delighted to report that two of our young women mentees are currently getting certified as scuba divers, and will be joining Team Sedna, this coming summer, as full team members.
Just as in Sir John Franklin's day, polar exploration is not for the faint of heart! Financing a polar expedition is a daunting task that takes years of preparation and fundraising. And, nerves of steel...
Financing a polar expedition also takes a community of like-minded people (friends, family members, associates, peers, patrons, corporate partners, sponsors, dive equipment manufacturers, philanthropists, and strangers, even) to send Team Sedna to the High Arctic.
But, Sir John didn't have crowdsourcing 100 years ago, now did he?
Thank you, in advance, for your time and consideration of my request for personal support.
Sedna, the Inuit Legend
From Greenland to Alaska, Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea. And, she’s the mother of all marine mammals.
Also known as the “sea woman,” Sedna can take the form of a walrus or a double-tusked narwhal. She can also change into a ringed seal or a 200-year-old bowhead whale that witnessed Sir John Franklin's ill-fated HMS Erebus and HMS Terror sailing westward, in 1847, through the Northwest Passage.
Image: Playful Sedna by Inuk artist Kakulu Sagiatok, Cape Dorset, Nunavut: 1986, Stonecut
Bringing the ocean to eye level for the Inuit
Using mobile touch aquariums and underwater robots equipped with video-cameras, the Sedna Epic introduces the Inuit (who are largely non-swimmers) to the incredible biodiversity that lies below the waves in their back yards, so to speak. Equipping the Inuit with dry suits and masks, fins and snorkels, Team Sedna will lead the Inuit on snorkel safaris, literally "bringing the ocean to eye level."
The sea women will mentor teenage Inuit girls during the expedition, involving them in all aspects of their ocean educational activities and introducing them to careers in ocean science and technology, conservation, fisheries management, and polar diving as a form of ecotourism.
Image: Robot Day in Iqaluit, Nunavut: Sedna's sea women, Inuit advisors and female mentees proudly display the underwater robots that they built and flew in Frobisher Bay.
Photo courtesy of sednaepic.com — Amanda Cotton.
A warm up, of sorts...
The summer of 2018 represents a continuation of the Sedna Epic's social license to operate in the High Arctic, and a warm up, of sorts, for the Sedna Epic Expedition's ultimate goal: In the summers of 2020, Team Sedna plans to mount a snorkel relay of the Northwest Passage—all 3,000 kilometres of it—bringing global attention to disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.
During the 2020 snorkel relay, the sea women will visit ten Inuit and Inuvialuit communities situated along the Northwest Passage, delivering their innovative, hands-on ocean sharing program and empowering the next generation of indigenous female leaders to combat societal change and climate change.
Image: I'm wearing a traditional amautik (jacket) and kamiks (caribou boots) made by the Inuit women of Arctic Bay, Baffin Island, Nunavut.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Henshall, UK.
My Story: Out of Adversity Comes Opportunity
Twelve years ago, I suffered a serious scuba diving trauma that landed me in a hyperbaric chamber for three days, ending my 30-year diving career. Undaunted, my up-close-and-personal relationship with the ocean—which had included teaching scuba diving—didn’t end in the hyperbaric chamber…
Today, I explore the world’s oceans—from Antarctica to the Arctic—in the snorkel zone, a dynamic land-sea-ice-air interface where charismatic animals interact with snorkelers.
I've snorkeled with chatty belugas Hudson Bay, migrating salmon in Haida Gwaii, and with charging 1,400-pound leopard seals in Antarctica. During a snorkel expedition to witness the annual narwhal migration through the Northwest Passage, my co-explorers and I became trapped on a floating ice island, precipitating a 36-hour military air rescue off the northern coast of Baffin Island.
Since 2010, I've participated in four science-based ocean change expeditions to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Antarctica, Svalbard, Spitzbergen and Greenland. Readers followed me virtually, as I studied the interplay of plate tectonics, glaciers, ocean change, climate and life.
I've also two successful Sedna Epic Expeditions to the Arctic (Labrador, Baffin Island, Greenland and Iceland) in 2014 and 2016.
In 2015, I was was named one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trailblazers by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. A year later, I was named one of Canada's top female explorers, also by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. A member of the Explorers Club, I was named to the Explorers Club's (Canadian Chapter) 2014, 2015 and 2016 Honour Rolls.
An advocate of protecting Canada's wild spaces and the animals who call them home, I sit on the volunteer board of directors of Nature Canada.
Image: Striking my best yoga warrior pose, I'm chortled on by 300,000 King Penguins on Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island. Photo courtesy of susanreaton.com
The Sedna Epic: An Overview of 2014 and 2016
In July 2014, I assembled and led the Sedna Epic's 10-woman proof-of-concept snorkel relay expedition to northern Labrador and southwestern Greenland. The team also included two dive masters and two above-water cameramen.
Sedna's sea women snorkeled and dived in pack ice, berg bits, near icebergs and in the 9,000-foot-deep waters of the Davis Strait between Labrador and Greenland. Sponsored by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, we ran sea trials with the scooters, achieving distances of up to 36 kilometres in ten hours and proving that the Northwest Passage is within our grasp.
In July-August 2016, I led the 26-person Sedna Epic Expedition to Iqaluit, Nunavut. Team Sedna was comprised of 12 sea women, two Inuit advisors, two dive masters, and ten Inuit girls and young women enrolled in Sedna's ocean mentorship program.
In the summer of 2016, Team Sedna immersed itself (pun intended) in the issue of ocean change, snorkeling and diving in Frobisher Bay, Nunavut. The sea women also undertook a Greenland shark tagging and DNA program, to contribute scientific data to these little-know and rarely-seen deep-water sharks which are second, in size, to great white sharks.
Our Greenland shark program was unsuccessful, however, as the 'yummy' bait ball (rancid seal and walrus) failed to draw the sharks out of deep water.
In Closing
We live in a digital world where we're barraged hourly with information and requests for support—so, thank you, in advance, for reading my #GoFundMe campaign and for considering my request for support.
Every donation is greatly appreciated and significant to my overall goal of raising $16,000 CAD (or 75 percent of my expedition costs).
Please feel free to share my #GoFundMe campaign amongst your networks, enabling me to tell the Sedna story to a larger number of people.
I'll be posting updates regularly, on my preparations for the upcoming expedition to Nunavut and Greenland, so please stay tuned on FB, Twitter and Instagram.
The links below will provide more information about the Sedna Epic's 2014 and 2016 expeditions, and Team Sedna's preparations for the August 2018 expedition to the Arctic:
http://www.susanreaton.com/
www.facebook.com/susan.roberta.eaton
@SusanREaton_Geo (Twitter & Instagram)
http://www.sednaepic.com/
www.facebook.com/sednaepic
https://www.youtube.com/user/sednaepic
@sednaepic (Twitter & Instagram)
Hello and thank you for visiting my #GoFundMe page!
My name is Susan R. Eaton, and I'm a geoscientist, journalist and conservationist who 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 co-mingle.
Based in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, I study the interplay of plate tectonics, oceans, glaciers, climate and life in polar regions.
I'm also the leader of the Sedna Epic Expedition, which is comprised of an incredibly talented and passionate team of women ocean scientists, explorers, movie-makers, photographers, artists, educators, Inuit advisors, and polar divers and snorkelers from Canada, Mexico and the USA.
The Sedna Epic’s sea women scout, document and record disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.
Everyone knows something about climate change. But, few people are familiar with the term "ocean change."
In the Arctic, ocean change involves melting glaciers, disappearing sea ice, warming waters, ocean acidification, and shifting sea life populations.
Since 2014, Sedna’s sea women have mounted two snorkel and dive expeditions (2014 and 2016) in the Arctic, conducting ocean research. In consultation with their Inuit advisors, the sea women have delivered their innovative ocean education mobilization program in Inuit communities in Nunavut and northern Labrador.
Sedna's sea women bring the ocean to eye level for Inuit (many of whom don't swim) via: Mobile touch aquariums that temporarily house sea critters; by running underwater robot-building camps for youth; and by leading Inuit girls and Elders on snorkel safaris to see the marine biodiversity in their own back yards, so to speak.
But, our ocean work in the High Arctic is not finished...
Building upon our successes, Sedna's sea women return to the High Arctic in early August.
During August 4-18, 2018, the all-female Sedna Epic Expedition will unfold aboard the comfort and safety of the MV Ocean Endeavour, a 137-metre ice class vessel that's capable of exploring arctic waters in the summer. Team Sedna is travelling with polar outfitter and expedition partner Adventure Canada, a company with decades of expedition experience in Canada's High Arctic.
Katujjiqatigiit
Katujjiqatigiit is an Inuktitut word that means working together, shouldering the burden together, side by side.
Johnny Issaluk, Sedna’s esteemed Inuit advisor and community leader in Iqaluit, Nunavut, named Sedna’s expedition Katujjiqatigiit, because of its North-South relationship-building efforts and its cross-cultural ocean educational mobilization.
Team Sedna has been building a relationship of trust with Inuit leaders in northern communities since 2014, enabling it to deliver hands-on ocean programming for Inuit youth and Elders—at the community level and with Inuit in leadership and mentorship roles.
Sedna’s sea women collaborate with their Inuit advisors to create citizen ocean scientists in Nunavut.
Arctic Safari Expedition, August 4-18, 2018
Sedna Epic's Sailing/Scuba Diving/Snorkeling Route, Arctic Safari Expedition, August 4-18, 2018
During August 4 - 18, 2018, Team Sedna will mount an action-packed, Arctic safari expedition to Nunavut and Greenland, to document the impacts of global warming in the Arctic. Our program is ambitious, and we intend to make full use of the midnight sun!
As in 2014 and 2016, we'll deliver our ocean knowledge mobilization program, engaging Inuit youth, girls and Elders in Resolute and Pond Inlet, Nunavut, and in one community in Greenland.
The Sedna Epic has no paid staff. The sea women are volunteers, and we're all self-funded.
With your support and generosity, I'm hoping to raise $16,000 CAD (or approximately 75 percent of my personal costs for the August 4-18 expedition) via my #GoFundMe page.
Some of you have supported me and the Sedna Expedition in past expeditions. And for that, I'm eternalty grateful.
In the photo, text and videos below, you'll see the huge impact that your support has had on Inuit youth, girls and Elders in these remote communities.
The Sedna Epic's ocean mentorhsip program, established in the summer of 2016 for girls and young women (ages 16 to 24), was very well received in Iqaluit. I'm delighted to report that two of our young women mentees are currently getting certified as scuba divers, and will be joining Team Sedna, this coming summer, as full team members.
Just as in Sir John Franklin's day, polar exploration is not for the faint of heart! Financing a polar expedition is a daunting task that takes years of preparation and fundraising. And, nerves of steel...
Financing a polar expedition also takes a community of like-minded people (friends, family members, associates, peers, patrons, corporate partners, sponsors, dive equipment manufacturers, philanthropists, and strangers, even) to send Team Sedna to the High Arctic.
But, Sir John didn't have crowdsourcing 100 years ago, now did he?
Thank you, in advance, for your time and consideration of my request for personal support.
Sedna, the Inuit Legend
From Greenland to Alaska, Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea. And, she’s the mother of all marine mammals.
Also known as the “sea woman,” Sedna can take the form of a walrus or a double-tusked narwhal. She can also change into a ringed seal or a 200-year-old bowhead whale that witnessed Sir John Franklin's ill-fated HMS Erebus and HMS Terror sailing westward, in 1847, through the Northwest Passage.
Image: Playful Sedna by Inuk artist Kakulu Sagiatok, Cape Dorset, Nunavut: 1986, Stonecut
Bringing the ocean to eye level for the Inuit
Using mobile touch aquariums and underwater robots equipped with video-cameras, the Sedna Epic introduces the Inuit (who are largely non-swimmers) to the incredible biodiversity that lies below the waves in their back yards, so to speak. Equipping the Inuit with dry suits and masks, fins and snorkels, Team Sedna will lead the Inuit on snorkel safaris, literally "bringing the ocean to eye level."
The sea women will mentor teenage Inuit girls during the expedition, involving them in all aspects of their ocean educational activities and introducing them to careers in ocean science and technology, conservation, fisheries management, and polar diving as a form of ecotourism.
Image: Robot Day in Iqaluit, Nunavut: Sedna's sea women, Inuit advisors and female mentees proudly display the underwater robots that they built and flew in Frobisher Bay.
Photo courtesy of sednaepic.com — Amanda Cotton.
A warm up, of sorts...
The summer of 2018 represents a continuation of the Sedna Epic's social license to operate in the High Arctic, and a warm up, of sorts, for the Sedna Epic Expedition's ultimate goal: In the summers of 2020, Team Sedna plans to mount a snorkel relay of the Northwest Passage—all 3,000 kilometres of it—bringing global attention to disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.
During the 2020 snorkel relay, the sea women will visit ten Inuit and Inuvialuit communities situated along the Northwest Passage, delivering their innovative, hands-on ocean sharing program and empowering the next generation of indigenous female leaders to combat societal change and climate change.
Image: I'm wearing a traditional amautik (jacket) and kamiks (caribou boots) made by the Inuit women of Arctic Bay, Baffin Island, Nunavut.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Henshall, UK.
My Story: Out of Adversity Comes Opportunity
Twelve years ago, I suffered a serious scuba diving trauma that landed me in a hyperbaric chamber for three days, ending my 30-year diving career. Undaunted, my up-close-and-personal relationship with the ocean—which had included teaching scuba diving—didn’t end in the hyperbaric chamber…
Today, I explore the world’s oceans—from Antarctica to the Arctic—in the snorkel zone, a dynamic land-sea-ice-air interface where charismatic animals interact with snorkelers.
I've snorkeled with chatty belugas Hudson Bay, migrating salmon in Haida Gwaii, and with charging 1,400-pound leopard seals in Antarctica. During a snorkel expedition to witness the annual narwhal migration through the Northwest Passage, my co-explorers and I became trapped on a floating ice island, precipitating a 36-hour military air rescue off the northern coast of Baffin Island.
Since 2010, I've participated in four science-based ocean change expeditions to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Antarctica, Svalbard, Spitzbergen and Greenland. Readers followed me virtually, as I studied the interplay of plate tectonics, glaciers, ocean change, climate and life.
I've also two successful Sedna Epic Expeditions to the Arctic (Labrador, Baffin Island, Greenland and Iceland) in 2014 and 2016.
In 2015, I was was named one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trailblazers by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. A year later, I was named one of Canada's top female explorers, also by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. A member of the Explorers Club, I was named to the Explorers Club's (Canadian Chapter) 2014, 2015 and 2016 Honour Rolls.
An advocate of protecting Canada's wild spaces and the animals who call them home, I sit on the volunteer board of directors of Nature Canada.
Image: Striking my best yoga warrior pose, I'm chortled on by 300,000 King Penguins on Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island. Photo courtesy of susanreaton.com
The Sedna Epic: An Overview of 2014 and 2016
In July 2014, I assembled and led the Sedna Epic's 10-woman proof-of-concept snorkel relay expedition to northern Labrador and southwestern Greenland. The team also included two dive masters and two above-water cameramen.
Sedna's sea women snorkeled and dived in pack ice, berg bits, near icebergs and in the 9,000-foot-deep waters of the Davis Strait between Labrador and Greenland. Sponsored by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, we ran sea trials with the scooters, achieving distances of up to 36 kilometres in ten hours and proving that the Northwest Passage is within our grasp.
In July-August 2016, I led the 26-person Sedna Epic Expedition to Iqaluit, Nunavut. Team Sedna was comprised of 12 sea women, two Inuit advisors, two dive masters, and ten Inuit girls and young women enrolled in Sedna's ocean mentorship program.
In the summer of 2016, Team Sedna immersed itself (pun intended) in the issue of ocean change, snorkeling and diving in Frobisher Bay, Nunavut. The sea women also undertook a Greenland shark tagging and DNA program, to contribute scientific data to these little-know and rarely-seen deep-water sharks which are second, in size, to great white sharks.
Our Greenland shark program was unsuccessful, however, as the 'yummy' bait ball (rancid seal and walrus) failed to draw the sharks out of deep water.
In Closing
We live in a digital world where we're barraged hourly with information and requests for support—so, thank you, in advance, for reading my #GoFundMe campaign and for considering my request for support.
Every donation is greatly appreciated and significant to my overall goal of raising $16,000 CAD (or 75 percent of my expedition costs).
Please feel free to share my #GoFundMe campaign amongst your networks, enabling me to tell the Sedna story to a larger number of people.
I'll be posting updates regularly, on my preparations for the upcoming expedition to Nunavut and Greenland, so please stay tuned on FB, Twitter and Instagram.
The links below will provide more information about the Sedna Epic's 2014 and 2016 expeditions, and Team Sedna's preparations for the August 2018 expedition to the Arctic:
http://www.susanreaton.com/
www.facebook.com/susan.roberta.eaton
@SusanREaton_Geo (Twitter & Instagram)
http://www.sednaepic.com/
www.facebook.com/sednaepic
https://www.youtube.com/user/sednaepic
@sednaepic (Twitter & Instagram)