Fall 2023 The Explorers Journal

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T HE OF F IC I A L QU A R T E R LY OF T HE E X P L OR E RS CL UB S INCE 1921

THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL night shift

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contents FALL 2023

features NIGHT FALLS IN AMAZONIA

M A PPING T HE BAT T L E O F M I D WAY

biodiversity aglow in the rainforests of Brazil

ushering in a new era of marine exploration

by LEO LANNA

by JAMES P. DELGADO, RUSSELL E. MAT THEWS, and IDEE C. MONTIJO

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INTO THE POL AR NIGHT

T HE F U T UR E OF E XPL OR AT ION

ocean life abounds in a world devoid of sunlight

a new golden age of discovery is upon us… and it looks very different

text and images by RANDALL HYMAN

by TERRY GARCIA and CHRIS RAINIER

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CH A NGING T HE N A R R AT I V E how we tell stories about the current climate crisis ALEXANDER MORE in conversation with BILL WEIR 66

regulars PRESIDENT’S LE T TER

EDITOR’S NOTE

E XPLOR ATION NE WS

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HARVESTING THE WILD

E X TREME MEDICINE

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RE VIE WS

WHAT WERE THE Y THINKING?

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COVER: A RARE KITE MANTIS OF THE GENUS CHOERADODIS STRIKES A DEFENSIVE POSE UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT. IMAGE COURTESY PROJETO MANTIS.

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president’s letter

a new golden age of exploration and collaboration RICHARD GARRIOTT DE CAYEUX President

The fall season kicked off at The Explorers Club with a highly successful Climate Week, chaired by Alexander More and organized by his team, with the aid of Club staff. Just as I have noted about our recent Oceans Weeks, I am impressed with its shift in focus—moving away from just reporting on the dire circumstances we are facing to highlighting the many actions we are now taking! And as an organization, we are continuing to forge new and more lasting bonds with NGOs and agencies that share our vision and are working toward creating a more sustainable planet for us all. It was during Climate Week that we announced a historic partnership between The Explorers Club and UNESCO to put the need for nature conservation and cultural preservation in the spotlight. Leading this effort on behalf of the Club was Julie Chase and Charles Norchi, who worked closely with a team from UNESCO.

Instrumental in forging this partnership was His  Excellency, Prince Albert II of Monaco, an honorary director of our august institution. Sharing solutions and inspiring others is a key driver in finding the best possible path through the complex climate challenges we face on our planet, spaceship Earth. I hope you find inspiration from the great work presented in these pages. It is very clear to me that this age of exponentially advancing science and technology is also bearing fruit for explorers, enabling us to understand what we see with ever-better eyes. As explorers, we must bring back the knowledge and information the world needs, so we can understand and manage this amazing planet. And I applaud the spirited discussion on the future of exploration we have in this edition of The Explorers Journal, as well those at our many face-to-face events. The future is indeed up to us!

EXPLORERS CLUB UN COMMITTEE MEMBERS CHARLES NORCHI, MARTIN NWEEIA, TIM CHALLEN, AND JULIE CHASE; EXPLORERS CLUB PRESIDENT RICHARD GARRIOTT DE CAYEUX; AND UNESCO REPRESENTATIVES STEFANIA GIANNINI, JULIAN PELLAUX, CAMILLA NORDHEIM-LARSEN, AND JULIAN BARBIÈRE.

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editor’s note

night shift ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER Editor-in-Chief

“As night falls over the Amazonian rainforest, the most exotic and vibrant sounds and colors awaken,” writes Projeto Mantis founder Leo Lanna in a marvelous essay this edition. “It is a magical transformation that, with each expedition, continues to reveal new and wonderful species and transform our view of the forest—and, in particular, of the mantises we study there.” As the days grow shorter heading into the winter, the notion of nightfall takes on a new dimension—especially in the High Arctic, which is cloaked in total darkness for nearly two months each year. Researchers there have long wondered just what happens to sea life during the long polar night, how it adapts to a world temporarily devoid of sunlight. Now they are beginning to find answers, thanks in large part to groundbreaking work that has been carried out by the Deep Impact mission since 2020, led by marine ecologist Jørgen Berge of the University of Tromsø–The Arctic University of Norway. In this edition, science writer and photographer Randall Hyman, who has been embedded with the project since its inception, writes, “Here, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, at a remote research station

called Ny-Ålesund, scientists have discovered that darkness itself can be the basis of life that affords tiny marine organisms a jump-start on reproduction before the returning sun kickstarts a madhouse of rebirth each spring.” The goal of Deep Impact, Berge says, is to assess the potential effects of artificial light on those organisms that remain active in one of the last undisturbed, pristine dark habitats on the planet as sea ice continues to melt, increasing the prospect of the Arctic Ocean becoming an major seaway for maritime traffic. That the climate is changing is not in question. How we address it and adapt to it is. Climate scientist Alexander More and CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir take up the subject in a spirited discussion—a highlight of Climate Week that has been distilled for our readers. We also check in with noted photographer Chris Rainier, who recently teamed up with longtime National Geographic program director Terry Garcia to pen an excellent new book on the future of exploration. They have graciously shared with us many of the insights they gleaned from the dozens of luminaries they spoke with.

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The Explorers  Journal © (ISSN 0014-5025) is published quarterly by The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Explorers Journal, 46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021. SUBSCRIPTIONS

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having trained under the watchful eye of legendary guide Babu Chiri Sherpa, who died after falling into a crevasse on Everest on April 29, 2001.

T O P P I N G O U T AT O P A L L 14 IN RECORD TIME

EVEREST QUEEN NOTCHES K 2 On July 27, Lhakpa Sherpa, 49, a record-holding Nepali climber popularly known as the “Everest Queen,” stood atop 8,611-meter K2 in Pakistan, having abandoned her previous summit bid from above Camp  III in 2010 when weather conditions on the peak—known in climbing circles as the “Savage Mountain”—greatly

deteriorated, thwarting further progress. Lhakpa, who received this year’s Tenzing Norgay Award at The Explorers Club Annual Dinner in April, broke her own world record by standing atop Everest for a tenth time in May of 2022. Lhakpa, a Makalu Sherpani, first climbed Everest from the Nepal side in 2000,

In a related story, that same day saw Norwegian Kristin Harila, 37, and Nepal’s Tenjen Lama Sherpa, 35, topped out on K2 on July  27, completing their recordsetting climb of all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters in 92 days. They bested the record set by Nepal’s Nirmal Purja, who completed the feat in six months and a week in 2019. This latest climb was not without controversy, however, as drone footage revealed Harila and others stepping over the body of Muhammad Hassan, a local porter and father of three, who had fallen from a dangerous part of the mountain known as “the Bottleneck,” and later died. “We tried everything we could to save him,” Harila later told the Washington Post in a phone interview, her voice breaking.

LHAKPA SHERPA, RIGHT, STANDS ATOP THE SUMMIT OF K2 ON JULY 27. IMAGE COURTESY NEPAL NEWS.

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SHACKLETON EPIC COMES TO IMA X

SE A2SUMMIT

A N TA R C T I C E X P E D I T I O N E Y E S A N O V E M B E R 2 0 24 D E P A R T U R E If all goes according to plan, James McAlloon, 31, and Henk  Morgans, 37, plan to undertake a ten-week, 1,200-kilometer expedition to West Antarctica next fall, which is to include a summit of 4,892-meter Mt. Vinson. It will reportedly be the first human-powered expedition to summit the continent’s tallest mountain from the sea. The two Australians plan to set off from north Berkner Island and head across the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf to Vinson Base Camp. The journey will entail skiing across remote areas, navigating crevasses, crossing glaciers, and climbing mountains while hauling a 250-kilogram load of gear and supplies. Beyond mere adventure, the plan is to carry out a bit of science, according to McAlloon. “We have forged a partnership with esteemed

polar scientists from the University of Canterbury to collect climate data during our traverse, which will help scientists better understand the current and changing conditions in this fragile area. We will have two small devices attached to our sleds that will measure wind speed and direction, temperature, air pressure, and precipitation. We will have two additional small instruments to measure the terrain that we cross on our journey to obtain a surface profile of different areas around the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf and Ellsworth Mountains.” In the coming months, the two will refine their preparations with an ascent of the tallest peaks in North and South America, as well as a planned crossing of Greenland. For information: sea2summitantarctica.com.

Now making the rounds in theaters is Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival— The IMAX Experience. The immersive film reveals the true story of the survival of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 27-man crew of the Endurance, during the Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition (1914–1917) as told by the only man ever to have repeated their incredible feat—Australian explorer and adventurer, Tim  Jarvis. Following in the beset crew’s footsteps, Jarvis reveals the enduring legacy of Shackleton’s crisis leadership in the face of impossible odds—a lesson more relevant to us now than ever before. “Shackleton’s goal,” says Jarvis, “was to save all his men from Antarctica. Our goal now is to save Antarctica from man.”

JAMES MCALLOON AND EXPEDITION PARTNER HENK MORGANS TRAIN IN THE NEW ZEALAND SOUTHERN ALPS FOR THEIR TRIP TO WEST ANTARCTICA IN NOVEMBER 2024. IMAGE COURTESY SEA2SUMMIT ANTARCTICA.

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NIGHT FALLS AMAZONIA IN

biodiversity aglow in the rainforests of Brazil by LEO L ANNA

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A 2023 EC50 HONOREE AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER, LEO LANNA HAS BEEN LEADING EXPEDITIONS IN AMAZONIA AND THE ATLANTIC FOREST SINCE 2015. HE IS THE FOUNDER OF PROJETO MANTIS, AN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH, CONSERVATION, AND WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY ORGANIZATION, THE MISSION OF WHICH IS TO SHARE INFORMATION ON THE EXTRAORDINARY BIODIVERSITY OF THE RAINFOREST.

despite rampant deforestation, biodiversity abounds—particularly in species of praying mantises, which are everywhere, in myriad fantastic shapes and colors. At my side is my life partner, Lvcas Fiat, the creative director of Projeto Mantis, an organization we founded in 2015 to study these extraordinary insects. Although mantises are found throughout the temperate and tropical world, the most diverse varieties are found here in Brazil, with some 250 known native species—a number that is sure to double as we continue to discover new and rare species. With each new discovery, we cannot help but be amazed by their wide set of camouflages, resembling everything from leaves to flowers; their courtship dances; and their incredible vision and single-strike precision when it comes to hunting. We are also working to dispel some of the myths surrounding these creatures—namely that praying mantises are cannibals, whose females will eat the male’s head while mating. While that is indeed true for a few species in temperate

As night begins to fall, I walk the meandering trails of an igapó, a blackwater flooded rainforest in the Cristalino Reserve, an 11,400-hectare protected area in the extreme south of Brazilian Amazonia. The warm, waning light of day bathes its giant trees and entangled roots, casting silhouettes that dance across a dark-leafed ground as the daytime cacophony of the igapó’s forest symphony begins to quiet. I suddenly stop in my tracks as a peccary family crosses my path—the young leading the pack as the adults follow behind. One of them stops to stare at me and our eyes lock. It then moves on, its group vanishing into the shadows. For more than a month I’ve been walking the lush forests here, where,

OPENING SPREAD: THE RAINFOREST IS AGLOW UNDER A FULL MOON IN AMAZONIA. FACING PAGE: A NEW, UNDESCRIBED SPECIES OF THE GENUS COPTOPTERYX THAT INHABITS HIGH-ALTITUDE FIELDS ATOP THE ATLANTIC FOREST MOUNTAINS. ALTHOUGH COLORFUL, HE VANISHES IN HIS NATURAL HABITAT. ALL IMAGES THIS STORY COURTESY PROJETO MANTIS.

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regions, the majority of praying mantises are found in tropical regions, where such behavior has not been observed. Tonight, we have embarked on the exploration of a new trail, one we have dubbed “Cajá,” after a local fruit, Spondias mombin, that thrives here. As we set up our basecamp for the evening, a two-meter-long, vibrant red snake meanders about our feet. Frightened by our presence, it escapes down a hole—the entrance to a lair of a hand-sized tarantula. The two creatures brush by each other with nary a fuss. “Did we really see that?,” I ask Lvcas. Luckily, a video he shot proves it was not an illusion. We take that rare encounter as sign of more promising fieldwork to come, as over the past month we have already identified some 30 mantis species—several new to science, all of them unique. Just as we had hoped, the evening proves more fruitful than we could have imagined. Within hours, we find a thorn praying mantis of the genus Dougonyx, which was first described in 2019 but had yet to be seen alive in the field. As we walk back to camp, I stop to photograph an interesting spiky stick insect. Lvcas, who continues to forge ahead, his expert eyes scanning his surroundings, suddenly calls out to me with the urgency of a discovery. Once I catch up with him, we can hardly believe what is front of us—an extremely rare kite praying mantis of the genus Choeradodis. We knew of its existence in this forest, but had yet to find one until now, a month into the expedition, and it would take yet another month to find a second individual, which we spied on the last evening of fieldwork.

A YET-TO-BE-DESCRIBED SPECIES OF THE THORN PRAYING MANTIS OF THE GENUS DOUGONYX, PREVIOUSLY KNOWN ONLY FROM MUSEUM SPECIMENS. THIS INDIVIDUAL IS WELL-CAMOUFLAGED IN THE SPIKY PALM TREES OF AMAZONIA.

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Discoveries such as these have only heightened our curiosity and led to still more questions—about the insects’ breeding, migrations, and capacity for sight and flight. On a recent expedition into the Atlantic Forest, the tropical forest along Brazil’s coast, we followed up on the trail of an intriguing species, a large praying mantis of Amazonian lineage that had been photographed in the region. If indeed it was the same species, we wondered how it got here, as the two forests have been separated for thousands of years. Or, conversely, was it one new to science that shared a deeptime lineage with one of the largest in the neotropics? While the reserve provided a fantastic refuge for the region’s unique and surprising biodiversity, the ecosystem surrounding it had been all but decimated—native flora displaced by plantations of coffee, orange, and eucalyptus trees. Over the course of our weeklong expedition there, our search revealed many beautiful species of praying mantises. And, as has become the norm for us, the most extraordinary discoveries were made on the last night of our expedition—at 4:30 AM, to be exact. That is when we laid eyes on that elusive mantis thought to be of Amazonian lineage—a member of the genus Macromantis. Not only is it new to science, it is now the largest-known praying mantis in the Atlantic Forest and one far larger than its distant Amazonian relatives. It is clear that our work has only just begun. That’s why our core mission is to continue carrying out expeditions to places where no one has ever looked for mantises. Among our targets for future study

As night falls over the Amazonian rainforest, the most exotic and vibrant sounds and colors awaken. It is a magical transformation that, with each expedition, continues to reveal new and wonderful species and transform our view of the forest—in particular, the lives of the mantises we study. On a recent foray to Caxiuanã National Forest, a 300,000-hectare preserve in the Lower Amazonia in northern Brazil, we brought along a multidisciplinary team equipped with exciting technology that promises to revolutionize our understanding of rainforest ecology. Our goal was to determine whether mantises are biofluorescent. Do they emit light outside the range of human eyesight? The phenomenon is becoming increasingly well-known among sea life, particularly at great depths, thanks to the pioneering work of marine biologists such as David Gruber. It has been observed on several occasions among other species in a forest setting, including in Amazonia, but rarely insects. If we could capture these creatures on film with the aid of ultraviolet light, it would answer this question—and quickly. Taking our first UV shot, we were stunned to find that most everything we gazed upon was flashing back at us. The entire rainforest was alive in colors we had never imagined— purples, greens, and fluorescent oranges. Over the course of a month, we documented the biofluorescence of more than 300 species, including praying mantises. In many ways, what we captured revealed a paradox—at least as far as the human eye is concerned. By daylight, and by night for that matter, mantises are masters of camouflage—invisible to all but those of us with eyes trained to spot them. Yet, to their fellow forest denizens, they may be advertising their presence in spectacular style. A case in point being the dead leaf praying mantis that, under intense UV, emits a dazzling blue glow.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: A RARE KITE MANTIS OF THE GENUS CHOERADODIS, VISIBLY ON DEFENSE DISPLAY UNDER UV AND UNDER VISIBLE LIGHT. FACING PAGE: MARMOSOPS, A NIGHT MARSUPIAL PHOTOGRAPHED UNDER UV LIGHT IN AMAZONIA.

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is Mount Roraima, the legendary tepui whose cascade of unique and exquisite ecosystems inspired The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We also have a list of ecosystems without a single mantis having been recorded, including rainforest-filled canyons and Amazonian mountains. Surely, mantises must be present there, if only one knows where to look. When we share stories of our work in the rainforest at night, we are often asked how we have found such “courage” to go there. Our answer: “Bravery is not needed, as we have no fear. Nights in the forests are kind and protect thousands of creatures. They are simply guardians of secrets we seek to reveal with respect. If there is a fear, it’s of returning the following season only to find that what was once a forest has been transformed into barren land.” Little did we know when we founded Projeto Mantis, surveying the countryside where I grew up, that the study of praying mantises would become a lifelong calling. We are now looking to build an institute headquartered in a rainforest—complete with a laboratory, lodge, and studio that will enable students to aid us in our research on praying mantises and other rainforest denizens. And, slowly, this dream is becoming a reality. We have been fortunate to have found partners here in Brazil and around the world who are willing to support our work— people and institutions who, like ourselves, are looking to truly experience nature and learn its extraordinary stories.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: A YOUNG FEMALE OF THE SPECIES ROYACANTHOPS CONFUSA, FIRST DESCRIBED IN 2023, REVEALS HER STRONG BLUE GLOW UNDER UV LIGHT. FACING PAGE: ONLY RECENTLY THIS MEMBER OF THE GENUS MACROMANTIS WAS DISCOVERED, THE LARGEST PRAYING MANTIS IN THE ATLANTIC FOREST AND ONE FAR LARGER THAN ITS DISTANT AMAZONIAN RELATIVES. THE AUTHOR IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON ITS FORMAL DESCRIPTION.

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INTO THE

POLAR NIGHT ocean life abounds in a world devoid of sunlight text and images by R ANDALL HYMAN

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A ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI-BASED JOURNALIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER, RANDALL HYMAN HAS BEEN EMBEDDED WITH THE ARCTIC UNIVERSITY OF NORWAY’S DEEP IMPACT MISSION SINCE ITS LAUNCH IN 2020. HIS WRITINGS AND IMAGES HAVE APPEARED IN THE ATLANTIC, SMITHSONIAN, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND NATURE.

Somewhere in the vast Arctic darkness, an unmanned skiff named Apherusa is speeding toward our research vessel on a collision course. While a scientist and I launch a drone copter from our ship’s icy bow, Apherusa’s skipper—nautical miles away—aims a GPS icon straight for our portside. It is a crucial test of the unmanned skiff’s ability to collect data from the glowing waters around our research vessel. As the drone whines above, Apherusa’s green navigation light suddenly materializes in the seas below. She swerves, narrowly missing our hull, only to disappear again into the night. While her sonar records zooplankton diving deep from our ship’s glare, the drone copter photographs the watery halo of our ship’s illumination for later analysis. “My heart was racing,” Apherusa’s pilot, Emily Venables, tells me that evening at the marine lab on Spitsbergen. “I was afraid I had crashed into the ship.” Venables’ job, and the research team’s focus, was to measure how marine organisms react to human incursions of light in one of the darkest oceans on the planet at the darkest time of year. In addition to Apherusa, their tools included a torpedo-shaped submersible and a variety of specially designed cameras, light meters, and sonar for exploring this frigid realm—a topsy-turvy world where deep-sea bioluminescent lantern fish bob near the

surface and zooplankton maintain a circadian rhythm despite the lack of daylight. Here, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, at a remote research station called Ny-Ålesund, scientists have discovered that darkness itself can be the basis of life, which affords tiny marine organisms a jump-start on reproduction before the returning sun kickstarts a madhouse of rebirth each spring. They have also discovered that the very process of observing these creatures, finetuned as they are to darkness, alters their behavior by introducing artificial light. In a recent paper, the team showed that bright deck light scatters zooplankton and fish as deep as 200 meters, and that red lights, long considered benign, can be just as disruptive as white ones. As sea ice vanishes, shipping routes and oil drilling rigs are expanding across the Arctic. Understanding how the region’s tiniest marine organisms react to increasing light pollution is important, since oceans

OPENING SPREAD: THE RV HELMER HANSSEN SAILS THROUGH ICY WATERS DURING THE POLAR NIGHT RESEARCH CRUISE IN KONGSFJORDEN, SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO, NORWAY. FACING PAGE: A QUADCOPTER HOVERS ABOVE THE RESEARCH SHIP.

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generate much of the planet’s oxygen—particularly during the polar spring when vast algal blooms supercharge the food chain. Svalbard, pristine and cloaked in darkness four months a year, is a perfect laboratory for gleaning such information.

UNR AVELING MARINE MYSTERIES This was not my first trip with the team, led by marine ecologist Jørgen Berge of the University of Tromsø–The Arctic University of Norway. We had traveled together in 2016 during another of his annual winter expeditions. Scant years before that no one even bothered exploring the polar night’s oceans. For one, the region’s fjords were often inaccessible, frozen solid. Rapid climate change now leaves many of those in Svalbard icefree, even in winter. But, more importantly, organisms like algae, krill, amphipods, and copepods—the base of the food chain— were assumed to be in stasis throughout the polar night, moribund in the absence of sunlight and photosynthesis. Then, in 2007, Berge retrieved moorings he had positioned in two Svalbard fjords the previous autumn to monitor the rebloom of life when sea ice thawed in spring. Upon reviewing the acoustic data, he noticed a mysterious daily signal of rising and falling biomass where none was thought to exist in the darkness of the polar night. Normally cued to sunlight, the discovery of plankton responding to invisible daylight rocked the world of polar marine biology.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: THE UNMANNED SURFACE VEHICLE (USV) APHERUSA CRUISES NEAR THE RV HELMER HANSSEN WITH AN ECHOSOUNDER TO MONITOR ZOOPLANKTON REACTION TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN KONGSFJORDEN. FACING PAGE: SCIENTISTS AND DECK HANDS EMPTY SHRIMP COLLECTED IN TRAWL NETS ABOARD THE RESEARCH SHIP DURING A TRANSECT OF BILLEFJORDEN IN THE SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO.

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“It was like an accident, a complete surprise,” Berge recalls. Having discovered the presence of teeming life, he was in for another surprise: subsequent expeditions failed to detect the same amount of activity the moorings had shown. Several years later came another revelation, according to Berge’s colleague, Maxime Geoffroy, of the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. “What we were looking for at first was the physiology of these organisms in the pristine polar night, but we were removing the pristine part of it by coming with our big ship full of white lights,” Geoffroy tells me. This year’s mission was to determine just how much human presence and bright lights impact circadian rhythms. To do so, we would be comparing marine samples collected during forays with lights out against those retrieved with deck lights glaring. Having arrived with fish and zooplankton gleaned from three Svalbard fjords, and with a range of experiments scheduled over the coming week, the team filled darkened cold rooms in the Ny-Ålesund marine lab with trays and flasks of collected treasures. In the week that followed, we focused on the responses of marine organisms to artificial versus natural light. Zooplankton were subjected to simulated moonlight and a bus-sized netted cage called “Azkaban” was submerged outside the marine lab, filled with two species of cod and armed with sonar for recording responses to the cyclical on-off glare of a spotlight. One goal was to hone technology and techniques to establish acoustic profiles for individual species, minimizing the need for disruptive lights and optical confirmation.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: A COLLECTION NET IS DEPLOYED FROM THE RV HELMER HANSSEN. FACING PAGE: A CTENOPHORE GLOWS IN THE MARINE LAB AT NY-ÅLESUND—ITS LIGHT PRODUCED BY CTENES, EIGHT COMB-LIKE ROWS OF CILIA USED FOR LOCOMOTION.

“Last year we came not expecting it to work,” explains Geoffroy’s grad student, Muriel Dunn. “Azkaban was really more like a pilot, but it actually worked really well.” From a small hut on the icy wharf, she followed the cage’s sonar signals on a laptop. As expected, the fish were migrating up and down in response to the spotlight, but for the first time distinct acoustic profiles for each species were clear. This is particularly useful information for fisheries managers since more southerly Atlantic cod are pushing northward, preying upon the Arctic’s smaller, endemic polar cod. The key to success, says Geoffroy, is the use of broadband rather than traditional sonar. “Instead of using a ping like in submarine movies, we use a chirp,” he explains, demonstrating with a short birdlike whistle. “A wider range of frequencies increases vertical resolution, and we see within a few centimeters where the animals are in the water column. It’s the Holy Grail of being able to identify just by using acoustics and not nets.”

BEYOND THE LIMELIGHT For scientists working aboard the ship, their mission is to “disappear.” During lights-out sweeps, scientists work under ghostly red lights, deploying submersible experiments. Beyond the darkened decks lays the vast, raw Arctic. On quiet, windless nights, sheets of emerald and lavender northern lights dance above barely visible snowy mountains. These exquisite moments lure scientists back each year, despite frozen fingers, seasickness, and possibly worse. During lights-on operations collecting fish, Helmer Hanssen becomes a traditional trawler. Large nets and heavy cables drag across icy decks over massive rollers, threatening to snag careless seafarers and flip them down the stern’s open trawl slide into black seas and churning propellers.

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Several days and nights of babysitting her charges in an icy vault has worsened a nagging cough, and she describes her experiment in a whispery voice. “The southern species that come in with currents during summer, they can’t make it through the winter here. We want to know why.” Last year, she and a colleague detected unusual RNA activity in Calanus copepods, piquing their interest. Their experiment this year simulated a shortened version of the Moon’s odd cycle during the polar night— constantly above the horizon around full phase, and absent when less than half. “Our hypothesis,” she says, “is that somehow some Arctic species utilize moonlight that other species can’t.” If Hatlebakk is right, her research will help scientists understand whether small changes in light from loss of pack ice and brightening seas could have big consequences in the Arctic. As this year’s work concludes and the land-based team begins packing up, Helmer Hanssen’s captain radios the marine lab to report that the on-board team has completed its final lights-out transects in another fjord. It is time to head home, but an approaching storm threatens to delay us by two days. The next morning, a one-hour break in heavy winds allows the ship to dock, and the marine lab team scurries aboard as crates are loaded by crane. When winds suddenly worsen, we quickly push off. Sailing due south in rough seas, Helmer Hanssen beelines toward a faint glimmer of brightening sky on the horizon, a reminder of spring’s fast approach and the teeming life already astir in the seas around us.

Storms were frequent during our voyage, but more than weather hindered our plans. At the start of our journey, engine trouble forced Helmer Hanssen back to mainland Norway and nearly canceled the entire cruise. One member was left ashore with covid. Working shoulder to shoulder in small labs and enduring Arctic chill aboard small boats, the team was threatened by rapidly spreading sore throats and coughs. Computer bugs also plagued science instruments, including the remote-controlled submersible. Days of troubleshooting brought the system online just in time for its maiden voyage. Running in tandem with Apherusa, the submersible’s sonar matches its sister craft’s, showing identical rise and fall of marine biomass as the pair threads their way past Helmer Hanssen’s lights-on, lights-off sweeps. According to Berge, it is a step toward someday using multiple autonomous vehicles to remotely record how artificial light disrupts various marine organisms. The team also measured marine light pollution using a camera and suite of instruments armed with flashing lights and colored filters. A circular steel frame carries the array far below, measuring how far different wavelengths emanate at varying depths and what species are present. “One way to know marine populations is to take net samples, but we’re speeding up the process by putting a microscope directly in the ocean,” says senior scientist Emlyn Davies, who has developed an underwater camera for identifying species based on silhouettes. Understanding how marine populations react to the dimmest of light is equally important. “Something allows the more Arctic species to make it through the winter,” explains Maja Hatlebakk back on land as she inspects copepods illuminated by dim, eerie light in one of the dark cold rooms at the marine lab.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: THE AURORA BOREALIS DANCES ABOVE THE NY-ÅLESUND SCIENCE VILLAGE IN MID-JANUARY. FACING PAGE: RALPH STEVENSON-JONES OF SINTEF (THE FOUNDATION FOR INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNICAL RESEARCH AT THE NORWEGIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY) PROGRAMS AN INSTRUMENT SUITE FOR MEASURING MARINE LIGHT TRANSMISSION.

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MAPPING BATTLE MIDWAY THE

OF

ushering in a new era of marine exploration by JAMES P. DELGADO, RUSSELL E. MAT THEWS, and IDEE C. MONTIJO

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A FELLOW OF THE E XPLORERS CLUB SINCE 1997, JAMES P. DELG ADO IS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF SE ARCH, INC., A LE ADING CULTUR AL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT FIRM. A FORMER DIRECTOR OF MARITIME HERITAGE FOR NOA A’S OFFICE OF NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARIES, DELG ADO HOLDS A PHD IN ARCHAEOLOGY FROM SIMON FR ASER UNIVERSIT Y. RUSSELL E. MAT THE WS, A FELLOW OF THE E XPLORERS CLUB SINCE 1991, IS PRESIDENT OF THE AIR /SE A HERITAGE FOUNDATION, W HICH IS DEDICATED TO THE STUDY, INVESTIG ATION, AND PRESERVATION OF RELICS, W RECKS, SITES, AND STORIES REL ATED TO AVIATION AND MARITIME HISTORY. IDEE C. MONTIJO, A MEMBER OF THE CLUB SINCE 2010, IS AN ENGINEER AND TECHNICAL DIVER W ITH THE AIR /SE A HERITAGE FOUNDATION.

remote northwestern section of the marine protected area. At its heart, the journey was also a voyage of pure exploration in a place of exceptional cultural significance to native Hawaiians, abundant in biological and geological diversity, and historically tied to voyages of exploration, colonization, whaling, and transpacific trade. Vast stretches of this extraordinary region also bore witness to one of the most consequential naval air-sea battles in human history, Midway, a 1942 clash that claimed thousands of lives and altered the course of the Second World War. NOAA and its partners have previously undertaken exploration in the area, leading to the discoveries of significant shipwrecks such as the Two Brothers, a whaler tied to the real-life story behind Moby Dick, and the U.S. Navy steamer Saginaw, whose crew endured harrowing hardships before their rescue at the hands of sailors dispatched by the Kingdom of Hawaii. While explorers Robert D. Ballard, David Jourdan, Jeff Morris, Paul Allen, Robert Kraft, Frank Thompson, and others have discovered the wrecks of the WWII aircraft carriers—the USS  Yorktown (CV-5) and Japan’s IJN Akagi and IJN Kaga— until our recent expedition, the vastness of the abyssal deep and all that lies below, and lives there, remained very much a mystery.

Not long after the June 2006 establishment of Papah naumoku kea Marine National Monument (PMNM), the United States’ largest marine protected area and one of the most expansive such preserves in the world, a new generation of ocean explorers with a fresh set of priorities began planning for a major mission to explore into its waters. Their goal: to understand the protected area’s denizens, as well as document the wealth of archaeological and historical material that lay beneath the waves—namely the remains of three aircraft carriers lost during World War II’s Battle of Midway. This past September, that mission came to fruition with the Ala ‘Aumoana Kai Uli expedition, a 27-day NOAA-funded project that sent the EV Nautilus of the Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) to investigate never-before-seen deep-water habitats and collect baseline data needed to support responsible management in the most

OPENING SPREAD: THE EV NAUTILUS UNDER WAY. FACING PAGE: RESEARCHERS IN THE CONTROL ROOM OF THE SHIP. IMAGES COURTESY OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST.

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Each dive was livestreamed to a worldwide audience through OET’s online portal (nautiluslive.org). Many shared personal thoughts and connections to both Japanese and American family members who participated in or were lost during the battle, and we were humbled by the knowledge that our exploratory efforts were helping to bring their families some amount of closure. Sensitivity and awareness were the overarching principles for the mission. The team benefited immeasurably from the guidance of its Native Hawaiian members while diving into the realm of Kanaloa, their god of the underworld. They served as hosts and healers by sharing their unique knowledge during each dive, revealing the therapeutic power of this sacred place which, in Hawaiian tradition, signifies both a beginning and an ending. The dives here were made with humility and respect, honoring ancient and ongoing cultural traditions, alongside the more recent setting of strife and death in a cataclysmic battle fought between two nations that were long before, and are once again, valued friends. Exploring the remains of Yorktown, Akagi, and Kaga has not only changed our perception of these sites, but also added detail to the historical record through archaeological examination. Yorktown retains its paint, the scars of fire, bomb holes in its flight deck, and torpedo holes in its sides. Antiaircraft guns remain in position on one side of the ship, while others are gone, cut free and jettisoned by the crew in a last-ditch effort to save their ship. The aircraft hangars are empty of planes but filled with debris. We could read the partly obscured name of the carrier at its stern. Akagi rests upright, plowed into the mud, much of its flight deck and hangars blasted free by catastrophic fires and explosions; its bridge, where the ship’s officers and admiral climbed out of to escape the flames, remains battered but largely intact, and antiaircraft

Our mission was supported by a host of organizations and individuals, all coordinating together under the banner of the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI). While a select team of specialists sailed from Honolulu on board the EV Nautilus, NOAA and partners assembled a veritable fleet’s worth of additional onshore experts from a vast array of backgrounds and disciplines in all aspects of science, which, in our case, revolved around the history and archaeology of the Battle of Midway wrecksites, which lie at the edge of the accessible ocean frontier, at a depth of 5,100 meters or more. Instantaneous collaboration between ship and shore has been a game changer in maritime field science, made possible through the technological innovation of “telepresence,” feeding data and imagery from robotic vehicles tethered kilometers below the expedition vessel at the surface and then shared via satellite to a practically unlimited number of locales, ranging from the sophisticated NOAA Exploration Command Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, to home offices across the globe. Collaborators convened for dives, some lasting as long as 19 hours, making the most of every precious second spent monitoring the video, assessing, commenting, and assisting the science team aboard the Nautilus, directing their explorations.

PREVIOUS SPREAD, LEFT PAGE, RIGHT PAGE: ISLAND AND STACK ABLAZE ON A BESIEGED USS YORKTOWN AND WHAT REMAINS OF THE GUNNERS’ TURRETS TODAY. THE SHIP’S CONTROL TOWER AND BRIDGE REST ON THE SEAFLOOR. THE VESSEL LISTS BEFORE SINKING ON JUNE 7, 1942. THE WRECK OF THE YORKTOWN WAS DISCOVERED BY ROBERT D. BALLARD IN MAY  1998. ARCHIVAL IMAGES COURTESY THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, UNDERWATER IMAGES COURTESY OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST/NOAA. FACING PAGE, FROM TOP: IJN  KAGA AS SHE LOOKED IN 1930. IMAGE COURTESY THE KURE MARITIME MUSEUM. THE IMPERIAL WARSHIP AS SHE APPEARS TODAY. IMAGE COURTESY OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST/NOAA.

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and around each wreck. Through hours of unstinting, nerve-racking effort, the team plotted a course, often within a few scant meters of unfamiliar sunken wreckage, to successfully characterize the historic vessels in stunning detail. As expedition leader Daniel  Wagner noted, the mission rewrote history and expanded our understanding of these special places, but also pushed the limits of what we thought was possible in terms of interdisciplinary collaboration. Although the initial results of the archaeological aspects of the mission have been shared in a media release and individual images, there is much more work to be done. It cannot be considered true exploration unless what has been seen and learned is also shared. Telepresence and media from this expedition have reached billions of people. Now the team turns to analysis, writing, and publication. The collected 43 hours of visual data, carefully reviewed, is already yielding tantalizing evidence of that which was not immediately seen during the dives, such as what may be parts of aircraft, aspects of battle damage, artifacts that speak to the crews of the ships, and definitive evidence of heroic actions taken in the face of imminent death to save ships and shipmates. As the archaeological team assess the wrecks, others will assess biological colonization, the nature of the sediments, and aspects of oxidization and the transformation of these massive steel structures as they corrode. The robotic eyes of Atalanta revealed a world never seen by human eyes as much as it revealed sights not seen for 81 years, and, in some cases, last glimpsed by those who were on the brink of death.

guns still point up to repel attacking planes. At the stern, beneath a coat of paint intended to obscure the carrier’s name in battle, we could trace the outlines of the ship’s name. The chrysanthemum crest of the Japanese emperor remains intact, at the bow, signaling this was indeed an imperial warship. At Kaga, the survey documented the hull with its extensive battle damage and the holes left by the torpedoes fired into Kaga to scuttle it by other Japanese warships. We also found the bow deeply buried in mud, and the stern blown off, with no trace of the name or the crest. But off to one side, a major section of the flight deck and hangar, blown free of the hull, lies a hundred meters distant. Gathering this data, however, did not come without significant challenges. And as all who would venture into extreme environments know, equipment may fail, but the resolve of an explorer must never waver. Daniel Wagner and Megan Cook, the expedition’s codirectors; archaeologists Michael Brennan and Hans Van Tilburg; and the crew of the Nautilus proved no exception when, at the outset of the mission, their primary remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was unexpectedly rendered incapable of reaching the great depths at the battle site. Designed to function as a dual system, the ROV normally deploys with a camera-equipped towsled called Atalanta, which acts as a tether management system (TMS) by absorbing the “up-and-down” motion of the cable directly connected to the support ship at the windand wave-swept surface, while also allowing the team to monitor the position of the investigating vehicle at all times. Adapting quickly to the situation, engineers working on deck uncoupled the lower ROV from its upper-stage support and deployed Atalanta on its own. Despite the craft’s limited maneuverability, ROV pilots worked in concert with navigators and ship handlers in a delicate, improvised, and unprecedented symphony to move Atalanta completely over

FROM TOP: THE DECK OF THE IJN AKAGI IN APRIL 1942. IMAGE COURTESY THE KURE MARITIME MUSEUM. THE CHRYSANTHEMUM CREST OF THE JAPANESE EMPEROR REMAINS INTACT ON HER BOW TODAY. IMAGE COURTESY OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST/NOAA.

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THE

FUTURE EXPLORATION OF

a new golden age of discovery is upon us… and it looks very different by TERRY GARCIA AND CHRIS R AINIER

THE E XPLORERS JOURNAL

A MEMBER OF THE E XPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2013, TERRY G ARCIA WAS THE E XECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF SCIENCE AND E XPLOR ATION OFFICER FOR THE NATIONAL GEOGR APHIC SOCIE T Y (NGS) W HERE, FOR 17 YE ARS, HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS CORE MISSION PROGR AMS, SUPPORTING AND MANAGING MORE THAN 400 SCIENTIFIC FIELD E XPEDITIONS ANNUALLY. PRIOR TO JOINING THE NGS, G ARCIA WAS THE ASSISTANT SECRE TARY OF COMMERCE FOR OCE ANS AND ATMOSPHERE FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND THE DEPUT Y ADMINISTR ATOR OF THE NATIONAL OCE ANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTR ATION. HE IS CURRENTLY PRESIDENT OF E XPLOR ATION VENTURES, A COMPANY PROVIDING STR ATEGIC ADVICE TO GLOBAL CLIENTS. CHRIS R AINIER, A RECIPIENT OF THE E XPLORERS CLUB’S 2004 LOW ELL THOMAS AWARD, IS A PHOTOGR APHER, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, NATIONAL GEOGR APHIC E XPLORER, AND DIRECTOR OF THE CULTUR AL SANCTUARIES FOUNDATION. THEIR NE W BOOK , THE FUTURE OF EXPLORATION: DISCOVERING THE UNCHARTED FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HUMAN POTENTIAL, FE ATURES 36 ESSAYS FROM SOME OF THE WORLD’S LE ADING E XPLORERS AND THINKERS. PROCEEDS FROM ITS SALE W ILL SUPPORT NE W AND EMERGING E XPLORERS AND SCIENTISTS.

Yet, as we learned from the 36 explorers who contributed essays and interviews to our new book, The Future of Exploration, there is so much to be excited about. Each inspires new questions about the past, presents new ideas for the future, and provides new insights into our common humanity, while collectively providing a path toward finding the solutions that we need to protect our precious planet home. As Sir Richard Branson told us, “Exploration is key to our survival as a species…We can only protect what we know about…Most of the time we don’t even know what we don’t know.” A new age of exploration is upon us, and it promises to be the greatest period of discovery in human history. This new era is different from what has come before, as it is being driven by three powerful forces: technology, diversity, and a profound since of urgency.

Ever since the first Homo sapiens ventured out of Africa, perhaps as early as 180,000 years ago, humans have gone in search of the unknown, often at almost unimaginable risk, driven by a curiosity that has taken us across seemingly endless oceans around the world. We have planted our proverbial flag at both poles, on the top of Everest, at the deepest depths of our oceans, and on the Moon. We have journeyed remotely throughout our solar system and, with the aid of the James Webb Space Telescope and its predecessors, we have laid eyes on other galaxies and glimpsed the dawn of time itself. While we have accomplished great things, we have only just begun. Together, the two of us have more than seven decades of combined experience in the field of exploration and, over those years, we have worked with many hundreds of scientists, photographers, and explorers who have ventured into the field in search of the truth. Almost without exception, they have returned with a commitment to improve our planet because the truth that they found was that things were and are slipping away. The climate is changing, Indigenous cultures and languages are disappearing, habitats are shrinking, and whole species are teetering on the edge of extinction.

OPENING SPREAD: A DETAILED VIEW OF THE CLOSEST STAR-FORMING REGION TO EARTH, THE RHO  OPHIUCHI CLOUD COMPLEX, AS CAPTURED BY THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE THIS PAST SUMMER. IMAGE COURTESY NASA. FACING PAGE: 2023 EC50 HONOREE GHISLAIN  BARDOUT AND HIS TEAM PREPARE TO DIVE 100 METERS BENEATH THE SEA ICE IN UUMMANNAQ BAY, GREENLAND. PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCAS SANTUCCI, COURTESY UNDER THE POLE.

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date we have explored but five percent of our oceans, which cover some 71 percent of Earth’s surface. In the words of Robert Ballard, “The age of exploration of Earth, its life, and the lost chapters of human history beneath the sea has only just begun.” Among the exciting campaigns currently underway to rapidly redress our scant knowledge of our seas is one undertaken by deep sea explorer, Katy Croff Bell. She has brought together a global network of deepsea explorers to deploy small, low cost, and easy-to-use modular data collection systems to carry out AI-enhanced image and environmental data analysis, accelerating the speed at which data can be collected. And time is indeed of the essence. As oceanographer Enric Sala has cautioned, “If we don’t focus our ocean exploration on finding solutions to rewild the ocean, we risk writing the obituary of ocean life.” Looking to the stars, too, technology is showing us new horizons. Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco believes “the future of space exploration [lies] with the…best telescopes we can build and from spacefaring robotic vehicles, be they Earth- or Sun-orbiting telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), robotic orbiters like Cassini, or far-ranging explorers like Voyagers 1 and 2.” Already, the JWST is giving us some of the most spectacular images of our universe that any of us has ever seen. It is even showing us our own past. Astronaut Jeff Hoffman contends that future developments will “push the outer boundaries of robotic exploration into realms previously explored only by telescopes and, at the same time, will push the boundaries of human presence into realms previously explored only by robots.” Finally, technology is also proving to be a game changer in our understanding of life around us and allowing for major advances in understanding new diseases and

HARNESSING THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY Technology is revolutionizing the way we explore, giving us the keys to unlock extraordinary opportunities and make major advances. In the area of archaeology, for instance, high-resolution satellite imagery and remote sensing in the form of side-scan sonar, ground-penetrating radar, muon detectors, and lidar (laser imaging, detection, and ranging) are opening arenas of exploration in ways never before possible. Archaeologist Chris Fisher has used airborne lidar technology to map an ancient city that had remained undisturbed for centuries in Honduras’s La Mosquitia jungle, while satellite imagery has led paleoanthropologist Lee Berger to a site outside of Johannesburg where he discovered a new species of hominin, Homo naledi, and “the largest assemblage of ancient human relative remains discovered on the continent of Africa.” Egyptologist Zahi  Hawass describes how a new generation of DNA sequencing techniques and remote imaging are fundamentally changing his field of study. Sarah Parcak continues to make remarkable discoveries combining a unique form of satellite archaeology with the might of crowdsourcing to uncover previously unknown tombs in Egypt. In the 90 years since William Beebe made his first dives in his bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda, technology has been instrumental in oceanic exploration as we have continued to push forward in depth and endurance. And yet, as “Her Deepness” Sylvia Earle has so cogently pointed out, to

FACING PAGE: ARCHAEOLOGIST CHRIS FISHER HAS USED AIRBORNE LIDAR TO IDENTIFY AND MAP FEATURES SUCH AS THE PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN KEYHOLE-SHAPED PURÉPECHA PYRAMID (YACATA) AT THE SITE OF ANGAMUCO, MICHOACÁN, MEXICO, OCCUPIED FROM 1000 TO 1530 CE. IMAGE COURTESY CHRIS FISHER.

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fame and a place in the U.S. Senate with his discovery of Machu Picchu, an Inca site well-known at the time to local farmers who told him where it was and how to get there. Climber Wasfia Nazreen describes a similar perversity in her mountainous world: how European climbers conquering the prodigious challenges of the Himalayas have been lauded, while the Sherpas who achieved as much, if not more, and who understood their environment so intimately, were routinely not mentioned. Economic disparity also continues to be a barrier for many. Entomologist Sammy Ramsey has described how, on a recent trip to Southeast Asia, “the cradle of civilization for honeybees,” he was puzzled by how little of the scientific research was by scientists from the region. “When just accessing a single paper in an online scientific journal can cost five days’ wages, it is prohibitively difficult to conduct the same sort of prerequisite literature search to start a study that many in the Global North take for granted. This has dampened the voices of people with some of the most useful knowledge and expertise to contribute and provided us no gain in return. Forcing those attempting to scale the mountain of curiosity to pay their way to the top has always favored the privileged. And, in so doing, we reinforce the idea that they are somehow naturally equipped for the climb, promoting a future of exploration as monochromatic as the past.”

developing new vaccines; in genetics and biomechanics; and in the development of robots and AI to enhance the human experience and ultimately unlock the secrets to healthy and happy longevity.

A NEW GENER ATION OF EXPLORERS One of the most exciting developments we have witnessed has been in the changing face of exploration. Once seemingly the exclusive preserve of white European men planting their nations’ flags on behalf of a grateful monarch or church, the 21st century will and must be witness to a new generation of explorers. They will come from more diverse backgrounds, geographies, and disciplines, and they will bring with them unique perspectives and approaches that will foster a richer understanding of our planet and its inhabitants. As several contributors to our book point out, however, barriers remain in place and hinder progress. As ecologist Paula Kahumbu explains it, “…exploration has always looked different from an African perspective,” noting that what was new and exotic for the early European explorers of the continent was well understood by its people. Their studies, she stresses, would have been greatly enhanced if locals had been consulted rather than having their knowledge of its cultures, seasons, wildlife migrations, and geography dismissed as superstition and folklore. “True understanding,” she says, “demands a capacity to view a situation from multiple perspectives: human and nonhuman; global and local; and worldviews informed by those of Western science and by traditional knowledge.” As Kahumbu rightly argues, local knowledge has for too long been ignored. Anthropologist Wade Davis reminds us of how Hiram Bingham shot to international

PREVIOUS SPREAD: THE ROV HERCULES EXPLORES SEDIMENT DEPOSITS WITHIN THE CRATER OF THE UNDERWATER VOLCANO KOLUMBO OFF SANTORINI, GREECE, DURING AN EXPEDITION LED BY KATY CROFF BELL. IMAGE COURTESY THE OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST. FACING PAGE: ECOLOGIST PAULA KAHUMBU, A 2023 EC50 HONOREE, LEARNS ABOUT INDIGENOUS FOREST KNOWLEDGE FROM MZEE PARMUAT, A LAIBON, OR SPIRITUAL LEADER, IN THE LOITA HILLS OF KENYA. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALLAN GICHIGI.

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“PIONEERS TAKE OTHER PEOPLE’S BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT IS POSSIBLE AND SHATTER THEM INTO A MILLION PIECES.” – ERIK WEIHENMAYER

A SENSE OF URGENCY BUT ALSO HOPE

Explorers, like exploration itself, embody many forms. Erik Weihenmayer is one of the most accomplished climbers and athletes in the world. He also happens to be blind. He tells us: “Pioneers take other people’s beliefs about what is possible and shatter them into a million pieces. The literal definition of ‘discover’ is ‘to unveil.’ Imagine how much of science, technology, and human potential is still veiled by darkness. It is only by attacking our personal challenges with a pioneering spirit that we can drive our lives forward and even shape the destiny of our organizations, our communities, and society at large…The answer probably involves reaching much further than what is comfortable. Life is one reach after another—into the darkness, toward immense possibilities rarely seen, yet sensed.”

At a time when so much about our planet is changing, and because we can’t save what we do not know about or understand, the work of discovery and exploration has never been more urgent. In many areas of research, we have but a few years to find the answers that we seek. Exploration is therefore so much more than it used to be. In the face of an existential crisis, science and understanding are key to our very future. We truly are in a race against time, but as we reflect on the collective voices of the explorers we spoke with, we are hopeful about the possibilities the future holds. As Jane Goodall told us, “We can save our world. We have the know-how…Let us use the gift of our lives to make this a better world,” adding, “We can’t just sit…and wish that hope will come to us. We have to roll up our sleeves, crawl under, climb over, and work our way around all the many, many obstacles.” That is surely what exploration is all about.

A STUNNING VISTA IN THE HIGH HIMALAYA, WHERE MOUNTAINEER EXTRAORDINAIRE ERIK WEIHENMAYER HAS BROKEN NEW GROUND AS THE FIRST BLIND CLIMBER TO SUMMIT EVEREST. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS RAINIER.

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CHANGING NARRATIVE THE

how we tell stories about the current climate crisis ALEX ANDER MORE in conversation with BILL WEIR

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A FELLOW SINCE 2018 AND CHAIR OF CLIMATE WEEK SINCE 2022, ALEX ANDER MORE IS A CLIMATE AND HEALTH SCIENTIST, INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FOR HIS GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERIES ON HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS POPULATION HEALTH, ECOSYSTEMS, AND THE ECONOMY. HE RECEIVED HIS PHD FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING AT THE CLIMATE CHANGE INSTITUTE (UMAINE) AND AT HARVARD, WHERE HE IS GROUP LEADER FOR CLIMATE AND HEALTH, AS WELL AS A RESEARCH ASSOCIATE OF THE MA X PLANCK–HARVARD RESEARCH CENTER. AS A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON, HE DIRECTS ECHO, A CENTER FOR CLIMATE AND HEALTH RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATIONS. BILL WEIR IS A VETERAN ANCHOR, WRITER, PRODUCER, AND HOST WHO CAME TO CNN IN 2013 AFTER A DECADE OF AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM AT ABC NEWS. IN 2019, HE WAS NAMED THE NETWORK’S FIRST CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT. HE IS ALSO THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND HOST OF THE NETWORK’S PRIMETIME ORIGINAL SERIES THE WONDER LIST WITH BILL WEIR, NOW STREAMING ON DISCOVERY+. THE FOLLOWING IS AN EDITED EXCERPT OF THEIR SPIRITED CLIMATE WEEK DISCUSSION, A VIDEO OF WHICH IS AVAILABLE AT EXPLORERS.ORG.

ALEXANDER MORE: As a journalist, what’s the thing that gets lost most often in telling stories about climate, from your point of view? BILL WEIR: I think the biggest challenge is the enormity of the topic. It’s a “hyper-object,” that is, it’s something that’s almost too big for the human mind to wrap its head around. When it comes to climate, everything is on the menu—health, travel, transportation, food, shelter, geopolitics, security, finance—and all of it depends on our having a livable planet, the one known habitable place in our galaxy, Earth. But the world we grew up in is now gone and we have created a new one. We know the Earth has been changing through fire and ice for four and a half billion years and, ultimately, the planet is going to be fine. Without intervention, however, our future—and life as we know it—is what hangs in the balance. We are walking on the hottest planet that’s ever been trod upon by human beings. So, if anything has been lost in how we talk about climate, it is the message that we’re not going back. Historically, we’ve had a farmer mentality. This year’s a wash, but next year we’re going to have a bumper crop. It’s this idea that the Earth that we are familiar with is somehow coming back and we just have to ride out a rough spot. I like to say that if an evil genius was coming up with the most mendacious, shrewd

way to destroy life on Earth, climate change would be a great way to do it because it’s so slow that you adjust and you normalize the horrible over time, which we’re very good at as humans. What we have to do is build and adapt to this whole new world we have created—to think about the rations that we have left from the old world that will get us to this new one, this lifeboat we are on, floating through the galaxy. There’s also a sense that all will be fine if we just get out of the way. Let’s close off the Dakotas and let them return to raw wilderness. But we’re so far beyond that. Through our actions, we are literally micromanaging every other species on the planet right now. I think it was Stewart Brand who said, in The Whole Earth Catalog, if you’re going to be a demigod, you might as well be a smart and benevolent one and try to understand the changes, whether they’re unintentional in the past or now. It is our responsibility to really be stewards of what’s left of this beautiful place.

OPENING SPREAD: HURRICANE IDALIA BEARS DOWN ON FLORIDA ON AUGUST 20, 2023. IMAGE COURTESY NOAA. FACING PAGE: AN AIR TANKER DROPS FIRE RETARDANT ON THE FAWN FIRE NEAR REDDING, CALIFORNIA, ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2021. IMAGE COURTESY CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY AND FIRE PROTECTION.

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“AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, CALLING IT ‘GLOBAL WARMING’ HAS BEEN THE WORST MARKETING MALPRACTICE IN HISTORY BECAUSE NOBODY’S AFRAID OF A GREENHOUSE.” – BILL WEIR

AM: Speaking of turning back the clock, one of the things I found interesting about the pandemic, despite its horrors, was that we got a glimpse of what clean air looks like simply because everybody stopped doing all the things that are killing the planet for just a minute. We have this assumption that if we use technology to get us back to pollution levels from 100 years ago, we’ll be fine. All the data shows we were polluting at industrial levels before that. We need to reimagine how we relate to Nature and this planet. So how do you balance the objectivity that’s expected of journalists, real ones at least, with your desire to make positive social change when you’re telling stories? There’s this expectation that you’re going to two-side the story because that’s what objectivity is. BW: Well, I think at a certain point, fact becomes fact, and you no longer need to interview the one out of five dentists who recommends chewing sugar gum. I don’t feel a journalistic obligation to include that dissenting voice anymore. Add to this the need to

break down old messaging. I have a daughter in college, and she has this irrational fear of sharks. Now, do I blame her for that? No, I blame Steven Spielberg who took a point-ofview camera underwater and two notes on a cello and terrified an entire generation of people who grew up to fear the ocean. The grip of certain narratives continues to hold on in sad numbers in this country. And then there is the fact that the people who know the most—the guardians at the gate of science who are telling us that the world has gone awry—by nature do not want to be alarmists. So, everything they tell us tends to be very dry, and that plagues science communication. But, as I like to say, consider the notion that, if, on that fateful night in American history, Paul Revere decided to slow-walk his horse through town, saying, “Here are the odds that the British are coming. I can say with 75 percent certainty that the British are coming.” How might America’s future have been shaped? Clearly, climate change is the most challenging thing humanity will ever face because, for one thing, it’s hard for people to come to grips with the idea that the same fuels and technologies that built the modern world could also be coming back to hurt us and dooming our children, our grandchildren. That’s a tough leap to make, not to mention that the United States is the one developed country where this has been so politicized.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: WILDFIRES NORTH OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA WERE PHOTOGRAPHED BY A CREWMEMBER OF EXPEDITION 61 ABOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION. FACING PAGE: NASA’S TERRA SPACECRAFT CAPTURED THIS IMAGE OF FLOODS ALONG THE RED RIVER, WHICH AFFECTED CITIES IN TWO STATES, ESPECIALLY FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, AND WHITEHEAD, MINNESOTA. BOTH IMAGES COURTESY NASA.

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AM: So, what do you think is the remedy— messaging-wise, story-wise? BW: While we know we have a climate crisis, we’re going to have to change the language around it. As far as I’m concerned, calling it “global warming” has been the worst marketing malpractice in history because nobody’s afraid of a greenhouse, unless you’re having an affair with the gardener or something. Who doesn’t like hothouse tomatoes and fresh flowers year-round? Nobody equates that with an existential threat. So, it’s the framing of the topic. Climate, at this point, is not a story about technology or physics or fuel anymore. It’s a human story about the world in which we now exist. So, climate change—and all the political load around it—doesn’t have to really come up. There’s an atmospheric scientist and climate communicator at Texas Tech, Katharine Hayhoe, who, like me, grew up with a mother who was a zealous Pentecostal Evangelical Christian who believed that the rainbow that appeared after the Great Flood was a promise from God that the Earth would never be destroyed again. As a result, she grew up with that resistance to the climate science story sort of baked in. So, when she goes into communities, she doesn’t ever mention the word “climate.” I just did a piece with Peter Byck, a journalist and professor out at Arizona State University, who recently carried out a four-year study on regenerative agriculture, focusing on the benefits of moving one’s cows from pasture to pasture in a deliberate way such that grass has a chance to grow back, mimicking the movements of the bison that built the great soils of the Great Plains. This simple practice enables the land to pull down far more carbon, fosters more biodiversity, and conserves more rainwater. It’s good for the farm, it’s easier for the farmer, it brings in more money, all these sorts of things.

Byck carried out his study on neighboring farms so he would have an apples-to-apples comparison. The second part of his experiment entailed his going to the neighboring farm—the one that did not move pasture— and see if they’d be willing to change their ways, because that’s half the battle. These are stubborn folks who’ve been doing it the same way for generations. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether the farmer believes in climate change. What he cares about is he’s doing the right thing for his land and will be rewarded for that. AM: So, you see it as more of a psychological challenge. BW: Absolutely. The work of two people has shaped my thinking on this—that of Abraham Maslow and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, both giants in psychology. In the 1940s, Maslow wrote a paper, laying out his theory on human motivation—that five-level “pyramid of needs” we all learned about in Psych  101. The first level contains our most basic needs—air, food, water, shelter, etc. If those needs are not met, nothing else matters. The second consists of our “safety” needs— having a sense of security, knowing where the next paycheck is coming from. The third is love—having a sense of belonging, be it in a relationship or as a member of a fly-fishing club. The fourth is all about self-esteem—our desire to be respected. And, finally, there is self-actualization when it comes to having a sense of self or purpose. Maslow acknowledged that his paper was “written for a world of peaceful abundance.” So, what happens when you can no longer take your basic needs for granted anymore—the quality of your air, where your water and food come from, shelter? That’s where we are now.

AMERICAN BISON WERE LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR BUILDING THE GREAT SOILS OF THE GREAT PLAINS. IMAGE COURTESY WIKICOMMONS.

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“WE’RE THE ONE SPECIES THAT CAN IMAGINE A DIFFERENT TOMORROW, COMMUNICATE IT, AND GET OTHERS TO SHARE IN THE IDEA.” –BILL WEIR

AM: So, how do you see the future? BW: At the moment, we have a failure of imagination when it comes to seeing how great things could be if we just mend our ways. We also need to ask ourselves, what is our special sauce as human beings? If you go back a few millennia, we were just small bands of hunter-gatherers. And, in this blink of Earth time, we have become the most powerful force in the known galaxy. Is it because we work together? No. Orcas, wolves, and ants work together. Is it because we have opposable thumbs? Chimpanzees have those. And yet none of these other species could put a rover on Mars. Our special sauce is our capacity to tell stories. We’re the one species that can imagine a different tomorrow, communicate it, and get others to share in the idea. If you think about it, we’re in an exciting new golden age of science and innovation. Just recently, a group of college kids in Switzerland set a new acceleration rate for an electric vehicle, one that went from zero to 103 kph in under a second. At the same time, students in Germany set another record with an electric car that traveled more than 2,400 kilometers in six days on a single charge. Once we can get people rowing in the same direction, life as we know it can be is right there. It’s just a matter of the stories we tell and the trust we build in the process.

Kübler-Ross was a Swiss doctor who had come to the United States at a time when 90 percent of doctors didn’t tell their terminal patients they had cancer. They just didn’t talk about death. After interviewing people within a few days after a diagnosis, and trying to understand what they were going through, she came up with what she called the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, ultimately, acceptance. These stages have a direct parallel when it comes to climate change. If you take a road trip across America, you go through big swaths of denial. You reach cities that are bargaining—Miami and Charleston, for instance, which think they can avoid disaster by building seawalls and raising streets. There’s a lot of anger from youth activists, and justifiably so. The sooner we can all get to acceptance and understand the steps we can take to make each other stronger and get through this, the better. These are my metrics for storytelling. Where are people in their pyramid of needs and where are they in the five stages of grief when it comes to climate change?

MASTCAM-Z, A PAIR OF ZOOMABLE CAMERAS ABOARD NASA’S PERSEVERANCE MARS ROVER, SNAPPED THIS IMAGE OF THE INGENUITY MARS HELICOPTER, AKA “GINNY,” ON APRIL 5, 2021, THE 45TH MARTIAN DAY, OR SOL, OF THE MISSION.

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HARVESTING THE WILD

cattail hour by LES STROUD and CHEF PAUL ROGALSKI

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birch-smoked moose steak with cattail bannock and wild sorrel purée SERVES 4

CATTAIL IS ONE OF OUR FAVORITE WILD EDIBLES. FOR THIS DISH, WE ARE USING ITS POLLEN, AKA CATTAIL FLOUR. IN MID-SUMMER, FIND A CLEAN POND OR WETLAND WHERE CATTAILS GROW AND LOOK FOR THE OUTER MALE SPIKES, COVERED IN GOLDEN POLLEN, AND CAREFULLY SNIP THEM OFF, BEING CAREFUL NOT TO DAMAGE THE FLUFFY FEMALE SPIKES LOWER ON THE STALK. PLACE TIPS IN A CONTAINER AND SHAKE THE POLLEN OFF THEN SIFT IT TO REMOVE ANY INSECTS OR DEBRIS. (THE FLOUR SHOULD BE CLEAN, SMOOTH, AND GOLDEN.) STORE IN A GLASS JAR UNTIL NEEDED. FOR THIS DISH YOU WILL NEED ½ CUP.

INGREDIENTS: For the moose steak marinade: 1 tbs Dijon mustard ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil ¼ cup dark balsamic vinegar 2 lbs tender moose steak For the wood sorrel purée: ½ cup wood sorrel ¼ cup fresh spinach leaves ¼ cup of green onion, chopped 4 tbs of olive oil pinch of salt For the bannock: 2 cups all-purpose flour ½ cup cattail flour 1 heaping cup sour cream 1 tsp of baking powder

CATTAIL FLOUR STARS IN THIS DISH CHEF PAUL CAME UP WITH WHEN HE VISITED ME AT MY HOUSE IN HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO. SOME MILKWEED PODS AND DELICATE, LEMONY WOOD SORREL ALSO SNUCK THEIR WAY INTO OUR CULINARY CREATION, WHICH BENEFITED FROM A YEARLY OFFERING OF FROZEN MOOSE MEAT FROM A GOOD FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR, RON STINSON. THE DISH IS FURTHER ENHANCED BY GRILLING THE MEAT OVER BIRCH BARK, WHICH INFUSES A SMOKY FLAVOR. THE COMPONENTS OF THIS DISH CAN BE MADE IN ADVANCE, WHICH MAKES IT EASY TO BRING TOGETHER AROUND THE CAMPFIRE.

For the marinade, whisk together mustard, oil, and vinegar. Coat the steak and marinate for at least 2 hours, but not more than 24. For the wood sorrel purée, combine ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Add salt to taste. For the bannock, combine flour and cattail flour with one cup of sour cream, reserving 2 tablespoons. Knead into a soft ball. Roll dough out to a ½ inch thickness and spread reserved sour cream on top. Dust the dough with baking powder and fold it in half. Roll the dough out again, and then roll it up into a thick cylinder. Let stand for 15 minutes.

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Cut the bannock roll into four discs and top with milkweed blossoms, pressing them in so they stay in place. Once the grill is hot, place birch bark on the grill, over the open flames. Remove steak from marinade and pat dry. Once the bark begins to smoke, place meat on grill and cook to desired doneness. Let the meat rest for a few minutes before serving. Place the bannock discs blossom-side up on the grill for about 5 minutes. The bannock is finished when a crust has formed, and it is slightly browned. Serve steak, sliced over the bannock, and drizzle with sorrel purée. Enjoy!

EXTREME MEDICINE YOUR HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE FIELD

angry birds the risk of avian toxic diets by MICHAEL J. MANYAK, MD, FACS

sources, such as ants, beetles, mites, and millipedes. Some of the most potent compounds are the neurotoxic and cardiotoxic batrachotoxin alkaloids first isolated from a Colombian poison dart frog and later found in certain passerine (sparrow-like) birds of New Guinea. According to experiments with rodents, batrachotoxin is one of the most potent alkaloids known. The agitated or threatened poison dart frog releases clear or milky secretions from glands on its back and behind its ears. Batrachotoxins act by irreversibly opening sodium channels in nerve cells and cardiac muscle, resulting in numbness, muscle spasms, paralysis, and death. The batrachotoxins are 250 times more toxic than strychnine. There is ongoing evaluation about whether certain anesthetics may interfere with its mechanism by acting as antagonists. However, there is no current known antidote. The development of this defensive mechanism independently in frogs and birds on different continents is a prime example of convergent evolution. Both the poisonous birds and frogs have similar diets of batrachotoxin-containing insects. The likely

While many of us are aware that you should not touch colorful frogs in the Amazon rainforest, few explorers know about certain bird species that contain the same toxins. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have just published their findings from Papua New Guinea about two more bird species with significant toxins in their feathers and skin. The new poisonous species described in New Guinea are the regent whistler (Pachycephala schlegelii) and the rufous-naped bellbird (Aleadryas rufinucha). They join the four species of poisonous pitohui birds in that locale, as well as other songbirds in the rogue’s gallery, which include the blue-capped ifrit (Ifrita kowaldi) and the nondescript rufous shrikethrush (Colluricincla rufogaster) and the Arafura shrikethrush (Colluricincla megarhyncha) found in Australia, all containing the same batrachotoxin poison derived from their diet. Over the past 50 years, more than 800 biologically active alkaloids have been isolated from amphibian skin. With few exceptions, all alkaloids, including the ones poisonous to humans, appear to be derived from dietary 80

tree canopies where they reside. However, this research is also important because of the toxin’s relationship to other toxins such as the one responsible for shellfish poisoning. Other bird species known to be toxic include the sub-Saharan spur-winged goose (Plectropterus gambensis) due to its consumption of blister beetles, which leaves cantharidin in its tissues. Cantharidin is secreted by the male blister beetle and given to the female as a copulatory gift during mating. The female beetle then covers her eggs with it as a defense against predators. As little as 10 mg ingested is potentially fatal. Effects of cantharidin poisoning include blood in the urine, abdominal pain, and renal damage. The migratory common quail (Coturnix coturnix) sequesters the neurotoxic chemical coniine after consuming hemlock seeds during their autumn migration. Consumption of quail during this time can lead to renal failure, though consuming the birds at other times does not pose problems. The small, beautiful red warbler (Cardellina rubra) in Mexico has alkaloids from ingesting berries from the yew tree. They are not deadly but can cause nausea and vomiting. The ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) is a medium-sized grouse occurring in North American forests. Its toxicity arises from consuming the quaking aspen flower buds, which contain coniferyl benzoate. Exposure to this may provoke a food allergy or contact dermatitis in susceptible people. The brush bronzewing (Phaps elegans) of Australia ingests seeds of an evergreen species with a high concentration of monofluoroacetate, the key ingredient of the poison known commonly as 1080 used to kill mammalian pests. Symptoms of 1080 poisoning include vomiting, anxiety, shaking, and frenzied behavior. So, you better ask about the “chicken” for dinner when in those parts of the world. Like poison ivy, you can look but you better not touch.

culprits are melyrid beetle species, which have been found in the stomach of the affected birds and is part of the diet of poison dart frogs. Though it remains unknown how the beetles accumulate batrachotoxins, the likely source is from plant phytosterols. Indigenous sources state that the beetles can cause a strong burning sensation if they land in the eye or on sweat. Interestingly, proof of the diet concept is noted in poison dart frogs sold as pets, which are not poisonous because they do not consume their native insect diet. The poisonous amphibians and birds sequester the compounds without ill effect to themselves. Genetic mutations have allowed those frogs to regulate cellular sodium channels. The Danish research shows mutations in the same general area of sodium channel regulation in the affected birds but not in the exact sites as those in the frogs with poison accumulation. Basically, the mutations block the ability of batrachotoxin to bind to the cells, rendering it ineffective in those animals with the mutations. The highest concentrations of batrachotoxins are found in the contour feathers of the belly, breast, and legs of the affected birds. The toxicity of the newly described species was noted by the Danish scientists taking feather samples from a pitohui, one of four species of these petite, sparrow-shaped, rather colorful perching birds. The scientist handling the birds had a runny nose and tears in his eyes, which he likened to cutting onions, though with a nerve gas instead of the form of sulfuric acid released by onion cells when cut. Pitohuis live in rainforest and forest-edge habitat throughout New Guinea, however, the locals do not like spicy food and thus steer clear of these birds as a food source. They claim the meat burns when eating it much like a chili. This toxicity has long been known to the Indigenous peoples and was first recorded by Western scientists in 1895, though poorly studied since then. Part of the difficulty in studying these birds is poor access to the 81

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BOOK REVIEWS EDITED BY MILBRY C. POLK

HERE BEGINS THE DARK SEA BY MEREDITH F. SMALL

320 PP • NEW YORK: PEGASUS BOOKS, 2023 • ISBN-10: 1639364196 • ISBN-13: 978-1639364190 • $28.95

The 15th-century Venetian monk and cartographer Fra Mauro launched a revolution when he created a map that changed the way the world was depicted and understood. In Mauro’s day, Venice was the longest-lasting republic in the world—having been founded more than 750 years earlier—and had become a mercantile capital with a reach that expanded throughout the world.

Venturing out from his base at the Camaldolese Monastery of St. Michael on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon, Mauro, who had traveled extensively as a merchant and soldier before becoming a monk and mapmaker, would wander the city and interview sailors, explorers, and traders— crowdsourcing, if you will, to gather as much information about the world as he could. Having gained a reputation for his keen attention to detail, Mauro was commissioned to create maps for some of the leaders of his day, including King Afonso of Portugal and Prince Henry the Navigator. Unfortunately, none of his works have survived, save for his magnificent mappa  mundi of 1450, the Fra Mauro Map, which is housed in the Marciana Library in Venice. Measuring 2.4 by 2.4 meters, it is covered with more than 3,000 notes and place names, as well as some 300 legends that explain the geographical features, cities, trade routes, and even specialty goods and services that were available in far-off lands.

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Meredith Small opens her new book on  Mauro, Here  Begins the Dark Sea, with a brief overview of the history of cartography up until his time, writing that, “Lurking in some of these maps was the possibility of another world, on where God was not in charge, and all those monsters and weird creatures at the edges of the world might turn out to be interesting cultures.” In the course of her research, the author hoped to discover who exactly Mauro was, only to come up empty-handed, uncertain that “Mauro” was even his real name. What we do know, however, is that all the legends on the map were written in the first person. After Mauro’s death ca.  1459, two events would dramatically change the world of cartography—Vasco Núñez de Balboa’s sighting of the Pacific in 1513 and Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe in 1522—which rendered Mauro’s map obsolete. For all interested in maps and the history of exploration, this book is a wonderful read.

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THE UNDERWORLD BY SUSAN CASEY

352 PP • NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, 2023 • ISBN-10: 0385545576 • ISBN-13: 978-0385545570 • $32

Susan Casey’s latest book, The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean, is a thrilling and enlightening exploration of the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, featuring some of the most daring aquanauts using cutting-edge technology to make discoveries that boggle the mind. These explorers descend through the twilight zone (200–1,000 meters), to the midnight zone (1,000–4,000 meters), then the abyssal zone (4,000– 6,000 meters), and finally to the hadal zone (6,000– 10,994 meters). Casey says more than 80 percent of the ocean, which lies “where the sunlight stops,” has never been chartered. It is important we know about this

strange world because, she says, “Our survival depends on it…it is the foundation of the planet.” The deep, she explains, drives “ocean circulation, and thus climate; absorbs surplus heat; and buffers excess carbon.” Casey surveys the history of maritime exploration in the centuries that ushered in what we think of today as deep-ocean research, which really began in 1930 with the launch of William Beebe and Otis Barton’s bathysphere, the first craft to reach a depth of 1,000 meters. The next major milestone came in January  1960, when Don  Walsh and Jacques  Piccard reached a depth of 10,916 meters at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest known place in the ocean, in the bathyscaphe Trieste. By 2018, there were seven manned subs capable of diving below 1,800 meters. Among the undersea explorers the author profiles are Terry Kerby, whom she describes as “the most aquatic person I’ve ever met” and “Her Deepness,” Sylvia Earle. Casey joined Kerby at sea for a month as he piloted a remote robot on the seafloor around the highly unstable Juan de Fuca plate off the coast of Washington and Oregon. She chats with the legendary Don Walsh, who put her in contact with Victor Vescovo. He was, at the time,

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still in the planning stages for his Five Deeps expeditions to the deepest points in each of Earth’s oceans in his DSV Limiting Factor. Casey later joined Vescovo on one of his dives, describing a most mesmerizing descent. Casey addresses a range of topics in this comprehensive volume, from the geology of the ocean floor and the dynamic changes occurring there, to myriad marvelous creatures that inhabit a world devoid of sunlight and the environmental risks posed by deep-sea mining.

JUPITER BY WILLIAM SHEEHAN AND THOMAS HOCKEY

192 PP • LONDON: REAKTION BOOKS, 2023 • ISBN-10: 1789147050 • ISBN-13: 978-1789147056 • $27.50

In 2023, the European Space Agency launched Juice to orbit Jupiter’s enormous moon Ganymede and, in October 2024, NASA plans to launch Europa Clipper to orbit Europa, another of Jupiter’s moons, which may harbor

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evidence of off-planet life. Clearly, Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has taken center stage in the astronomy world. To help us get up to speed on all things Jupiter, astronomy historian William Sheehan and astronomer Thomas Hockey have written a delightful primer, Jupiter, exploring all we know about this Jovian giant, from ancient historical references to theories as to its nature through the centuries and, ultimately, the exciting discoveries being made today. Due to its enormous size—comparable to 1,300 Earths—Jupiter is visible to the naked eye and as such has been noted in observations since Babylonian times. While the Babylonians did not identify the planets with gods, later peoples did, including the Romans, who named the planet in honor of their chief deity and protector. It was Galileo who got the first good look at the planet, peering at it through a telescope in 1610 and observing four of its moons— Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—known today as the Galilean satellites. As of this writing, there are 95 known moons. The authors discuss the probable emergence of Jupiter and our solar system some four and a half billion years ago and the probable

wanderings of the planet to its current location. Unlike the terrestrial planets—Mercury, Mars, Earth, and Venus—as Jupiter is made up largely of hydrogen, methane, and helium, with a posited rocky core. Of particular interest, they say, is the mysterious Great Red Spot, now believed to be a perpetual, anticyclonic storm, the largest in our solar system.

WALKING WITH GORILL AS BY GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA

336 PP • NEW YORK: ARCADE PUBLISHING, 2023 • ISBN-10: 1950994260 • ISBN-13: 978-1950994267 • $29

As Jane Goodall points out in her poetic foreword to Gladys  Kalema-Zikusoka’s new book, Walking with Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet, the author had a dream and followed that dream, despite the “dark days” in her home country, Uganda, “when

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many of her family were killed, including her father.” Kalema-Zikusoka comes from a family who held leadership positions in Uganda and who dedicated their lives to uplifting their country, and sadly paid the price. She, too, decided to dedicate herself to her country, only instead of politics she chose animals. Passionate about wildlife since her youth, KalemaZikusoka ultimately won a scholarship to the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College. Following graduation, she returned to Uganda to become its first wildlife veterinarian, a position she achieved in 1996, at the age of 26. Her fieldwork soon took her to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where she had her first encounters with the critically endangered mountain gorillas. Since discovering that gorillas are susceptible to human diseases, she has worked to limit interactions between our species and continues to engage the local population in helping to save these amazing animals. In 2002, she cofounded Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an NGO that focuses on the health of the gorillas and the people surrounding them. She says, “It was not possible to ensure the survival of gorillas, other wildlife, and critical ecosystems in Africa without helping their human neighbors.”

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UNEARTHING THE UNDERWORLD BY KEN MCNAMARA

296 PP • LONDON: REAKTION BOOKS, 2023 • ISBN-10: 1789147182 • ISBN-13: 978-1789147186 • $25

Ken McNamara writes in his new book, Unearthing the Underworld: A Natural History of Rocks, that rocks are “the secret keepers of past environments.” To this end, McNamara concentrates on the rocks that litter about three quarters of the Earth’s outer skin— sedimentary rocks. These are comprised of older rocks; of once-living organisms; and of rocks permeated with microorganisms: funghi, bacteria, and viruses. These latter, so-called “living rocks” have been shaped over the ages by environmental forces and offer clues to Earth’s history. Among the living rocks are microbialites, one of the earliest life-forms. Appearing some 3.5  billion years ago, they continue to grow in

some parts of world, eventually turning into limestone. Limestones range from Australia’s late Devonian Great Barrier Reef to the beautiful, polished marbles that often contain the fossils and hollowed-out impressions of the creatures that contributed their calcium to the mix. One form of sedimentary rock is coal—what he terms “fossilized sunshine”—a combustible rock made up of plants that lived millions of years ago. Another fascinating example is chalk, which, he explains, was “formed during a 40-million-year window” in the Cretaceous period when seas covered a third of the Earth’s surface. Chalk, he writes, is the byproduct of the compression of “hundreds of meters of copepod excrement” on the seafloor, which was eventually pushed upward by tectonic activity. Within chalk is yet another rock, one highly prized by our prehistoric ancestors—flint. Flint, McNamara tells us, formed in pockets in the poo–where silica-rich fluids from forests of dead sponges on the seafloor seeped into the cavities. Earth’s early history is writ large in the stories encapsulated in cliffs, roadsides, seaside quarries, and wherever the underworld has reached the light, McNamara contends, likening rocks to fascinating little books.

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OWNERSHIP STATEMENT 1. Publication Title: THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL. 2.  Publication Number: 0014-5025. 3.  Filing Date: 09/30/23. 4.  Issue Frequency: Quarterly. 5.  Number of Issues Published Annually: 4. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $60. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021-4928. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021-4928. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher: Richard Garriott de Cayeux, President & Publisher, The Explorers Club, 46  East 70th Street, New York, NY 100214928. Editor: Angela  M.H.  Schuster, The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021-4928. Managing Editor: N/A. 10.  Owner: The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021-4928. 11.  Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 12.  Tax Status: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: Summer 2023. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: a. Average Number of Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: 5,225. Number of Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 5,300. b.  Paid Circulation: (1) Mailed OutsideCounty Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 3,093 (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 360. (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mail, Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS®: 780. (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS: 0. c. Total Paid Distribution: 4,233. d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: (1)  Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541: 0. (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0. (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS: 0. (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: 114. e.  Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 114. f. Total Distribution: 4,347. g.  Copies not Distributed: 953. h.  Total: 5,300. i. Percent Paid: 97.4%. 16. a. Paid Electronic Copies: 300. b. Total Paid Print Copies: 4,233. c.  Total Print Distribution and Paid Electronic Copies: 4,533. d. Percent Paid (Both Print and Electronic Copies): 93.4%. 17.  This Statement of Ownership will be printed in the Fall 2023 edition of this publication. 18. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete: Angela M.H. Schuster, Editor, THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL.

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chapter chairs THE E XPL ORERS CLUB 46 EAST 70TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 WWW.EXPLORERS.ORG | 212-628-8383

AFRICA Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka [email protected]

FLORIDA Joseph Dituri, PhD [email protected]

AL ASK A Mead Treadwell [email protected]

GEORGE ROGERS CL ARK Cindy Pennington [email protected]

ATL ANTA Mark Hay [email protected]

GREAT BRITAIN & IREL AND Mark Wood [email protected] Rory Golden, Vice Chair [email protected]

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEAL AND Todd Tai [email protected] BHUTAN Matthew DeSantis [email protected] CANADA Jeff Britnell [email protected] CHICAGO/GREAT L AKES Deana Weibel, PhD [email protected] CONTINENTAL EUROPE Ief Winckelmans [email protected] EAST & SOUTH ASIA Steven R. Schwankert [email protected]

NORTH PACIFIC AL ASK A Joshua C. Lewis & Victoria M. Becwar-Lewis [email protected] NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jimmy Friedman [email protected] NORWAY Synnøve Marie Kvam Strømsvåg [email protected] PACIFIC NORTHWEST Eric Rasmussen [email protected]

GREATER PIEDMONT James Borton [email protected]

PHIL ADELPHIA Matt Peoples [email protected]

HAWAII Mark Blackburn [email protected]

POL AND Mariusz Ziółkowski [email protected] www.explorersclubpoland.pl

HONG KONG Angélica Anglés [email protected] L ATIN AMERICA Cristián Pérez-Navarro [email protected]

ROCK Y MOUNTAIN Jeff Blumenfeld [email protected] www.explorers-rm.org

MIDDLE EAST Aron Arngrimsson [email protected]

SAN DIEGO David Dolan [email protected]

NEW ENGL AND Gregory Deyermenjian [email protected]

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Steve Elkins [email protected]

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SOUTHERN FLORIDA Bruce C. Matheson [email protected] SOUTHWEST Robert Louis DeMayo [email protected] ST. LOUIS Thomas F. Schlafly [email protected] SWEDEN Lars E. Larsson [email protected] SWITZERL AND Marcelo Garcia [email protected] TEX AS West Hansen [email protected] WASHINGTON, DC Arnella Trent [email protected]

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legacy society “MEMBERS OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB ARE A SOURCE OF GREAT INSPIRATION AS I CONTINUE TO EXPLORE THE WORLD. TO ENSURE THAT THE MISSION OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB CONTINUES, I HAVE INCLUDED A GIFT TO THE CLUB IN MY ESTATE PLANNING. I ENCOURAGE MY FELLOW MEMBERS TO DO LIKEWISE.” —David S. Press, LM’18, Legacy Society CoChair

Mark R. Allio • John G. Alexander • Alan B. Albright • Robert J. Atwater • Capt. Norman L. Baker* • Barbara Ballard • Robert D. Ballard, PhD • Samuel B. Ballen* • Mark Gregory Bayuk • Daniel A. Bennett • Josh Bernstein • Bruce Blanchard • John R. Bockstoce, DPhil • Jack Aaron Boggs* • Bjorn G. Bolstad* • Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, PhD • Brian M. Boom, PhD • Jill Botway • Garrett R. Bowden • Capt. Lawson W. Brigham,  PhD,  USCG (ret.) • Harry Davis Brooks • Lt.  Col.  Jewell Richard Browder* • August “Augie” Brown* • John  C.D. Bruno • Marc Bryan-Brown • Lee R. Bynum* • Virginia Castagnola-Hunter • Julianne M. Chase, PhD • James M. Chester* • James Thomas Chirurg • Maj. Gen. Arthur W. Clark, USAF (ret.) • Capt. William Clark* • Steven Cohen, PhD (hon.) • Leslie E. Colby* • Jonathan M. Conrad • Catherine Nixon Cooke • Sandra B. Cook, PhD • S. Allen Counter, PhD, D.M.Sc.* • John Craparo • Lynn D. Danaher • Constance Difede • David A. Dolan, MA, MPH, M.Div. • Mr. & Mrs. James Donovan • Col. William H. Dribben, USA (ret.)* • Amelia Earhart* • Sylvia A. Earle, PhD • Edwin L. Ecclestone Jr. • James M. Edwards, MD • Lee M. Elman* • Alan Feldstein • Michael L. Finn • Robert L. Fisher, PhD • John W. Flint* • Capt. Joel Fogel • Kay Foster • James M. Fowler* • Mark Fowler • W. Roger Fry* • Max Gallimore • Richard Garriott de Cayeux • Char Glacy • Alfred C. Glassell Jr.* • George W. Gowen* • Randall A. Greene* • Susan Ross Grimaldi • Jean Charles Michel Guite • Les Guthman • Capt. Robert “Rio” Hahn • Penrose Hallowell • Rory Hallowell • Allan C. Hamilton • Scott W. Hamilton • O. Winston “Bud” Hampton, PhD* • Brian P. Hanson • James H. Hardy, MD • Ira Haupt, II* • Judith Heath* • Robert A. Hemm • Gary “Doc” Hermalyn, PhD • Sir Edmund P. Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE* • John A. Hodge • Carlota “Lotsie” Clark Hermann Holton • Christy Holton Hubbard • L. Ron Hubbard* • Charles B. Huestis* • Robert Edgar Hyman • J.P. Morgan Charitable Trust • Robert  M. Jackson,  MD • Theodore  P. Janulis • Linn  E. Johnson • Kenneth Kambis,  PhD • Kenneth  M. Kamler,  MD • Prince Joli Kansil • Lorie M.L. Karnath, MBA, PhD (hon.) • Anthony G. Kehle, III • Anne B. Keiser • Kathryn Kiplinger • Martin Klein • Thomas R. Kuhns, MD • Carl C. Landegger • Leon “Lee” V. Langan* • John R. Lawrence • Robert M. Lee* • Michael S. Levin • Florence Lewisohn Trust • J. Roland Lieber • James E. Lockwood Jr.* • Jose Loeb • John H. Loret, PhD, DSc* • Margaret D. Lowman, PhD • Michael Luzich • Daniel J. Lyons • Robert H. Malott* • Leslie Mandel* • Robert E. Maroney • Michele Mass, MD • Robert E. McCarthy* • George E. McCown • Lorus T. Milne, PhD* • James M. Mitchelhill* • Arnold H. Neis • Nancy Nenow • Virginia E. Newell • Walter P. Noonan • Alan H. Nichols • Martin T. Nweeia, D.D.S. • Dr. John W. Olsen • Kathleen Parker • Alese* & Morton Pechter* • Cynthia S. Peters • William E. Phillips* • Ashley Pilipiszyn • David S. Press • Prof. Mabel L. Purkerson, MD • Roland R. Puton • Timothy A. Radke, MD • Dimitri Rebikoff* • Mabel Dorn Reeder* • John T. Reilly, PhD • Adrian Richards, PhD • Bruce E. Rippeteau, PhD • Merle Greene Robertson, PhD* • Otto E. Roethenmund* • James Beeland Rogers Jr. • Faanya L. Rose • William J. Roseman • Rudy L. Ruggles Jr. • Gene Rurka • Wayne J. Safro • David J. Saul, PhD* • Willets H. Sawyer, III • A. Harvey Schreter* • Donald L. Segur* • Margaret Segur* • Walter Shropshire Jr., PhD, MDiv. • Richard T. Silver, MD • Robert H.I. Silver* • Theodore M. Siouris • William J. L. Sladen, MD, DPhil* • Susan Deborah Smilow • Capt. David D. Smith, PhD, USNR (ret.) • Mark A. Smith* • Ernest R. Sohns* • Sally A. Spencer* • Allan Streichler* • Ronnie Streichler • Arthur O. Sulzberger* • Vernon F. Taylor, III • Mitchell Terk, MD • Lowell Thomas Jr.* • C. Frederick “Rick” Thompson • James “Buddy” Thompson* • Edward B. Tucker, MBE* • Wendy Tucker • Edmund S. Twining, III • Marc Verstraete Van de Weyer • William F. Vartorella, PhD, C.B.C. • Robert C. Vaughn • Ann Marks Volkwein • Alexander Wallace • Julia M. Wallace • Don Walsh, PhD • Johnny Waters • Leonard A. Weakley Jr. • William G. Wellington, PhD* • James S. Westerman • Robert H. Whitby* • Julius Wile* • Holly Williams • Francis A. Wodal* • Lindley Kirksey Young • Eric Zember • Santo “Sandy” Zicaro * Deceased

THE LEGACY SOCIE T Y COMMIT TEE

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David A. Dolan and David S. Press (Co-chairs): Mark Allio; Robert J. Atwater; Alan Feldstein, Esq.; Kay  Foster; Char Glacy; Penrose “Pen” Hallowell; Scott  W. Hamilton; Brian  P. Hanson; Walter  P. Noonan; Mabel  L. Purkerson, MD; Timothy  A. Radke MD; Faanya  L.  Rose; David D. Smith, PhD, USNR (Ret.); Lisa Sonne; and Eric Zember, Esq.

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46 East 70th Street New York, NY 10021 212-628-8383 for additional info: [email protected]

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WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? GREAT MOMENTS IN EXPLORATION AS TOLD TO JIM CLASH

Rob McCallum ROB MCCALLUM, 58, HAS BEEN BEHIND THE SCENES IN OCEAN EXPLORATION FOR NEARLY TWO DECADES, ENABLING EXPEDITIONS TO MAKE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES, AND OTHERS TO LIVE OUT THEIR DREAMS, THROUGH EYOS EXPEDITIONS. THE COMPANY HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN MAJOR SUBMARINE AND SHIPWRECK FINDS, AND DIVES TO EARTH’S DEEPEST POINT, 10,900 METERS IN CHALLENGER DEEP. MCCALLUM EVEN CONSULTED ON THE DOOMED OCEANGATE PROJECT DURING ITS EARLY STAGES BUT BOWED OUT WHEN HE REALIZED THAT DIVES ABOARD A CARBON FIBER-COMPOSITE SUBMERSIBLE, UNTESTED AND UNCERTIFIED, WERE TO BE SOLD TO UNSUSPECTING TOURISTS VISITING THE WRECK OF THE RMS  TITANIC, WHICH RESTS IN 3,800 METERS OF WATER OFF THE COAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND. MCCALLUM RECENTLY SPOKE TO THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL ABOUT OCEANGATE AND OTHER THINGS DEEP-WATER RELATED.

JC: You’ve done so much in deep-sea exploration. Pick a highlight from your career. RM: Completing our dive to Challenger Deep on April 8, 2021. We’d had a busy day, working through some telemetry exercises to improve our navigation around the landers, but wanted to use the remaining time to explore upslope to the cliffs and canyons, where we found both bacterial mats and sulfur mounds. At that depth, they are a valuable science find. So, to get to the Holy Grail of diving, spend the day with a friend, and make some science wins—it doesn’t get better than that! JC: You did some early consulting for OceanGate, but abandoned ship fairly quickly.

RM: My job was to keep them from killing themselves and their passengers. In New Zealand, we say, you begin to believe your own BS. Stockton  [Rush] was very charismatic and started believing in himself without seeking any independent crosschecks or advice. JC: With advances in technology, we now have tourists flying in space. Thoughts? RM: If people want to go for a joyride on a rocket, good for them. They pay a big wad of cash for an 11-minute adventure. When they come back, many call themselves astronauts. That must be hard to swallow for people like Kathy Sullivan, who’s done three shuttle missions [and was the first American woman to walk in space]. In my opinion, she’s an astronaut. Someone who did 11 minutes by putting coins into a slot is not.

IMAGE COURTESY ROB MCCALLUM, EYOS EXPEDITIONS.

T H E O F F I C I A L Q U A R T E R LY O F T H E E X P L O R E R S C L U B S I N C E 1921

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