Photographer, writer and environmentalist John Weller will host 3 FREE presentations about the Last Ocean Project at the Quark Base Camp in Golden Peak as part of the
Korbel American Ski Classic:
Thursday, March 18 @ 3pm
Friday, March 19 @ 3pm
Saturday, March 20 @ 3pm
Quark Expeditions is a proud sponsor of the
Vail Valley Foundation's Korbel American Ski Classic and also a supporter of
Pew Environment Group Fellow John Weller... so come to Vail and learn more about the fragile
eco-systems in Antarctica's Ross Sea and what you can do to help save this precious natural resource.
FROM JOHN WELLER..."Quark Expeditions, the leader in polar adventures, is a cornerstone partner of the Vail Valley Foundation. On March 18-21, Quark Expeditions is a proud sponsor of the American Ski Classic at Golden Peak, Vail, CO. But supporting good works is nothing new for Quark. I know this personally. Five years ago, I came to Quark Expeditions with a massive request for support. I asked them to take me to the bottom of the world…
The Southern Ocean and AntarcticaThe Great Southern Ocean spins legend around Antarctica, stretching outward to the edge of imagination. In a pocket between towering thirty-foot swells, the boat was rolled 35 degrees left. It rolled back on the way up the face of the swell, reaching dead-center at the top, and as the swell dropped away continued to roll another sickening 35 degrees right, cork-screwing down into the next pocket until the bow slammed another swell, sending an angry curtain of salt-white spray 50 feet into the air. On the extremes of the worst rolls, I could walk on the walls.
But days further south, the air and water were almost still, as we left the tortured Southern Ocean behind. Also left behind was the night, and the midnight sun glowed orange – the last sunset for nearly a month. At the splitting of sea and sky, it illuminated a thin white band stretching across the entire southern horizon.
Finally, I could see the edge of the ice.
Antarctica is hard to describe. It’s so big, so extreme. To give you some idea, it is more than one and a half times the size of the United States, and almost completely covered in ice. During the three months of Antarctic summer, the sun never sets. Conversely in winter, the sun never rises, air temperatures drop to -40
oF, and the ocean freezes into a 10-foot thick slab of ice, effectively doubling the size of the continent. In summer, the slab breaks up into a jigsaw puzzle of floating ice, extending to the edge of the horizon in all directions, broken only by floating mountains of blue ice, sawing at the sky like jagged teeth. The water is -1.5
oC – just above the freezing point of salt water. Your hands burn and throb for hours after only a few minutes exposure. It would freeze most organisms solid. But it is filled with life.
The Ross Sea EcosystemWe were headed to the Ross Sea. Overwhelming evidence suggests that over-fishing has profoundly damaged most, if not all the rest of the world’s marine ecosystems. Estimates are that we’
ve eaten 90% of the world’s top predatory fish, finned 95% of the world’s sharks, and harpooned 90% of the great whales. The oceans are in serious trouble. The Ross Sea is recognized as the most pristine open-ocean ecosystem left on earth. To say it another way, the Ross Sea is the last ocean.
Throngs of
Adélie and emperor penguins rocketed past the edges of the ice just under the surface, trailing long bridal-veils of white bubbles in the cerulean blue. They exploded from the water like corks, crashing onto the floating ice, leaving parts of their stories written in the snow.
Pure white snow petrels glowed against over-cast skies. They banked hard left and right on delicately pointed origami wings, like flecks of paper suspended in swirling winds. A minke whale broke the surface, exhaling a salty spray, and then filling its huge lungs with another breath. Pods of killer whales, sometimes 100 strong, patrolled the ice edges. The males were easy to pick out – 2-meter-tall dorsal fins cut through the water, black knives against the ice.
Around the borders of the Ross Sea, sections of sea ice remains locked in place almost all year long by capes and grounded icebergs. On this fast ice, facing pairs of emperor penguins crooned their ancient song. Emperors breed on the sea-ice itself, laying a single egg in the dead of winter. And this was all just the view from above water. To see the rest of the system, I had to return three years later to dive under the ice. But those stories must wait for another day.
More important is to point out that the Ross Sea, the last intact open-ocean marine ecosystem on earth, is in imminent danger. A fishery has moved down into the Ross Sea to catch Antarctic
toothfish, which is sold under the name Chilean
Seabass. This fishery is unsustainable. In just a few years, it already has had measurable effects. We are on the verge of losing the very last pocket of undisturbed ocean in the world.
Quark ExpeditionsLike I said, I came to Quark Expeditions five years ago and asked them to take me to the bottom of the world. My goal: to bring this critical story to life, and promote protection for this last great place. Five years and four trips to Antarctica later, I am finally prepared to tell the story, and Quark support was the key. Working together, we can make real change happen. We all have a role to play in becoming better stewards of our endangered world. And we must. Otherwise, what will we ever say to our grandchildren?
Please join us at the Quark Base Camp at the Korbel American Ski Classic at Golden Peak in Vail to learn more about Quark Expeditions and The Last Ocean Project. Presentations will be held on Thursday, March 18,
Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20 at 3pm.We also have a trip giveaway to Antarctica, enter to win online by
clicking here."
-John Weller
