The right place at the right time.
Not exactly what the 91passengers of the M/S Explorer thought on Thanksgiving 2007 as an iceberg sank their ship into the frigid waters off the Antarctic Peninsula. Yet Jon Bowermaster was indeed at the right place at the right time. Just 40 miles north of the Explorer, aboard the National Geographic Endeavor, Bowermaster received the first distress call from the Explorer. All aboard the Explorer were saved.
Today Bowermaster, a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council, is conducting yet another rescue project – helping to save the world’s oceans. He has just returned from the final expedition of his OCEANS 8 project. This completes a decade of exploration that has taken Bowermaster and his team around the world by sea kayak as he reports on the relationship between man and the sea.
“Everywhere we go, we see evidence of three things,” says Jon Bowermaster, who has paddled the world: climate change, overfishing, plastic pollution. In his travels Bowermaster recognizes that “the increase in tourism …creates these new ambassadors who go home and talk to their friends about the need to protect and preserve Antarctica. The downside is… you put more boats out there with inexperienced captains and you end up with bad accidents.”
Here’s a clip from his website.