“This is just the right expedition at just the right time to help us understand how the ocean is changing and what it means for us.”

Carl Safina, marine ecologist, author & president of Blue Ocean Institute

The E.P.I.C. (extreme & polar islands conservation) expedition is a modern tale of exploration and adventure to some of the most remote places on earth, structured within a framework of education, conservation, and science. Through the capacities offered today by technology, the expedition will create an interactive and intimate, enticing and immersing format of narration, allowing the followers to travel virtually, as never before, to the very forefronts of modern-day exploration.

Finding its roots in the spirit of the classical era of exploration, the endeavor will honor what nature has offered man to explore - wind and water. The expedition, by circumnavigating the two poles and visiting over 60 groups of islands scattered to the far reaches across 4 oceans, will be reminiscent of the legacy of the Golden Age of Exploration, and recreate an event around which the international community can find inspiration.

In this period of profound change, we will learn about the ecology, geology, and biology of alien and vulnerable ecosystems and how our lifestyle has and is affecting them.

But most of all E.P.I.C. will be about hope, nature, and what unites us all, the Blue Planet.

NARRATIVES

CONNECTIVITY

The oceans cover more than 71% of the surface of the planet. each continent and each island, independently of their location, is connected to one another through these vast liquid plains. still today, in this modern era, it is not the internet that rallies us all, but water. we are all interconnected through it and the oceans are the bodies that connect the dots. This narrative will be extremely important to explain each’s global impact and the teaching of values such a respect. It is also the underlying narrative that will “connect” all the other narratives.

MIGRATING SPECIES

The islands we will visit are vital for numerous species as they migrate around the globe. Fish, birds, marine mammals use these remote and isolated locations to rest, nest, feed, or mate. The expedition will highlight the dynamics that are at play in this global exchange, involving millions, that happens every year.

INVASIVE SPECIES

Willingly or unwillingly, humans have often affected negatively the bodiversity of islands all over the world. Whether carrying rats onboard their ships, mussels attached to their hull, or simply introducing voluntary animals such as cats, rabbits, goats, cows and many more, endemic species, unequipped to adapt to such rapid invasion have declined rapidly or simply disappeared. Today, countries like Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. have spent great resources to eradicate undesired residents. The expedition will document the island’s struggle and challenges as they try to correct past mistakes.

WHALING & FUR TRADE HISTORY

These practices have left their mark all over the world. Many of the islands the expedition will visit were important whaling stations or saw their endemic and visiting species of marine mammals either totally or almost extinguished. The expedition will remember what happened and will document how these remote ecosystems have copped with the disastrous consequences.

IMPACT

Independently of how remote these islands are, left overs from our industrialized society have found their way into the core of their ecosystems. Whether it is floating pieces of plastic ending their journey on their beaches, or birds feeding their chick with what they thought was food, or chemicals such as mercury present in their bloodstream, our lifestyle has come at the cost of their survival. The expedition will document the concentration of modern pollutants found in these endemics species, and also will try to catalog the provenance of the garbage found. This narrative will concluded the overall thematic of the expedition: CONNECTIVITY.

WHAT

A 6-year, 200,000 nautical miles sailing expedition that will visit over 250 remote islands, circumnavigating twice the globe, producing thousands of photographs, several hundred hours of film footage, and precious scientific data from over 16 countries, 4 oceans, 13 different currents, and 6 geographical zones.

DESTINATIONS

1. •AUSTRALIA: Heard & McDonald Islands, Macquarie Islands
   

2. •BRAZIL: Fernando de Noronha, Martim Vaz and Trinidad Islands
   

3. •CANADA: Banks Island, Northwest Passage, Queen Elizabeth Islands, Victoria Island
   

4. •FRANCE: Amsterdam & St-Paul, Clipperton Island, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen, Wallis & Futuna Islands
   

5. •GILBERT ISLANDS
   

6. •GREENLAND
   

7. •JAPAN: Bonin Islands, Izu Islands, Marcus Island, Volcano Islands
   

8. •MARSHAL ISLANDS
   

9. •MEXICO: Guadalupe Island, Revillagigedo Islands
   

10. •NEW ZEALAND: Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Balleny Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Islands, Chatham Islands, Kermadec Islands, Snare Islands, Tokelau
    

11. •NORWAY: Bouvet, Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen, Svlabard
    

12. •PHOENIX ISLANDS
    

13. •RUSSIA: Kamchatka, Komandorski Islands, Kuril Islands, New Siberia Islands, Northern Sea Route, Novaya Zemlya, Wrangel Island
    

14. •SAMOA
    

15. •SOUTH AFRICA: Prince Edouard & Marion
    

16. •TONGA
    

17. •UNITED KINGDOM: Ascension, Falklands, Rockall, Sandwich Islands, South Georgia Islands, South Orkney Islands, St-Helena, Tristan da Cunha
    

18. •UNITED STATES: Baker Islands, Howland Islands, St-Lawrence Island, Wake Island, Channel Islands, Aleutian Islands, Mariana Islands, Prilibof Islands, Samoa

Our expedition vessel has been designed and will be built specifically for the purpose of this voyage by some of the most respected and trusted professionals in the sailing industry. Dykstra Naval Architects, in Amsterdam are the ones who will oversee the project, along with Sally Lightfoot, expedition fleet management company. The firm recently was in charge of the construction of Greenpeace’s latest boat, the Rainbow Warrior 3. The vessel will be a dream come true for film teams. With an film editing office onboard, everything will be prepared to turn the vessels into “Live-Studios” – perfect content production platforms created for today’s interconnected world. It will also be equipped with scientific instruments which will allow our scientists to conduct their on-going studies.

On the green side, built with the latest technologies, “Efficiency” and “Footprint” will be the order of the day. By maximizing the output and reducing the input, by recycling everything that can be recycled, from energy to food, by alternating between electricity, gas and wind for propulsion; everything will be devised so that the vessels can set an example in sustainable engineering.

We will use every single media outlet to reach as many people as possible around the world. From our website to social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, from stunning coffee table books to nonfiction accounts, from documentary film making to lifestyle footage, from shorts videos to mobile platform applications, our content produced, either visual or written, with the help of Google translate, will create such interactivity and connectivity that the viewers and followers will feel as if personally taking part in the expedition.

The ocean drives the planet’s climate and weather; it absorbs much of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, holds 97 percent of the Earth’s water and contains 97 percent of the earth’s biosphere. In this age of profound climate change, once again, the oceans will shape our future. It is crucial that we keep expanding our knowledge about our inter-dependency with the oceans and the islands it holds.

Robert Ballard, acclaimed deepwater archeologist, in his talk at TED, a conference on innovation, highlighted the fact that we had more exploration ships during Captain Cook’s era than we have now. We know more about the universe than we do about the Blue Planet. It is tempting to loose ourselves at the possibilities of discovering new worlds. Although exciting and necessary, it cannot be done at the detriment of exploring our own backyard. We need to explore the oceans with the same passion and intensity that we explore the land and the sky.

Photos 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9 by Jasmine Rossi