By Susan Eaton
Don a wetsuit, mask, fins and snorkel, and plunge beneath the waves of Howe Sound. British Columbia’s nutrient rich waters are home to world-renowned marine biodiversity—kelp forests, colorful invertebrates, rock fish nurseries, and numerous species of whales and dolphins.
Ten years ago, I suffered a serious scuba diving trauma that landed me in a hyperbaric chamber for three days, ending my 30-year diving career. Undaunted, my up-close-and-personal relationship with the ocean—which had included teaching scuba diving—didn’t end in the hyperbaric chamber… Today, I explore the world’s oceans—from Antarctica to the Arctic—in the snorkel zone, a dynamic land-sea-ice-air interface where charismatic animals interact with snorkelers. I've snorkeled with chatty belugas Hudson Bay, migrating salmon in Haida Gwaii, and with charging 1,400-pound leopard seals in Antarctica. During a snorkel expedition to witness the annual narwhal migration through the Northwest Passage, my co-explorers and I became trapped on a floating ice island, precipitating a 36-hour military air rescue off the northern coast of Baffin Island. In the past five years, I've participated in two science-based expeditions to the Arctic and three science-based expeditions to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica. Readers followed me virtually, at the Bottom of the World, as I studied the interplay of plate tectonics, glaciers, ocean change, climate and life. In 2015, I was was named one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2016, I was named one of Canada's top female explorers, also by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. A member of the Explorers Club, I was named to the Explorers Club's (Canadian Chapter) 2014 and 2015 Honour Rolls. An advocate of protecting Canada's wild spaces and the animals who call them home, I sit on the board of directors of Nature Canada.