Calgary Woman Looking for Women to Join Team to Snorkel the Northwest Passage

A Calgary woman wants fellow adventure-loving, professional diving females to join her “where no man has gone before.”

Susan Eaton has placed an ad, seeking an all-female team of Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)-certified explorers to join her in a dangerous journey to the Arctic. While a trip of a lifetime is guaranteed, a safe return home isn’t.

Eaton is a conservationist, geologist, geophysicist, explorer, and journalist (no big deal, right?). Last year, Canadian Geographic named her as one of Canada’s top explorers.

“Women wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete sunlight, constant danger, safe return hopeful, honor and recognition in case of success,” reads her ad.

Those who are bold and brave enough to answer the ad could become a part of Eaton’s all-female team, which will snorkel the entirety of the Arctic Northwest Passage. This isn’t the type of snorkelling you did on your last Caribbean vacation, either. Adventurers can expect unpredictable sea conditions, gale-force winds, sharks, walruses, and drifting pack ice, as Eaton told Global News.

Named the Sedna Epic Expedition (named after the Inuit goddess of the sea), the epic adventure will draw attention to the effects of global warming in the Arctic. Scientists will study and document the disappearing sea ice that makes their snorkeling expedition possible in the first place, while tagging Greenland sharks. They also have plans to bring ocean education programs to local Inuit communities.

“They are a people living on the edge in terms of the impact of climate change,” Eaton said. “It’s very real. Their buildings’ foundations are collapsing because of melting permafrost, their food stocks are changing, perhaps disappearing in some areas because of warming waters.”

Last summer, Eaton and her team of 10 women did a trial run from Labrador to Greenland, testing out the gear, and the logistics of snorkelling through pack ice. The team includes divers from five different countries, and includes ocean scientists, explorers, moviemakers, photographers, artists, educators, and polar divers.

Next up for the team is a warm-up mission to Baffin Island this July before attempting the big 100-day snorkel relay over the summers of 2017 and 2018, marking the world’s first relay of the Northwest Passage.

Eaton is currently fundraising to cover her costs for this summer’s expedition.

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