Gadling http://www.gadling.com Gadling http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.gadling.com/media/feedlogo.gif Gadling http://www.gadling.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: The winds of change in Antarctica]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/20/bowermasters-adventures-the-winds-of-change-in-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/20/bowermasters-adventures-the-winds-of-change-in-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/20/bowermasters-adventures-the-winds-of-change-in-antarctica/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



We spent the morning watching and following big groups of swimming/feeding penguins on the backside of Pleneau Island, about halfway down the Antarctic Peninsula.

It was one of the most prolific wildlife scenes I've ever witnessed here. The skies were dark, hinting snow, but the incredible beauty of the scene kept us out on deck all morning. Literally thousands of Gentoos swimming and porpoising surfaced in one big pack after another. In single file they would surface, jump one at a time onto a tiny piece of ice, which quickly disintegrated under their accumulated weight. Others seemed savvier, popping up onto bigger icebergs, which they scampered up and over, again in single file, before diving one at a time off the opposite side.

As well as gathering krill and small fish for their by-now two-month old chicks, I'm convinced whenever I see penguin action like this they're also out horsing around, having some fun. It's summertime, after all. In another month or two this scene will be dramatically different, frozen and iced-in, and all of Antarctica's wildlife will be pushed to the ice edge.

It's an interesting year to talk about ice along the Peninsula. Every year the sea around Antarctica freezes solid, essentially doubling the size of the continent. And every year with spring and summer most of that frozen sea either melts or breaks into smaller pieces and is blown away, offshore.

This year is different. Though summer is two-thirds over still-thick sea ice borders the coastline and encases many of its just offshore islands. It's more ice than any of us who've been visiting the Peninsula for the past couple decades have seen in fifteen years or so.

After watching the penguins hunt for a couple hours we sailed south, to Petermann Island, a traditional summer stop, home to nesting Adelie, Gentoo and blue-eyed Cormorants. For several years the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Oceanites had put up tents here, allowing its volunteers to come and live for an entire season, documenting wildlife. On an average day all season long one or two tourist ships would land passengers on Petermann for a walk around.

No one has visited the island this year. We attempted to chug through the two miles of thick, slushy ice separating the island from a clear channel. Several times our boat's engine overheated due to the thick slush being sucked into the intake, requiring us to turn off the engine and plunge it out to prevent it from stopping for good.

Gallery: Bowermasters Adventures: Antarctica 2012

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: The winds of change in Antarctica

Bowermaster's Adventures: The winds of change in Antarctica originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>antarcticabowermastersadventuresicejon bowermasterJonBowermasteroceanwaterMon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Palmer Station, Antarctica]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/14/bowermasters-adventures-palmer-station-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/14/bowermasters-adventures-palmer-station-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/14/bowermasters-adventures-palmer-station-antarctica/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Palmer Station -- When we sail into the narrow channel fronting the U.S. science base here at the tip of Anvers Island it is clear of ice, but for one sizable iceberg which we wait out, watching it drift slowly out to sea.

Once anchored and tied to the rocks at four corners -- a necessity in Antarctica given the unpredictable winds and constantly moving ice, which are the twin constant threats of boats both big and small alike down here -- we settle in for a good night's sleep before going ashore the next day to interview and film scientists based here for the austral summer.

But when we awake the scene around our boat has changed: Big winds have pushed a field of brash ice -- small chunks of floating ice that have a tendency to congeal into bigger masses when temps are cold -- into the narrow channel, threatening to trap the sailboat and make getting back and forth to shore a nightmare.

Tying our nine-foot rubber Zodiac up next to the station's row of a half-dozen bigger, sturdier versions it feels a bit like we'd ridden up to an Old West town and saddled our Shetland pony next to a string of quarter horses.
Though it is gray and misting heavily when we climb ashore the station's manager, Bob Farrell, in sweatshirt and jeans, meets us outside. His charges this summer total just 41, a third of them scientists, the rest support staff.

Whether krill expert or IT guy, whether studying Antarctica's longest-living insect (a midge) or looking after the station's wastewater system, every one of the 42 based here for three to six months treats the place with equal parts reverence and occasional disdain. While each loves Antarctica in their own way, many returning year after year, the isolation -- and grayness -- of the place can sometimes make the assignment feel more jail sentence than golden opportunity. The two days we are at Palmer it rains and snows and rains and snows, with the sun coming out for just a tempting 30-minute peek, and then starts to sleet.

Luckily for us the place is busy with interesting science and super-committed-scientists. While the NSF-supported scientists are often in the field counting penguins or sampling underwater algae, a handful are here working the first-floor labs doing what scientists do: count, recount, analyze, compare, dissect, hypothesize, write and edit. Among the hi-tech support here is full-on Wi-Fi connections which allow phones with U.S. prefixes to ring and experiments launched with colleagues back home in New Jersey watching over scientists shoulders via Skype or Immarsat.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Palmer Station, Antarctica

Bowermaster's Adventures: Palmer Station, Antarctica originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>antarcticabowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterjonbowermasterpalmer stationPalmerStationTue, 14 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermasters Adventures: Update from the coup in the Maldives]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/13/bowermasters-adventures-update-from-the-coup-in-the-maldives/http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/13/bowermasters-adventures-update-from-the-coup-in-the-maldives/http://www.gadling.com/2012/02/13/bowermasters-adventures-update-from-the-coup-in-the-maldives/#commentsFiled under: , ,

In a move surprising those not living in the Maldives -- where most of the recent press has focused on its green-thinking on climate change and carbon use -- the island nation's president, Mohamed Nasheed, has apparently been forced out in a coup d'etat.

Fingers are being pointed at allies of the previous president, Maumoon Gayoom, for orchestrating Nasheed's resignation. It was the Gayoom administration, which spanned 30 years, that had locked up and tortured a younger Nasheed before he became the first democratically elected president in the country's history.

While celebrated internationally for his environmental politics, Nasheed's presidency has been at risk at home. Critics have claimed the "Island President" (the name of the documentary that has recently won awards and attention at festivals from Toronto to Sundance) was paying too much attention to global issues and not enough to his backyard; others complained his leadership was not "Islamic enough" for the all-Muslim nation.
In recent months the country has experienced its own brand of "Arab Spring," but here rather than oust a dictator the movement was against the country's first democratically elected president.

Three weeks ago President Nasheed ordered the arrest and jailing of a high court judge -- an ally of the former president -- on charges of corruption. Street protests against the president, said to have been coordinated by allies of the former president including a half-brother and members of his security force, were successful enough that the military was sent into the streets.

Nasheed's resignation speech indicated he was stepping down to avoid further and more serious clashes between the military, the police and protestors.

Continue reading Bowermasters Adventures: Update from the coup in the Maldives

Bowermasters Adventures: Update from the coup in the Maldives originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bowermastersadventurescoupjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesoceanswaterMon, 13 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Finding civilization in Antarctica]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/25/bowermasters-adventures-finding-civilization-in-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/25/bowermasters-adventures-finding-civilization-in-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/25/bowermasters-adventures-finding-civilization-in-antarctica/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Port Lockroy -- If there is a human population center along the Antarctic Peninsula, this is it. While there may be hundreds of thousands of penguins, tens of thousands of seals, whales and sea birds that call this remote stretch home, few people do.

But at the height of the austral summer season -- December-February -- more people congregate in the protected harbor here at the former 'Camp A' of the British Antarctic Survey than anywhere else for many thousands of miles, if temporarily. (The next most populated place in Antarctica would be the American base at McMurdo, home to 1,200 scientists and support crew during the summer months, but located on the opposite side of the continent.)

The former refuge hut has been turned into a mini-museum and gift shop, demanding a mostly volunteer staff to run it and keep the small island relatively tidy (it is surrounded by breeding Gentoo penguins, everywhere ...) for the tourist boats that arrive, often twice a day.

When we go ashore at Goudier Island we find an all-women staff of four plus a visiting guide from one of the tourist ships who's spending ten days here helping out. The two men are here temporarily, installing video cameras around the hut so the penguin colonies can be monitored remotely during the eight months no humans live here.

I had a slightly selfish interest for pulling into Lockroy; a pair of kayaks I'd asked to be dropped off by the National Geographic Explorer had been stashed alongside the residents' Quonset hut a few weeks ago. We find them, bright red and yellow polyurethane wrapped in plastic badly deteriorated by the ozone-free sun that shines brightly here during the summer thanks to the still-present hole in the atmosphere that grows over the deep, deep south this time of year.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Finding civilization in Antarctica

Bowermaster's Adventures: Finding civilization in Antarctica originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>antarcticabowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermasteroceanwaterWed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Paradise Harbor, Antarctica]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/23/bowermasters-adventures-paradise-harbor-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/23/bowermasters-adventures-paradise-harbor-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/23/bowermasters-adventures-paradise-harbor-antarctica/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Paradise Harbor -- Its common knowledge among Antarctic veterans that no two days here look or feel alike. Ever.

The reality is that no quarter hour looks alike. Or can be predicted, no matter how many months or years you've spent here.

We spent the night in a small, protected bay about 400 miles down the coastline of the Antarctic Peninsula. The tricky thing about sailing a small yacht here (the aluminum-hulled Pelagic Australisis 74 feet) is that there are very few truly protected anchorages; it reminds me often of the coast of Maine, with its thousands of small islands, where finding safe haven is often similarly dodgy. Here the combination of rapidly changing winds and weather mean that even when you've securely tied off bow and stern to rocks with a pair of heavy metal lines at each end, there is no certainty that you'll really be safe through the night.

The biggest threat, of course, is ice. A big wind comes up, a seemingly protected bay can fill with icebergs big and small, and any sailboat can be locked in within an hour, unable to move until the ice blows out again. Which might be an hour, or days.

(While most of the private boats that sail to Antarctica are aluminum or steel-hulled, as it becomes an increasingly popular destination for adventurous yachties, the greater number of plastic, even the occasional fiberglass boat, show up here, more greatly threatened by sharp-edged ice.)

This morning we are lucky; there's no ice in the bay when we awake. We are even luckier to spend the entire day just half a mile from where we slept, hiking, sailing and filming the rare beauty of Antarctica as it changes, seemingly by the minute.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Paradise Harbor, Antarctica

Bowermaster's Adventures: Paradise Harbor, Antarctica originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>antarcticabowermasterbowermastersadventuresicejon bowermastrJonBowermastroceanwaterMon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Iceberg spotting in the rain]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/20/bowermasters-adventures-iceberg-spotting-in-the-rain/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/20/bowermasters-adventures-iceberg-spotting-in-the-rain/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/20/bowermasters-adventures-iceberg-spotting-in-the-rain/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Enterprise Island-- Rain, rain go away.

We woke tied-off to the rusted hulk of a half-sunken Norwegian whaling ship. Its story is legend along the Peninsula for having caught fire a century ago during a sail-away party, its stores of whale oil afire lighting up the sky for several days. Now it is just another ruined reminder of those boom days when Antarctica's whales were one of the world's biggest producers of oil for lighting and heat.

Today is one of those days down here that you wish you could be sitting by some kind of warm fire, whether in the comfort of your living room or a preferably a bonfire. At eight this morning it is thirty-four degrees and raining, conditions which began yesterday and promise to be with us for at least two more. Thanks to satellite imagery we are able to track the weather up to five days in advance, more or less; at the very least we know when high and low pressure systems are on the way and from what direction to expect the winds.

Loading into a hypalon Zodiac -- Graham Charles, an old friend of mine and great Kiwi explorer, Skip Novak, a longtime sail racer and owner of the "Pelagic Australis" that sailed us to Antarctica and myself -- round the southwestern edge of Enterprise Island to have a look at the art show of grounded icebergs that gather in the relatively shallow waters each summer season.

We are not disappointed. Twenty and thirty foot tall icebergs litter the alley. One has a pair of small arches carved through it by wind and waves. Another has a sheer wall, like smooth granite, rising straight out of the cold sea. Another is ridged by undulations carved into its underside over many years before it rolled onto its side.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Iceberg spotting in the rain

Bowermaster's Adventures: Iceberg spotting in the rain originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adventure-travelantarcticabowermastersadventurescoldicejon bowermasterJonBowermasterwaterFri, 20 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Deception Island, Antarctica]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/18/bowermasters-adventures-deception-island-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/18/bowermasters-adventures-deception-island-antarctica/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/18/bowermasters-adventures-deception-island-antarctica/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Deception Island, Antarctica -- The black volcanic sand beach carries a heavy history, of an efficient if somewhat desperate past, in evidence from the cemetery where British whalers are buried to the abandoned and rusted pumps and storage tanks that line the shore, once filled with the oil of thousands of whales killed here each during a 25 year run.

From 1904 to 1931 this bay was home to one of the Southern Ocean's boomtowns. As many as 15 big processing boats and another 35 "catcher" boats worked this beach at one time, most from Norway and the U.K.

With a sun rare for this island south of the South Shetlands lighting up the beach we moved up and down it, not with giant tools for skinning whales but giant cameras for documenting the falling down boomtown. Rusting tanks that once held whale oil, collapsed dormitories that once housed men and wooden whaleboats buried up to their gunnels by blown sand are the subject. It is rare today that a whale ventures into the caldera, but just before entering through Neptune's Bellows a trio of humpbacks had blown in the near-distance.

One thing we know for certain is that the sun won't last. My hope is to make a landing the next day on the exterior of the island, at a beach known as Baily Head. Though it is just around the corner from the interior of the caldera, and we could hike to it in two hours, the preference would be to land by Zodiac on its steep beach.

How steep? It typically shuts out three of four attempts ... and those are in big robust, hard-bottomed Zodiacs, not the more pliable nine-footer we will use.

Dump the Zodiac as we land here, and there goes the film, on Day 2.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Deception Island, Antarctica

Bowermaster's Adventures: Deception Island, Antarctica originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Drake Passage -- Ever since sailing men first proved the world was not flat they have been cursing the weather conditions at Cape Horn and the Drake Passage that lies below, separating South America from Antarctica.

Everyone from Sir Francis Drake, for whom the windy passage is named, to Captain Bligh, who fought into the winds for 100 days before giving in, turning around and sailing to Tahiti the long way, no one in their right mind has looked forward to these seas.

I've crossed the Drake a couple dozen times now and include myself on the long list of those who live with a mild and constant dread of the place. Whether leaving from the southern Chilean ports of Punta Arenas or Puerto Williams, or Ushuaia in Argentina -- from which most of the 30-odd tourist ships that carry visitors to the Antarctic Peninsula each austral summer leave from -- in the days leading up to each of the crossings my fingers are tightly locked for many days in advance, praying for calm seas.

This time out was no different. We were set to leave aboard the 74-foot "Pelagic Australis" from a dock lined with expedition yachts on January 2 and the five-day outlook was for incredibly light winds and ... calm seas. If that luck held, it looked like we'd make what we anticipated to be a three-day crossing in good time, with little turbulence.

Unfortunately our luck did not hold. Delayed waiting for an underwater housing for our 3D cameras, which never arrived and as far as I know is still stuck in customs in Buenos Aires, we finally sailed away from Ushuaia at midday on January 4 in 45 mile per hour gusts. Just minutes later they closed the port due to strong winds.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Departure for Antarctica

Bowermaster's Adventures: Departure for Antarctica originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adventure-travelantarcticabowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermasterTue, 17 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Running out of water in the Maldives]]>http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/09/bowermasters-adventures-running-out-of-water-in-the-maldives/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/09/bowermasters-adventures-running-out-of-water-in-the-maldives/http://www.gadling.com/2012/01/09/bowermasters-adventures-running-out-of-water-in-the-maldives/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Kunahadhoo Island-- On a very hot, very typical, mid-morning in the Maldives I walk the streets of this tiny island just north of the equator.

Most of its 800 residents had gathered at the shoreline to greet visitors from a nearby island. While they focused on a first-of-a-kind beach clean-up along the rocky coast, accompanied by a drum band and dancing, I took a small walking tour looking for something the Maldives doesn't have much of: drinking water.

(A late morning visit to its elementary school provided another interesting glimpse into island life; while most of the students raised their hands said they knew how to swim, yet virtually none had ever worn a mask and snorkel, so had no idea of the rich life that surrounded their island home.)

It was quickly evident from the jury-rigged plumbing systems fitted to the exteriors of most of the one-story cement homes that the options for delivering clean water were few. Some homes had barrels for collecting rainwater; others had wells dug into the rocky island terrain. Most of them, they admitted, leaked.

Everyone on the island also admitted that if it weren't for the arrival of the weekly cargo boat, and its bottles of water in plastic, they wouldn't last a week on what they had in storage.
A recent news story from another Maldivian island group exemplified the problem, reporting that a dozen islands had nearly run out of water completely.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Running out of water in the Maldives

Bowermaster's Adventures: Running out of water in the Maldives originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adventure-travelbowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldiveswaterMon, 09 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Protecting the Maldives]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/30/bowermasters-adventures-protecting-the-maldives/http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/30/bowermasters-adventures-protecting-the-maldives/http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/30/bowermasters-adventures-protecting-the-maldives/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



Laamu, Maldives-- The recent four-day, ocean-focused conference -- dubbed WaterWoMen by its sponsors, Six Senses Resortsand +H2O-- was a first-of-a-kind blend of water sport activities and intellectual athleticism.

Equal part coming out party for the resort on this remote Maldivian atoll just a100 miles north of the equator included were not just some of the world's top water athletes (surfers, windsurfers, free divers, kite boarders) but some of the planet's more thoughtful thinkers on ocean issues as well.

On the athlete side were surfers Layne Beachley and Buzzy Kerbox , windsurfers Levi Silver and Keith Teboul, kite surfers Mark Shinn and Alex Caizergues and extreme wake boarder Duncan Zuur.

The slightly less active contingent included biologist and oceanographer Dr. Callum Roberts; aquatic filmmaker and 3rdgeneration ocean lover Fabien Cousteau; Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of the IUCN's Global Marine Program; Bollywood producer/director Shekhar Kapur; Chris Gorell Barnes, executive producer of the film "End of the Line;" and Water Charity co-founders Dr. Jacqueline Chan and Averill Strasser.

The Maldives is a perhaps the perfect place for such a meeting since warming sea temperatures have put its coral reefs at risk, thus endangering both its local population and the tourism industry that is its economic base. The event was prudently also a fundraiser for a trio of ocean non-profits:

The Blue Marine Foundation(www.bluemarinefoundation.com), created by Barnes, a recent initiative pushing for ten percent of the world's ocean to be placed into marine reserves by 2020 (today less than one percent is thus protected);

Plant A Fish(www.plantafish.org), Fabien Cousteau's hands-on marine education and restoration effort to engage local communities around the globe through schools, businesses and government agencies to "re-plant" aquatic plants and animals in environmentally stressed areas;

Water Charity(www.watercharity.org), focused on providing safe drinking water, effective sanitation and health education to those most in need via the most cost-effective and efficient means.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Protecting the Maldives

Bowermaster's Adventures: Protecting the Maldives originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesoceanoceanswaterFri, 30 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Bowermaster's Adventures: Learning how to breathe in the Maldives]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/21/bowermasters-adventures-learning-how-to-breathe-in-the-maldive/http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/21/bowermasters-adventures-learning-how-to-breathe-in-the-maldive/http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/21/bowermasters-adventures-learning-how-to-breathe-in-the-maldive/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

LAAMU, Maldives -- A fast-moving rainstorm blew over the small atoll late in the afternoon, briefly cooling a humid day just 100 miles north of the equator. But within twenty minutes the sun was back hot and bright, the air even thicker with dampness. Aaaaaah paradise!

I was desperate for some cooling off, having spent the morning learning something I thought I'd mastered long ago: How to breathe.

The lessons had taken place in a pool behind one of the guesthouses at the new Six Senses Laamu resort where I'd joined a dozen superstar water athletes from around the world -- surfers, kite boarders and wind surfers -- learning not so much how to breathe, but how not to. My skimpy personal best for holding it while hanging onto the edge of the pool was about two-and-a-half-minutes; a couple guys went to five minutes and nearly blacked out.

Our task-master, standing waist-deep in the pool as we dunked our heads, stop-watch in hand, was German free diver extraordinaire Anna von Boetticher, one of the world's best at holding her breath. While we were experimenting in the relative safety of a four-foot-deep, suburban variety chlorinated pool she has dived to record depths wearing just a pair of oversized swim fins and mask to more than 270 feet.

She was most enlightening when debunking the "Baywatch" notion of saving near-drowning victims by pumping violently on their chests and blowing spittle into their mouths. She demonstrated the preferred method, which she said most are actually "saved" by, which involves light blowing on the cheeks and a little slap. Of course if that doesn't work, she admitted, then move quickly to the chest pumping and spit swapping.
A one-of-a-kind inaugural crowd -- the event was dubbed WaterWoMen, co-sponsored by Six Senses and +H2O -- had gathered at the newly opened resort, equal parts coming out party for the remote resort and a conference that included a bunch of world-class athletes as well as some of the planet's more thoughtful thinkers on ocean issues.

Continue reading Bowermaster's Adventures: Learning how to breathe in the Maldives

Bowermaster's Adventures: Learning how to breathe in the Maldives originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermasterMaldivesoceanswaterWed, 21 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Maldives in Peril: Exploring the island of Maalhos]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/11/21/maldives-in-peril-exploring-the-island-of-maalhos/http://www.gadling.com/2011/11/21/maldives-in-peril-exploring-the-island-of-maalhos/http://www.gadling.com/2011/11/21/maldives-in-peril-exploring-the-island-of-maalhos/#commentsFiled under: ,



Late on a Sunday afternoon, hardly a day of rest in this part of the world, the small island of Maalhos is quiet. The men, most of who go to sea each day to fish or work at one of six nearby tourist resorts, are absent. School is out for a week's holiday so kids of various ages scamper up and down the short, dusty streets. The women of the island of 600 are mostly in doorways or small backyards or sitting in laid-back sling chairs made of strong twine strung from metal frames lining the streets.

On the beach, the late afternoon sun in the shade, a gaggle of boys swordfight with palm fronds. A woman in brown headscarf sits cross legged playing a sophisticated game of jacks with small round stones. Three women sit together knitting palm fronds into roofing material. A trio of girls in their early 20s follow us as we walk the streets, painfully shy, peeking out from beneath headscarves, smiling.

Like all Maldivian towns this is laid out in squares. From the start of any street you can stare down it and see blue ocean at the other end. As I walk the streets, obviously an outsider, accompanied by a translator -- one of the many islanders who works at one of the six tourist resorts in the Baa Atoll -- I stop to chat people up and the responses are friendly, smiling. Everyone I meet - man, woman, child - gives me a good, hard handshake as a hello. Though poor, this is not an impoverished place.

Despite the booming tourist business that exists on islands all around, most of these people have little contact with outsiders. Tourists in the Maldives are confined largely by geography to the resort islands. Water surrounds and there aren't shuttles or ferries or water taxis to take people easily from island to island. During the recently ended thirty-year dictatorship, locals were strongly discouraged from mingling with visitors, concerned that negative influences from the west might rub off. Tourists drink alcohol, run around mostly naked and come to party, after all. By comparison, the local populace does not imbibe and is called to prayer several times a day (though there is reportedly a sizable heroin habit and growing drinking problem among many of the Maldive's young people).

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: Exploring the island of Maalhos

Maldives in Peril: Exploring the island of Maalhos originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There was no b.s. in actor Edward Norton's introduction of himself at the recent SLOWLIFE Symposium in the Maldives: "Films are now my sideline," he said. "Waste is my business."

He admitted of course that what he referred to as his "day job" had provided him with the "storytelling skills" that aid him in his variety of non-acting pursuits, from CEO of Baswood Inc., a green wastewater treatment alternative he and his partners are currently selling and building around the U.S. and abroad to U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity. He's also a board member on a handful of non-profits, including the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, which gives him direct insight into sustainable tourism and eco-system preservation.

The move from fulltime acting to mixing it up in a diversity of projects focused on social good does not strike Norton as unusual. In a long interview with author Mark Lynas (Six Degrees, God Species) while in the Maldives, he sees it as more obligation than option.

"I think the defining challenge of the era right now is that we have recognized that we are living our lives and operating our civilization in a way that will not sustain life as we know it on the planet," said Norton. "I don't think an artist any less or more than anybody else should stay out of that conversation. I think artists, if they are serious about what art can do, are trying to engage in the times they are living in."

Norton's wide-ranging level of professional curiosity can easily be traced to his father, Edward Norton Jr., an environmental lawyer who has worked extensively in Asia, was a federal prosecutor in the Carter Administration and has close links with the Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society and the National Trust for Historic Conservation.

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: A Q&A with actor Edward Norton

Maldives in Peril: A Q&A with actor Edward Norton originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bowermastersadventuresedward nortonEdwardNortonjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesslowlifeWed, 09 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Maldives in Peril: An interview with Daryl Hannah]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/11/07/maldives-in-peril-an-interview-with-daryl-hannah/http://www.gadling.com/2011/11/07/maldives-in-peril-an-interview-with-daryl-hannah/http://www.gadling.com/2011/11/07/maldives-in-peril-an-interview-with-daryl-hannah/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,


Given her decades of success in the movie business, environmental activist and actress Daryl Hannahcould be lounging on any beach in the world today, drinking rum punches, working on her tan or perfecting her mermaid's kick.

That she recently spent a week in the Maldives, much of it indoors participating in a pair of eco-symposiums focused on climate change and the future of island nations -- just days after being arrested in Washington D.C. as part of the protest against the planned $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline -- says a lot about her priorities.

It's easy to cast a dubious eye at celebrities who align themselves with environmental causes since often it's clear managers or agents have encouraged them hoping to better a client's position based on image rather than sincerity. With every actor under 40 (and many older) attempting to gain environmental cred these days it doesn't take too much effort to scratch the surface and find out who of them really bleeds green.

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: An interview with Daryl Hannah

Maldives in Peril: An interview with Daryl Hannah originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bowermastersadventuresdaryl hannahDarylHannahjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesoceanslowlifeslowlife symposiumSlowlifeSymposiumMon, 07 Nov 2011 10:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Maldives in Peril: SCUBA surveying with Fabien Cousteau]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/21/maldives-in-peril-scuba-surveying-with-fabien-cousteau/http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/21/maldives-in-peril-scuba-surveying-with-fabien-cousteau/http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/21/maldives-in-peril-scuba-surveying-with-fabien-cousteau/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



There are few places on the planet as remote as the Maldives. Landfall is a thousand miles away from much of the long string of 1,200 islands, most of which are little more than thin, uninhabited atolls. Diving into the heart of a Maldivian lagoon it is easy to imagine you are alone in one of Planet Ocean's most distant paradises.

Yet when I did just that a few days ago, in the heart of the Baa Atoll -- 400 square miles of aquamarine Indian Ocean recently named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve -- something didn't feel, or look, quite like paradise.

The ocean, though jaw-droppingly beautiful, was bathtub warm, 86, 87 degrees F. Diving to its shallow floor it was quickly clear that the realm below sea level here has been badly impacted in recent years by a combination of man, Mother Nature and fast-warming temperatures.

The coral reefs of the Maldives were first badly hammered in 1998, when shifting ocean patterns associated with El Niño raised sea level temps above 90 degrees for more than two weeks. The result was that 70 to 90 percent of the reefs surrounding the Maldives 26 atolls were badly "bleached," the warm temperatures killing off the symbiotic algae that lives within the coral and gives it color.

I was diving with Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques and executive director of Plant A Fish, and Mark Lynas, author and climate change adviser to Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed. During our first dive along a shallow reef in the middle of Baa Atoll we repeatedly signaled "thumbs down" to each other, as it became clear that this reef was a long way from any kind of comeback. Blanched the color of cement, the coral tips were mostly broken off leaving behind bare rock.

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: SCUBA surveying with Fabien Cousteau

Maldives in Peril: SCUBA surveying with Fabien Cousteau originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>asiabowermastersadventurescousteaudivingfabien cousteauFabienCousteaujon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesoceanscubawaterFri, 21 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Maldives in Peril: Richard Branson on impacting climate change]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/17/maldives-in-peril-richard-branson-on-impacting-climate-change/http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/17/maldives-in-peril-richard-branson-on-impacting-climate-change/http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/17/maldives-in-peril-richard-branson-on-impacting-climate-change/#commentsFiled under: ,



I've bumped into Richard Branson a couple times now, in vastly different settings. The first was in the high Arctic village of Clyde River, where he'd come to join his son Sam for a weeklong dogsled expedition. He introduced himself with what he admitted was a weakish pinky-tap, blaming his inability to lift his arm on having rolled an ATV at his African safari camp the week before.

When we met again a few days ago on a beach in the Maldives, again he extended just a pinky. This time he blamed it on a nasty cold, which he was politely attempting not to spread.

He had flown in for a few days to participate in the SLOWLIFE Symposium as I had; ironically he'd arrived by British Air from London, rather than aboard his own Virgin, which doesn't fly to Male, the capital of the Maldives. Given his longstanding competition and high-level squabbles with BA, he joked that he'd brought along his own "food taster." I assume he wasn't referring to his lovely wife Joan, who accompanied him.

During the course of three days spent in sessions where 80 or so participated in conversation and debate about subjects ranging from the consequences of not taking climate change seriously to the energy future of small island states, Branson sat in on every one, taking notes in a small red notebook, participating in round table debates.

It wasn't as if he didn't have plenty on his plate that might have kept him otherwise occupied: The bankruptcy of the American solar company Solyndra had cost him a bundle; his house on his Caribbean island paradise, Necker Island, had burned to the ground just a month ago (thanks to a lightning strike during Hurricane Irene); and in a few days time he would be outed by Wikileaks for participating in covert plots to oust Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, announce plans to have Virgin Atlantic Airways running on recycled industrial gases by 2014 and by the following weekend be testing a new submersible amongst great white sharks off the coast of Mexico.

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: Richard Branson on impacting climate change

Maldives in Peril: Richard Branson on impacting climate change originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesinperilrichard bransonRichardBransonslowlifeMon, 17 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE Symposium part II]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/12/maldives-in-peril-from-the-slowlife-symposium-part-ii/http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/12/maldives-in-peril-from-the-slowlife-symposium-part-ii/http://www.gadling.com/2011/10/12/maldives-in-peril-from-the-slowlife-symposium-part-ii/#commentsFiled under: ,



Perhaps the most essential weapon -- or tool -- in affecting environmental change is political will. While individuals can make a difference, and must often lead the charge, for change to stick it demands governmental teeth.

When it comes to the ocean that means things like creating Marine Protected Areas, dictating what fish can be taken when and where, eliminating plastic at every step of life since so much of it eventually ends up in the sea and attempting to control leaks into the ocean, from waste to oil.

During nearly three years in office, President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives has shown a backbone far stronger than his petite frame would suggest (he's not much more than 5 feet tall). On a humid, blue-sky day on the island of Kunfunadhoo, the 43-year-old took time out from his global campaign to encourage nations big and small to reduce carbon footprints to give the crowd gathered at the 3rd Annual SLOWLIFE Symposium an update on how it's going.

A former journalist and human rights activist, Nasheed was jailed -- and tortured -- by his predecessor, Maumoon Gayoom, an autocratic leader who held the presidency for 30 years and is expected to run against Nasheed in 2013.

There is concern that Nasheed's globe-trotting presidency, which has earned him accolades such as The Green President and been the subject of a documentary, "The Island President," which recently won a prize as best documentary award at the Toronto International Film Festival, may have distanced him from voters back home.

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE Symposium part II

Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE Symposium part II originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There is no place more apt to engage in heavy-hitting conversation about the future of Planet Ocean than the heart of the small island nation of the Maldives.

It is a place many have heard of but few could pick out on a map. Made up of twelve hundred islands and atolls, most pancake flat, the highest reaches no more than five feet above sea level making the Maldives the lowest country on earth. Only two hundred of the islands are inhabited by roughly 320,000 people. It is an always hot, exceedingly beautiful, Muslim country stretching about 600 miles from north to south in the heart of the Indian Ocean off the tip of Sri Lanka.

In terms less geographic the Maldives is also ground zero for assessing the impacts of climate change. As the earth's temperature continues to heat up, impacting sea surface temperatures in particular, the Maldives is at incredible risk of both rising sea levels and increased frequency and violence of storms.

No politician in the world has taken a bigger role in trying to ramp up interest in efforts to slow climate change (except perhaps Al Gore), than the Maldives' young president, Mohammed Nasheed.

This past weekend an invested crowd of thinkers and doers, including President Nasheed and several members of his cabinet, gathered on the small island of Kunfunadhoo, home to the Six Senses resort Soneva Fushi. This was the third annual S.L.O.W.L.I.F.E Symposium organized by Six Senses CEO Sonu Shivadsani and his wife Eva. The barefoot conference brought together climate change environmentalists like the UK's Jonathan Porritt, Tim Smits and Jeremy Leggett, renewable energy and island nation leaders from as far away as Reunion and Bali, ocean mariners including Fabien Cousteau and some incredibly dedicated headline-makers (Richard Branson and the actors Edward Norton and Daryl Hannah). The subject of three days of talks was: What can we do fast, before it's too late.

Continue reading Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE symposium

Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE symposium originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adventure-travelasiabowermastersadventuresislandjon bowermasterJonBowermastermaldivesslowlifewaterTue, 11 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Antarctica updates, July 2011]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/07/30/antarctica-updates-july-2011/http://www.gadling.com/2011/07/30/antarctica-updates-july-2011/http://www.gadling.com/2011/07/30/antarctica-updates-july-2011/#commentsFiled under:

The fact that today's high was -67 degrees at the South Pole is not news. Especially for the 49 hardy souls overwintering; they knew what they signed on for. Nor is it a shock that it was -97 at Vostok one day last week, since the Russian base holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded (-128).

But there are some surprises being reported from the deep-deep south during the continent's long, cold winter (which lasts eight months, roughly March through October). Like that alien species are invading and that declining penguin numbers may have less to do with warming temps than previously thought. And that the ozone hole over the continent increasingly influences the southern hemisphere's weather and that the ice around the continent's edges is melting faster than predicted. And that for the first time in a decade tourist visits to Antarctica are expected to dip dramatically in the coming summer season.

1. The aliens worrying Antarctic observers are not of the cellophane-skin and pumpkin-head variety, but rather more garden variety: Insects, slugs, worms, plant seeds and fungi that sneak in with the fruits and vegetables consumed by the 4,000 scientists who call Antarctica home during the summer season. Tourists are contributing too, carrying plant seeds in on their shoes and clothing. The invasion is encouraging calls for new levels of "biosecurity" to protect the otherwise pristine continent from being further infiltrated. For the moment, simple fungi and mold are the greatest concern because they often carry plant diseases: On the 11,250 fruit and vegetables sent to nine research stations researchers found soil on 12 percent of the food as well as 56 alien invertebrates and 19 different species of mold. On Antarctica's near islands, rats, mice and cats are already devastating bird populations, a risk the mainland doesn't have to worry about ... for now ... since warm-blooded creatures have a hard time surviving sub-sub freezing temps. For now.

Continue reading Antarctica updates, July 2011

Antarctica updates, July 2011 originally appeared on Gadling on Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adventure-travelantarcticabowermastersadventuresjon bowermasterJonBowermasterSat, 30 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST<![CDATA[A profile of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation]]>http://www.gadling.com/2011/07/28/a-profile-of-adventurers-and-scientists-for-conservation/http://www.gadling.com/2011/07/28/a-profile-of-adventurers-and-scientists-for-conservation/http://www.gadling.com/2011/07/28/a-profile-of-adventurers-and-scientists-for-conservation/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

In the course of humankind's global wanderings - whether in search of new lands or gold - there have been a couple historical cycles during which science has prevailed over more material seeking.

The early 21st century is one of those times. Already deep into the information age, what we want to know today about the future are things like where will new energy come from, what can we continue to learn from deep space and deep ocean and how the hell are we going to clean up the variety of messes we've created in the preceding 2000 years.

A fine example of this transition is in my recent post about the new class of Emerging Explorers named recently by the National Geographic Society. Among the 11 men and women in their 20s and 30s there wasn't a mountain climber or North Pole trekker; instead they included molecular engineers, agroecologists and biotech entrepreneurs.

Along the same lines a six-month-old non-profit group, Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, is attempting to make sure that any adventurer headed into the field goes armed with some kind of scientific mission, big or small. The Bozeman-based group also wants to make sure that whenever a scientific team goes into the field, if they need to take along an accomplished adventurer to help further its work - to climb higher, dive deeper, walk further - it can help in the matchmaking.

Continue reading A profile of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation

A profile of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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