Geoscientist and polar explorer Susan Eaton (Flag #14, #32) led Sea Women Expeditions (SWX) – a volunteer-based, international team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women ocean explorers, scientists, filmmakers, photographers, scuba divers, artists, historians, lawyers, cultural advisors, and educators – on a mission to scout, record and document disappearing sea ice in the Arctic. This was Susan’s third time carrying a WINGS flag on expedition.

During the past decade, Susan has run four ocean research and dive & snorkel expeditions to the Arctic—Canada (Nunavut and Nunatsiavut), Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, creating a space for more than 80 women and girls, ages 16 to 78 years, to gain leadership skills and field experience in polar ocean expeditions integrating Exploration with the Arts & the Sciences. The vision is to foster a circumpolar network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women leaders who will help shape the future of the Arctic and our planet. “We envision equity for women,” writes Susan, “and their inclusion in the development of circumpolar policies on economic prosperity, science and technology, human rights, food security, and strategies to mitigate the impacts of societal change and climate change in a warming Arctic. Further, we envision a world where Indigenous and northern peoples collaborate to build vibrant, resilient, and sustainable communities in the Arctic.”

For this polar expedition, Susan and her international team of 34 Indigenous and non-Indigenous women explorers ran three back-to-back women’s leadership programs, followed by three back-to-back ocean research and winter snorkel expeditions, in deep arctic fjords 350 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. Exploring the interlocking themes of gender, ocean sustainability, loss of biodiversity, and climate change in the Arctic, the SWX team undertook an eDNA water sampling program, a passive acoustic recording program with multi-directional hydrophones, and a behavioral study to document interactions between snorkelers and orcas during the winter herring run.

This Sea Women Expeditions’ Arctic Norway ocean research and winter snorkel has been endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade.