Oceans educator from CPAWS joins international expedition to highlight conservation

Voyage an education in Arctic wonders and marine protection

Vancouver - Sabine Jessen, national oceans manager for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, is travelling with 70 students and 45 international educators on an Arctic voyage that includes stops in Iceland, Greenland, Nunavik and Labrador. Ms. Jessen hopes to raise awareness about the need for marine conservation in the Arctic and inspire the students aged 14–18 to become champions for the Arctic Ocean.

 This May, CPAWS launched a campaign calling on Canada to create marine protected areas or marine “parks” in all of Canada’s oceans, including the Arctic. Ms. Jessen will give a series of seminars onboard about marine protected areas and how to get involved in conservation issues, while raising awareness of the Arctic seascapes throughout the journey.
 
“Canada’s Arctic is the most exciting and vulnerable ocean in the world right now. With the melting ice, many want to exploit the Arctic – whether for oil and gas, shipping or commercial fishing – all in the relatively untouched Arctic seascapes. Canada and other Arctic countries need to protect large parts of this amazing ocean – that is what I’m going to tell the students,” says Jessen. “I hope this generation will always consider conservation paramount when it comes to protection of land and sea and not make the mistakes of past generations.”

The trip begins in Reykjavik, Iceland on Sunday July 24th and ends in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik in northern Quebec on Sunday, August 7th, followed by a celebration in Ottawa at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
 
Ms. Jessen is part of the 2011 Students on Ice Expedition to the Arctic, an organization that also arranges student expeditions to the Antarctic. www.studentsonice.com.