this was certainly an unusual wake up call, but i also found myself in an unusual place, sailing through the heart of southeast alaska with lindblad expeditions. sleep would have to wait — i was here for adventure after all and whale sightings are a once-in-a-lifetime experience. furiously matting my bedhead, i donned a rain jacket and hurried up to the deck. 

i was struck by a sharp wind and a spray of mist as i opened the door to the outside world. i eagerly scanned the horizon and, after a brief moment, was greeted by half a dozen whale tails, seemingly waving at me as they dove back beneath the water’s surface. they didn’t stay under for long, however. it was feeding time and the whales were evidently hungry. 

up and down they went, smooth arched backs diving beneath the surface, each flourishing tail a sight to behold. shiny black blubber, flowing like a heart shaped fan, glistened in the morning light and sent droplets of water rippling through the air. 

i grabbed my camera, hoping to catch a whale fully breaching, but it was those tails that kept appearing in my viewfinder. at first, i found myself frustrated at my inability to photograph anything more than that last bit of whale disappearing into the water. but i soon learned that there was more to these tails (and thus this tale) than it seemed.

more than a fluke

on the deck, shannon malone, the ship’s naturalist and undersea specialist explained that photographing these whales, specifically their tails, could actually be a huge benefit to science. it turns out researchers and scientists can learn a lot just by looking at this small section of the animal. 

“what we’re trying to do is learn about the whales as much as we can without altering their behavior,” malone said. the fluke [the two lobes of a whale’s tail] is really like seeing their face. so you see the same individuals, then you start to know other parts of them.”

yes, believe it or not, a whale’s tail is like a fingerprint, each wholly unique to the individual. the shapes of tails vary widely among species and scarring from broken off barnacles and/or predation further distinguishes one whale from the next. by identifying specific whales, scientists can then track them and study migration and behavioral patterns as well as their life histories.

“the way that they [scientists] figured out that those markings mattered, was actually just random happenstance,” malone said. she explained that in the 1960’s researchers from hawaii met with a high school science teacher from juneau and compared whale photos. previously, the researchers in hawaii were unsure of where the humpbacks were going to migrate and thought this might be the missing link. “they sat down and just started playing the game of like, mix and match with their pictures and realized ‘wow, these are the same.’ that’s how it all began,” malone said.

from tails to happywhale

these days it’s no longer necessary to identify whales by hand. back in 2015, ted cheeseman, a conservation biologist, founded happywhale, a website that utilizes a custom-made algorithm to analyze and identify humpback whales through photo comparisons.

just as detectives find fingerprint matches by analyzing ridges of a finger pad and comparing them to an existing database, happywhale’s algorithm matches newly uploaded fluke photos with previously uploaded photos to find matches. from there, scientists, researchers, and the public can find information on the whales they have identified, such as their gender and where they previously have been spotted. 

“the importance of it is only as important as it is to understand the fate of our oceans, which as we are seeing today, the health of human societies is quite dependent upon,” cheeseman said. “this is basically another lens we have … that has provided effectively a tool to be able to see in near real time how marine conditions are faring.”

a unique aspect of happywhale is that anyone can upload photos and anyone can access the information on these whales found on the site. the result is a diverse community of citizen scientists, researchers, and environmentalists working in tandem to achieve a variety of goals.

for the casual uploader, happywhale provides the opportunity to track “your” whale and even name it, if you are the first to discover it. for the researchers, it provides unprecedented access to a vast trove of information on a specific species. with an ever-growing database of more than 500,000 submitted photos and 200,000-plus identified encounters, the knowledge of these majestic creatures will continue to expand as well. 

“i see the whole thing as being kind of equal parts a research tool, a public education tool, and a public experience,” cheeseman said. 

a large portion of uploads actually come from tourism. i witnessed this first-hand as some of the naturalists aboard the ship spent hours logging dozens of fluke photos they had taken in the morning. 

when i later sat down with malone she explained that having naturalists like herself, as well as tourists, contribute to happywhale’s database saves research groups a lot of time, effort, and money. in addition to whale identification, the website also offers similar algorithms to analyze and track everything from penguins to sea otters.

“if we just relied on the researchers to gather the information about whales, we would have maybe a handful of people working. but with citizen science, you’re now getting to use the resources of thousands of people,” malone said. “like with any science, the more data points we have, the more accurately we can speak about the population as a whole. it’s not only adding to the science, but it’s adding to the group of stewards for the environment by informing people about this.”

cheeseman agreed, emphasizing how happywhale can serve as a tool for people from all walks of life.

“what’s most powerful is this becomes a tool for the guides, folks like shannon, to have more resources so that they can do their job with science support,” he said. “at the end of the day, what this is trying to do is help people understand. my goal is not at all to get every one of those folks to submit, it’s really more to have a few people turn on and stay turned on.”

the ship sails on

by the end of the expedition, i was hooked by happywhale’s mission. scanning their website, it’s easy to see the appeal and how powerful a tool it can be. a quick search allowed me to find the whales the naturalist had identified on our expedition. i then clicked on another upload from alaska and found other humpback whales, decades old, spotted as far as hawaii. 

unfortunately, i never got any close-up shots on my expedition to submit to happywhale. still, the memory of my adventure lives on thanks to the uploads of so many others. even having now left alaska, i am confident this tale will continue.

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editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. all editorial content is created independently. we thank lindblad expeditions for their continued support of our project. read all the stories from the expedition in our astonishing alaska series.

there we were, hiking through the vast wilderness, or standing on the shores of remote beaches, or floating near the bases of staggering glaciers — and, yet, we didn’t feel separate from these unfamiliar surroundings. humbled; inspired; overwhelmed? absolutely. but not separate.

on the final day of our expedition, lindblad naturalist tim martin led a hike into the old growth forest of chichagof island. throughout our time in alaska, i’d had a camera in hand, filming our adventures and interviewing our planet forward cohort about the experience, with the intention of editing this very film upon our return. yet, we were warned that this particular hike was for those looking for a challenge and, sure enough, i found myself tucking my camera away in my pack to free two hands to brace myself on treacherous terrain and uncleared trails.

i nervously climbed up a steep, soily incline, steadied by the reaching hands of my human companions and the strong roots of the trees above. once at the top, we embarked deeper into the forest and tim stumbled upon a small, yellowish-green animal on the mossy floor. never one to pass up a teaching moment, tim picked up the banana slug and, at my request, handed it to me.

at first coiled into itself, the slug began to unwind once in my palm, revealing its four sensing tentacles and angling them directly toward me. i looked into the face of this seemingly alien creature, startlingly aware that, as it oozed protective mucus onto my hand, it saw an equally alien face looking back.

i beamed with pure joy.

in a time when so much of my life has been mediated through screens and one way interactions, when so much of my attention is pulled away from reality and toward something else, someplace else, the glance of this tiny, slimy being delivered a message. it said, “you are not a spectator on this planet. you, too, are part of the show.”

throughout our time in alaska, i got the sense that each of the storyfest winners had had their own parallel experiences: interactions with the landscape, its non-human inhabitants, and our human guides and companions, that viscerally reminded them of the ways in which we are all connected — the ways in which all of our actions are never truly ours, as their impacts stretch outward in ways we as individuals can never comprehend.

this, of course, is why we tell stories. we share experiences through stories with a deep knowledge that, in fact, all experiences are already shared.

will these heightened moments of connection with the earth and with each other, shared through stories, save our planet? 

no — but they remind us we have no choice but to keep trying.

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editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. all editorial content is created independently. we thank lindblad expeditions for their continued support of our project. read all the stories from the expedition in our astonishing alaska series.

during my time in alaska, i was in awe in many moments. but nothing felt as breathtaking — and unexpectedly alarming — as being in a sea of ice.

i always hear about the glaciers melting and that coastal areas will be underwater in a couple of decades. while that statement alone is terrifying, being in alaska raised some questions. what other visible changes can we see now due to climate change? how can we tell the story of climate change without words?

i learned more about the science and history of glaciers in alaska. for example, while they melt, they also tend to advance and retreat throughout the valley. so, when we went out into a fjord, i began connecting the dots — the glaciers leave imprints on the mountains, and that’s one of the ways scientists and environmental enthusiasts can study glaciers.

as i photographed ice and the mountains, i noticed some rusted terrain. these are called trimlines. as glaciers advance and retreat, they leave the rock bare, causing a line to form an iron-colored surface. what is alarming about this is how fast it’s occurring. tim martin, a lindblad expeditions naturalist aboard the national geographic sea lion, said some glaciers had advanced and retreated in the last five to 10 years.

before traveling to alaska, i would always note ongoing studies and research regarding climate change and the environment. yet, the clear visualization of trimlines brought me to realize that climate change doesn’t just exist in data but before our eyes.

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editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. all editorial content is created independently. we thank lindblad expeditions for their continued support of our project. read all the stories from the expedition in our astonishing alaska series.

we were three-quarters of a mile away and yet the glacier stood as a towering monument that was almost too large to comprehend. our boat’s collective silent awe broke when a sudden thunderous pounding traveled down the canyon like a booming heartbeat “ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.” 

“did you all hear that?” naturalist tim martin asked excitedly. a large chunk of ice breaking off the face of a glacier caused the sound — in an event called a “calving.” in addition to being a naturalist for lindblad expeditions, martin teaches geology, astronomy, art, and earth science at elon university. he has 20 years of experience in his field and i was grateful he was our guide on the zodiac that afternoon in tracy arm. being with him in that hallowed place of geology was an inspiring experience. 

my time in alaska taught me that rocks are our eldest knowledge holders. understanding ice, glaciers, mountains, and rocks is like understanding the language of the earth. after this trip, i believe that when we understand and connect personally with the earth, we are more deeply inspired to protect it. 

building and destroying the southeast alaskan mountains

“geologically, southeast alaska is a confusing place,” martin said. “southeast alaska’s mountains are like a conveyor belt at the grocery store that doesn’t have a cashier or bagger. all the material moves and then piles up at the end, tumbling and rolling over each other.” the tectonic activity (the large plates of land and ocean that make up the earth’s surface) in southeast alaska is strange and unique. it has produced some of the most beautiful and complex landscapes in the united states. southeast alaska has all three standard types of rock, sometimes several occurring in the same rock face. however, alaska has an iconic fourth kind of rock.  

“you know,” martin said, as he threw his whole upper body over the bow of the zodiac. “ice is a rock too!” martin popped back into our zodiac holding a 30-pound chunk of crystal-clear ice that had been floating in the fjord. he passed the hefty ice cube to me, and as it melted on my lap i listened to him tell us about the power of ice.

if rock built alaska, ice carved it. more specifically, ice was the vessel through which rock carved rock. the last ice age, which was 115,000 years ago, brought massive deposits of snow, creating vast snowfields across alaska with ice a mile thick. as these massive glaciers advanced and receded in cycles, they scraped huge amounts of fine rock material –– like the world’s heaviest piece of sandpaper –– across the great mountains of southeast alaska over and over and over. 

because of the glacier’s erosive power, the fjords and bays of alaska have a distinctive u-shape. in contrast, rivers carve canyons in sharper v-shapes like the grand canyon in my home state of arizona. the u-shaped chilkat valley can be seen clearly from about 3,000 feet on an airplane.

of ‘quartz’ rocks can speak!

martin and i first bonded over our shared love of rocks and outdoor rock climbing. i found kinship with the only other person on the expedition who would respond to the phrase, “it’s just a rock,” with a shocked and confused, “it’s just a rock?!” 

as i asked martin more questions about tracy arm’s unique geological features, i came to a profound and simple realization. once you understand the clues, places like tracy arm become storybooks. you can read a 100-million-year-old story written by earth herself. a rock’s type, age, magnetism, location, contents, shape, and composition are all bits of information one can use to determine the details of the place you are. 

i practiced this when i was walking with martin on the beaches of iyoukeen bay. he began to pick up the clues of his surroundings — the rocks began speaking to him. he noted the abundance of limestone and marble and the beach’s location in alaska and in relation to the pacific coast. he confidently said, “this was the bottom of the sea floor long ago.” i was amazed.

i wanted to get in on the conversation, so as any good budding geologist would, i had my eyes glued to the ground during our hike down the beach. i spotted a very peculiar and enchanting rock, and of course, i took it right over to martin for identification. “halley picked up fossilized coral,” he announced to the group. realizing i had picked up a piece of ancient history, i took my time admiring its smooth surface, its patterned grooves, and its dragon-like scales. the picture of the ancient sea bed was becoming clearer. 

martin then spotted more fossilized coral, and this time he was able to make an identification. he told me one of the fossils was that of a horn coral, an organism that existed only in the devonian period, making that fossil a minimum of 350 million years old. 

martin’s knowledge and my curiosity were the keys that unlocked a deep well of ancient knowledge. by reading the clues that earth left us on that beach, we were able to transport ourselves to a land before our time. it was a humbling experience to put myself and my life on the geological time scale of earth. it made me think about the blip that is all of human life compared to the forever of earth. the earth has always and will continue to leave clues for us to understand her. the earth speaks. rocks speak. we just have to know how to hear them. if humans spend less time talking and more time listening, we might just be able to make our profound effect on the earth a positive one. 

it is a magical experience to be able to read the earth in her native language in alaska –– it is a way to connect and engage with the natural world. that connection to the natural world is critical right now because it is what inspires us to fight for the health and safety of earth’s wildest places. martin said the reason he loves exploring alaska is that “…coming to wild and unaltered places is the way we can read the story of life on this planet.” i couldn’t agree more.

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editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. all editorial content is created independently. we thank lindblad expeditions for their continued support of our project. read all the stories from the expedition in our astonishing alaska series.

this year’s student storytelling was – in a word – exceptional, and the competition for the title of storyfest 2022 winner was incredibly tough. our finalists covered everything from musicians and scientists to farmers and community activists, and highlighted solutions on everything from new irrigation technology to mammoth resurrection. you can see all our amazing finalists’ pieces right here on planetforward.org.

after a great deal of deliberation from our committee of judges, we are excited to share our our 2022 winners:

most compelling character

plantita power: microgreens in the district

jennifer cuyuch, george washington university

the judges say:

through her warm interviews and vibrant use of music and graphics, the judges say jennifer not only conveys the character of plantita power’s founder, steph, but also their community and spirit of care and life – plants! – that they cultivate.

most creative story

‘coastal degradation through fresh eyes’: a picture book come to life

delaney graham, suny-esf

the judges say:

a thoroughly absorbing story built around storybook characters. amka’s friend, is a puffin who is homeless because of coastal erosion. they embark on a journey of discovery and hope. the story works and the characters pop. the judges were taken by the character – and the content.

best scalable innovation

farzona comnas, george washington university

the judges say:

beautifully written and photographed, this story is personal to farzona, focusing on deserts in her native country of jordan. they’re becoming hotter and drier as a result of climate change. farzona proposes planting forests in desert. sound impossible? she cites an initiative in lebanon that has done just that. the practice is called afforestation. project drawdown rates it 15th of the most significant steps we could take to reverse global warming. the judges say, this story delivers!

best science narrative

a tale of two mountains: battling climate change and wildfires at home and abroad

ryan bieber, ithaca college

the judges say:

ryan weaves a compelling narrative built on the science. it is a tale of two sierras. in california, the sierra nevada has experienced “nine out of ten of the state’s largest wildfires … in the last decade.” in spain, monoculture replanting in the sierra nevada became a fire trap. this story is a compelling narrative of learning and loss showing distinct ways that human activity has led to devastating wildfires. 

best use of science & data

hope flows through the heart of tucson: the santa cruz river heritage project

halley hughes, the university of arizona

the judges say:

halley brings the science and data to real-world life in her story about the santa cruz river heritage project. a “trickle of water” that represents “enormous change.” the story captures the heart and soul of the living desert. as halley writes, “making tucson more drought resilient, conserving water resources, supporting critical biodiversity, connecting a city to its heritage, and educating a new generation.”

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congratulations to our winners — and a huge thank you to all the students who entered this year. we are so proud of the stories you are telling to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 !

click below to learn more about the past, present, and future of marine protection in the galápagos.

i was given the opportunity to travel on board the national geographic endeavour ii with lindblad expeditions when i won planet forward’s storyfest prize in 2020. and as the date of the voyage grew closer (delayed somewhat due to covid), i began to research potential topics that i could report on while in the archipelago. one area of interest that struck me was understanding how conservation efforts in the galápagos empowered local populations.

in school, many of us learn how the geographic isolation of these islands lead to its incredible array of endemic species. we learn about darwin’s great voyage, about his theory of evolution that shaped modern day science. but what many of us don’t learn about is that four of these islands are not only home to finches and frigates, but also populated by humans—about 30,000 individuals in fact.

navigating the fine line between environmental protection and human development is by no means easy. life as a galápaganian is especially restrictive coming from a western point of view; buying a new car—or even driving a personal car in the galápagos—for example, is virtually impossible. since 97% of the islands are protected and restricted, except for those visiting through a tourism agency, many locals don’t get to experience the isolated wilderness that foreigners see upon visiting. in fact, if locals wish to the remaining 97% of the islands — the protected and uninhabited islands — they must also go through a tourism agency. in the galapagos, one cannot visit national park territory without being part of a licensed tourism operation with a licensed naturalist. experiences like these, like on a cruise, cost a minimum of thousands of dollars, preventing so many locals from ever having this opportunity.

bolstering local communities and empowering the next generation are imperatives for long-term sustainable conservation. if people who live in the galápagos are not provided adequate opportunities to visit, explore, and learn about the importance of the islands, there is far less of an incentive to love, and thus conserve them.

i was pleased to learn that as part of their mission to use the power of travel for positive change, lindblad expeditions has raised more than $19 million for conservation, scientific research, and local communities. lindblad is also a 100% carbon neutral company. in the galápagos specifically, from 2019 to 2020 lindblad funded grants for four different conservation organizations, focusing specifically on education, research, technology, and storytelling.

additionally, since 1999 lindblad has participated in a galápagos national park program called explora galápagos, in which tourism companies partner with the program to bring local teachers, farmers, students, and other community members out to explore their home islands’ wild and remote sites. the program’s goal is simple: to educate about the unique archipelago and all it beholds, and to inspire stewardship of the islands.

i was curious to learn about exactly how participating in a lindblad expedition reflects onto local populations, and exactly what areas of conservation are a priority.

on board the 96-guest equipped national geographic endeavour ii, i met adrián vasquez, who works as a video chronicler, documenting our expedition. adrián grew up on the island of san cristobal, and previously worked as a ministerial communications and video production advisor for the government council of galápagos, which focuses on improving social problems in the archipelago. 

“lindblad in the past had only international video chroniclers, but now they only have local video chroniclers. that is very important,” adrián said. “it shows that the local people are very important for the islands.”

in december 2020, lindblad in conjunction with island conservation, an international nonprofit conservation organization, launched the galapagos island relief fund, a program providing financial relief for galápaganians impacted by the pandemic. sven lindblad, the founder and ceo of lindblad expeditions, explained when the program was announced, “stimulating the local economy through community micro-loans has the power to activate a thriving system—helping entrepreneurs and small business owners develop new ideas to complement sustainable tourism and meeting the needs of the local community long after the pandemic is over.”

i am emboldened by the mission of lindblad expeditions, after seeing firsthand the commitment of their team to work toward ecofriendly tourism solutions, rather simply aiming for profit, like many other enterprises. and i’m hopeful that the next generation of naturalists, photographers, and educators have been inspired by their experience among the wilds of galápagos as much as i was.

charles darwin described this kind of process in his theory of evolution, which he developed after traveling around the world and collecting specimens from numerous locations, including, notably, the galápagos islands, home to the well-known darwin finches. 

“the natural history of this archipelago is very remarkable: it seems to be a little world within itself; the greater number of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found nowhere else,” darwin wrote about the islands in “voyages of the adventure and beagle.”

today, the galápagos islands are home to numerous endemic species. almost all of the reptiles found in galápagos and about 40% of the land birds are endemic to the region, gallo said. the islands are also home to endemic plant species, endemic mammals and endemic marine birds. 

“the lava lizards are endemic, the giant tortoises are endemic, the marine iguanas are endemic, the land iguanas are endemic,” gallo said, listing just some of the species unique to the galápagos islands. 

“this is a concern for several of the small populations that we have in the galápagos that are unique, like the flightless cormorants that are just found here in the western part of the archipelago, nowhere else in the galápagos: if there is any big change, those animals are threatened with extinction,” gallo said. 

one of those changes is the introduction of new species with which endemic species have trouble competing. “[endemic species] have adapted so much to their environment that something very small can wipe them out,” gallo said. 

for example, the parasitic philornis downsi fly was accidentally introduced to the galápagos islands in the 1960s, and it brought some of the darwin finches to the brink of extinction, gallo said. rats that eat eggs and hatchlings of reptiles and birds have also threatened endemic species like giant tortoises, but researchers have been making progress in efforts to eradicate the rats.

some species of tortoises have disappeared from the islands, too, gallo said, because they were a popular source of food for whalers and other humans in the past. researchers are working to recover declining tortoise populations, though, and they even recently found a tortoise on fernandina island that is from a species that was believed to be extinct. gallo said this is especially promising because the tracks researchers found seem to indicate that there are more than one of those tortoises present on the island.

another impending change for the archipelago is events like major storms, which are typically rare in the galápagos but could become more of a problem in the future with climate change, gallo said. impacts of hurricanes and tropical storms affecting the pacific coast of mexico can reach further south, hitting the galápagos islands with strong winds that can tear roofs off of buildings, knock down trees and create intense waves, as happened five years ago, gallo said.

el niño events can also seriously impact endemic animals in the galápagos. while they bring more rain, benefiting some plant species and the animals that feed on those plants, in the past they have led to significant drops in populations of other species like galápagos penguins and marine iguanas. some researchers worry that climate change may increase the frequency and intensity of el niño events.

although endemic species in galápagos face several challenges, gallo is ultimately optimistic about their future, saying:

“galápagos is always a place where weather is changing so much. the animals you see here, they seem so nice and so happy – they struggle for life year by year, and it’s amazing that they’re making it through. so i’m always actually more concerned here in galápagos about people than about the animals because i know how resilient they are, and they will move, and they will adapt.”

“we were kind of bored in the beginning,” juan carlos says. “back in those years the trails weren’t paved. you had to walk across lava rocks to go anywhere so we always came home with bruises and injuries on our knees.” 

earlier in his childhood, juan carlos grew up in the vibrant cloud forests of mainland ecuador. the region is considered one of the single richest biological hotspots on the planet. juan carlos could recall walking through the forest spotting a seemingly endless number of colorful birds, monkeys, and armadillos. when he moved to the galápagos islands, all he could see in the surrounding highlands of santa cruz island were just some dark colored finches. little did juan carlos know at the time that these very same finches helped charles darwin produce his theory of evolution, which changed the way in how we all understand the natural world. 

even darwin shared similar thoughts when he first landed on the galapagos 154 years before juan carlos: “nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. a broken field of black basaltic lava, thrown into the most rugged waves, and crossed by great fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sun-burnt brushwood, which shows little signs of life.” 

juan carlos recalled the moment when he changed his mind about life on the enchanted islands after seeing a giant tortoise for the first time. “i couldn’t believe these big things could walk! when we were kids, there were no tvs and no electricity, so we would just get close to the giant tortoises and watch them for hours!”

as a kid growing up on the galápagos islands, juan carlos didn’t have the same access to what the tourists would see. that all changed when he won a voyage on a ship in high school to visit several other islands. 

“everything was different to me, beginning with the rocks,” he says. before his famed voyage on the h.m.s. beagle, darwin was a disinterested medical student who later found his pathway into naturalism through geology. darwin, too, made careful observations about the geological differences within the galápagos islands.

“when i arrived at north seymour island for the first time, i started to compare how it was different from santa cruz,” juan carlos says. there, he could see vast colonies of frigate birds with their characteristic red pouches, blue-footed boobies engaged in courtship rituals, and land iguanas scattered across the decorative landscape. 

“i was like, ‘oh my god! everything is so different from santa cruz!’”

as juan carlos continued his journey to the islands of espanola and floreana, he started to learn more about the human history of the galápagos. well before juan carlos’s family, and even before darwin himself arrived, many pirates, whalers, and naturalists paid the archipelago a visit. “they paved the road for people like my family to eventually come and do farming,” says juan carlos, who also now owns a farm on santa cruz island, like his father before him. 

after graduating high school, juan carlos was set on becoming a mechanical engineer on a boat, before stumbling on an opportunity to become a naturalist guide. “once i became a naturalist, i realized this is what i wanted to do (with my life),” he says. 

juan carlos has now been a naturalist guide with lindblad expeditions for 16 years. as the expedition leader aboard the national geographic endeavour ii, he enjoys working for a company like lindblad that is deeply and actively involved in the conservation of the islands. “it’s not like we just operate here, bring visitors, take photographs and then they go away. it is about bringing visitors who would like to do something to preserve these natural places,” he says. “they want to be a part of long-lasting change, and that’s what i like about this company. that is why i am here.”  

to juan carlos, the job of a naturalist has changed a lot since the days of darwin. “back in those years of exploration, during the time of darwin, a naturalist would catch and shoot animals, do taxidermy, and sell their specimens to museums and universities as a type of business,” he says. 

today, a naturalist must be a permanent resident on the galápagos islands. they no longer catch and kill animals; instead, they must keep visitors from disturbing them. “today, the connotation of a naturalist is something different. they must be somebody who knows a lot about nature, biology, and geology. they must embody the spirit of conservation and be good at passing down the messages and concepts of natural history,” juan carlos says.  

while the galápagos islands face several threats like climate change and invasive species, naturalists like juan carlos are working hard to ensure their home can continue to inspire future generations who wish to visit and conserve these enchanted islands. 

to get to the galápagos — in the pacific ocean a good distance west of ecuador — first each of our u.s.-based travelers had to complete a series of what we’re going to call “side quests,” as that’s a bit more fun than the drudgery of pre-trip covid tests, several flights, weather challenges, and extra long lines. but these quests were well worth it when we first saw the bright turquoise waters and rustic, almost desertlike landscapes — home to the incredible endemic and native species of the galápagos.

our intrepid storytellers — deepti bansal gage, jake meyers, cate twining-ward, and avery van etten — spent a week exploring several islands in the galápagos archipelago. three were aboard the national geographic endeavour ii, and avery, who persevered through weather-related travel challenges, was aboard the national geographic islander.

the sights and experiences our team — and each of our ships and fellow guests — encountered were absolutely incredible. and one of the extremely memorable parts of that, beyond the obvious, is the food served on the ship.

guests are treated to an amazing daily array of fresh foods — from local juices of fruits many of us were not familiar with, to super grains, salads, sustainable seafood, meat, vegetarian and vegan main courses, and desserts made from and highlighting tropical fruit (one dessert which was entitled “the story of the pineapple” will forever live in my mind, thank you!), and much more.

but, like everything else, lindblad took care of our food guilt too, thanks to a farm-to-table program — just one of many initiatives lindblad expeditions participates in to support locals and their economy. lindblad purchases “30-40 tons of local and organic produce annually” for its galápagos ships, according to its website. that means money is invested directly in galápagos farms and supports the people who live in the galápagos — because there’s more than just the incredible flora and fauna in the archipelago. there also are about 30,000 inhabitants on four islands.

on top of food for lindblad’s many guests, “100% of all other (non-produce) provisions are sourced either in the islands or from the mainland of ecuador.” all of which can provide a significant impact on the local economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism and was hard hit when covid ceased travel. the afp reported that the galápagos tourism chamber estimated that the economy lost out on $850 million from march 2020 to march 2021. since reopening in july 2021 with relaxed restrictions, the galápagos is working to rebuild — all while protecting what makes the islands unique.

you can learn more about the archipelago in the stories our team is sharing from their adventures. they cover everything from endemic species to the human inhabitants on the galápagos, to changes in protected areas and a look at the evolution of a naturalist. look for them on planetforward.org.