Exploring the Open Ocean

During stage 1 we will kayak 1,400 miles from Seattle, Washington to Skagway, Alaska. The Pacific Northwest is home to a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial animals. We will be studying whales and other marine mammals, kelp forests, salmon, and many other species.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a variety of large land mammals including Grizzly Bears, and Black Bears. Above and below the surface we are sure to find plenty of things to learn about. Many of these large mammals need large undeveloped spaces to thrive and the roadless sections of British Columbia and Alaska provide the perfect habitat.

From Skagway, Alaska we will hike over the Chilkoot Pass in the footsteps of thousands of gold seekers who struggled across the pass to reach the Klondike. Many of artifacts remain from those early days, and we will follow their path all the way to Dawson City along the mighty Yukon River.

From Bennet Lake on the eastern side of the Chilkoot Pass we will canoe through a chain of lakes that form the headwaters of the Yukon River past White Horse and down the swift flowing Yukon River to Dawson City.

From Dawson we will hike 100 miles through the mountains to the headwaters of the Blackstone River. The Blackstone flows into the Peel River, which flows in the McKenzie River, which will lead us to the Arctic Ocean. The rivers flowing through these rugged mountains as some of the most pristine wild rivers in North America, with hundreds of miles of flowing waterways between towns or roads.

After over 2,600 miles of paddling and hiking we hope to reach the Arctic Ocean before freeze up. We will spend the month of October,2010 training our dogs, and learning about native life in the Arctic. In November we will head south along the McKenzie River by dog team, crossing 1,800 miles of frozen wilderness. There are many remote native communities along our way and we are sure to learn a lot from the people we encounter.

When the ice melts in the Spring of 2011 we will transition from dogsled to canoe and paddle 2,300 miles along the historic travel and trade route pioneered by Alexander McKenzie, Samuel Hearne, and other Canadian Explorers in the 1700's. We will finish this stage of our journey in the fall of 2011 by completing the 8 1/2 mile Grand Portage which will lead us to the rock shore of Lake Superior.

After spending the winter giving presentations and making final preparations we will begin 4,800 mile kayak journey from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Key West, Florida. The first 2,200 miles will take us through the Great Lakes and out the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water, which is one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. We plan to demonstrate the importance of properly managing and protecting this amazing resource.

During the final stage of our journey we will kayak the length of the Atlantic Coast from the Saint Lawrence Seaway to Key West, Florida. We will be following the seasonal whale migration from the Bay of Fundy in Maine to the warm clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way we will visit cities large and small, and study a variety of ecosystems and environmental topics. We also plan to take side trips into the cyprus swamps and Everglades National Park looking for Alligators, birds, and other critters.

Wenonah Canoe and Current Designs Kayaks

GoMacro makes wonderful macrobiotic energy bars.

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Expedition Blog

Exploring the Open Ocean

Sunday, 16 September 2012 17:45 Written by Administrator

Student Response Worksheet (Upper)
Student Response Worksheet (Lower)

Students who voted in last week's Cast YOUR Vote chose what habitat we will study this week. The vote was between temperate forests, open ocean, and the intertidal zone. Open ocean won, so here is your Notes From the Trail all about the open ocean.

Over the last few weeks we have started to understand just how large the Atlantic Ocean is. It is amazing to paddle along in the swell and think about the hundreds of miles of water that stretches as far as the eye can see. Oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface. Oceans play an important role in many of the Earth's systems including climate and weather. The oceans support the life of nearly 50 percent of all species on Earth. Marine life has adapted to live in every niche of the oceans, from the poles to the tropics, from estuaries to the deep ocean. The world’s oceans are home to as many as 100 million species – from the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth, the blue whale, to the tiniest bacteria. Oceans contain many different kinds of habitats. Our focus today is on the ocean surface and the ocean floor. You may want to follow some of the links below to learn about all the different layers and habitats in the oceans.

The Ocean Surface

The surface of the ocean, where sunlight reaches, is where most sea life is found. Most of the fish, sharks, rays, jellyfish, marine mammals and sea turtles can be found in this layer of the ocean.

The ocean food chain begins with microscopic drifting plants called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are found close to the surface of the water where there is plenty of sunlight for photosynthesis. Phytoplankton are eaten by tiny floating animals known as zooplankton. Zooplankton include the larvae of crabs, jellyfish, corals and worms, as well as adult animals like tiny shrimps, copepods and krill.

Moving up the food chain, zooplankton provide food for fish. Big fish eat smaller fish and at the very top of the food chain are large predatory fish like sharks, mammals like seals, and seabirds. Some very large mammals, baleen whales, feed directly on zooplankton. Millions of people all over the world also depend on fish for food.

The Ocean Floor

Seaweed only grows on the ocean floor near coasts, where it gets enough sunlight for photosynthesis. Sponges, sea mats, sea anemones and sea squirts can be found living on the bottom of the ocean. Their food comes from dead plankton, fish, and other detritus that falls to the ocean floor. There are some creatures that crawl along the bottom or burrow beneath it. They are lobsters, crabs, prawns, sea stars, sea slugs and worms. There are also bottom-feeding fish like rays, turbots and halibuts.

Where the ocean is deep, the ocean floor can be in total darkness. Humans rarely have a chance to see the bottom of the ocean. Animals here survive in total darkness and under intense water pressure. Some of these animals have adapted unique traits in order to survive, like glowing in the dark. Most of the deepest parts of the ocean have yet to be explored. Deep ocean submersible machines are used to study the bottom of the ocean – and new life forms are being discovered every year!

This diagram shows all the different layers of the ocean. Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oceanic_divisions.svg