ST. JOHN’S, N.L. - Eleven crew members, one young guard dog and a Canadian research lead are in final preparations before their 8-month journey stuck in Arctic drifting ice. Maxime Geoffroy and those 12 teammates abord the Tara Polar Station are set to sail this weekend alongside a Chinese icebreaker that will bring them into the Central Arctic Ocean. The team will push their 26-metre-long ship and research station into the ice flows and drift with the arctic currents for months. “I have experience in the Arctic, and all of us have in the north — (but) I’ve never been for eight months that remote in the Central Arctic Ocean,” Geoffroy said Friday from Kirkenes, Norway, the ship’s last stop before the 8-month expedition. “Learning how to navigate and cope with this and do good science in this kind of environment to me, is quite exciting.” Geoffroy will lead the ship’s research team through their sampling and science tasks. The Quebec-born researcher said there are more than 200 sampling and job protocols they’ll have to complete, as dozens of other scientists and researchers are eagerly awaiting the data the Tara Polar Station will collect. “In that sense, we are like astronauts that have been trained to collect data and do science for many other groups,” he said. That sampling — including picking up plankton in the under-ice ocean and gasses in the atmosphere — is part of the Tara Ocean Foundation’s push to learn more about the Arctic ocean, where it says climate change is hitting the hardest. “I think the Arctic is where we have the answers of what’s going to be the fate of the future,” said Romain Trouble, the foundation’s executive director. Part of launching this expedition — the first of ten that are planned through the Arctic ice — is to push research forward, and to push for renewed international co-operation in scientific fields. “The geopolitics — we need to talk to each other again, and we need to make the most of science, knowledge and prediction.” It is expected to take more than a year for the Tara Polar Station to complete its drift through the Arctic ice flows and free itself again near Greenland. Geoffroy and his group who are taking the first shift, won’t be able to leave the vessel for about 8 months — more than four of which will be during the polar night, where the crew will receive very little exposure to the sun. “There’s big windows, so we can see at least during the winter when we have a little light,” he said. “We can make the most out of it.” The crew underwent extensive testing to ensure they’ll be compatible with each other and compatible with the environmental conditions. “We know our body will react to that,” Geoffroy said. “Difficulty to sleep, being more tired, being less patient… these are things that we expect.” “Making sure we have ways to cope with them is key.” The Quebec-born researcher is working with the Marine Institute in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is a polar ichthyologist, meaning he studies the fish who live under the arctic ice. The team will have internet access through their journey and they’re also bringing along Orkki, an eight-month old shepherd from Finland who will be companion and an extra polar bear detector for the crew. “It’s not too big, so it doesn’t take too much space on board,” Geoffroy said. “It doesn’t eat too much also, because space is limited.” Geoffroy said he and his team field a lot of questions about Orkki, only second to comments about their ship’s odd shape. At 26-metres long and 16-metres wide, the Tara Polar Station is built in an oval shape that should help the ship manage the pressures of the ice. The ship has undergone sea trials and was tested over a seven-month period in the Arctic Ocean. Their route through the Arctic Ocean has been crossed before. But Geoffroy said this crew is travelling over the winter, where polar ice will be at its maximum, something that is rarely done. With the trip right around the corner, Geoffroy said he’s feeling excited and ready to start the iced-in portion of the journey. “Although it seems like it’s going to be the start of something that is a bit nerve-wracking, in reality, I think it would be a bit of a relief that we finally reached it, and we’re ready to start doing the science.”
