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Eddy Carmack has a special affinity for American
ecologist Edward Ricketts, who was fictionalized
in John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row. Studying
marine life along the Pacific coast aboard small
fishing vessels, Ricketts became known as the father
of "fishboat science."
Carmack, a climate oceanographer with Fisheries
and Oceans Canada in Sidney, B.C., also subscribes
to fishboat science, "which is synonymous," he
says, "with 'on the cheap.'" In his spare
time, he explores the Koeye River and estuary on
British Columbia's central coast from the deck of
his converted 1947 troller. His goal, he says, is
simply to document this unspoiled ecosystem "before
it is too late."
It's a measure of his passion for lakes, rivers
and oceans that Carmack devotes holidays to monitoring
the Koeye. In his day job at the Institute of Ocean
Sciences, he is an internationally respected expert
on the Arctic Ocean. Over the past four decades,
he has participated in more than 60 field studies
in Western Canada, Siberia, Antarctica and the Arctic,
including the first scientific crossing of the Arctic
Ocean via the North Pole.
For his leading role in ocean science, Carmack has
been awarded the 2007 Massey
Medal for outstanding
achievement in Canadian geography. Established by
Governor General Vincent Massey in 1959, the award
is administered by The Royal Canadian
Geographical Society.
A creative thinker, Carmack has a knack for making
science accessible. As a volunteer on Students on
Ice expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica, he
has introduced teenagers to the complexities of
ocean currents by having them drop beer bottles
into the water to see where they end up (see "Message
in a bottle," Canadian Geographic, July/Aug
2006). "He got
the students switched on to ocean currents," says
Geoff Green, executive director of Students on Ice. "He
was explaining climate change to students way before
it became the big issue that it is today."
For International Polar Year, Carmack is embarking
on the most ambitious study yet of Canada's oceans.
Scientists aboard two icebreakers will document
the oceans' physical properties, such as currents,
and life forms ranging from bacteria to whales.
They will travel a 12,000-kilometre course, from
Victoria through the Northwest Passage to Halifax.
Their goal is to develop a large-scale picture of
the ecosystems in the Arctic and subarctic seas.
Geographic research usually implies things terrestrial,
explains Carmack.
"What we're exploring is a part of Canada that is very poorly
explored. It's almost like the last wilderness area of the world ocean."
- Monique Roy-Sole
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