Dear Friends,

Last week I shipped WINGS Flag #14 to Sunniva Sorby so she can carry it with her to Svalbard, Norway. Sunniva and her expedition partner, Hilde Fålun Strøm, will spend 9-months in living in a trapper's hut with no running water or electricity, and in complete darkness for 90 days. They plan to record and broadcast extreme climate change events as they happen, in real time. Stay tuned for an invitation to our live-stream broadcast from Svalbard.

Flag #14 started its life in 2007 in North Africa, and has since been to the Ganges in India, the Arctic waters of Canada, and Antarctica with the Homeward Bound women’s leadership initiative. All of these expeditions were spearheaded by teams of women studying issues affecting global sustainability, such as climate change, access to safe water, and how women will be key stakeholders in the solutions.

Each WINGS Flag has a story, and each Flag Carrier chooses which flag they will take on their expedition, whether it’s because of the landscapes that flag has seen, the inspiration of prior carriers, or the issues studied during its journeys. We are proud to share the stories, results and lessons learned with you through the Flag Reports, Explorer Talks, interviews, and other avenues.

Yours in exploration,

Yael Jekogian
Managing Director

Alexandra Morton and the Battle Over Salmon

Biologist Alexandra Morton began researching the orca whales off the coast of British Columbia 30 years ago. Around that time, the local salmon farming industry grew, and acoustic seal repellant systems were scaring away the whales as well. When whales abandoned the archipelago, she ultimately shifted her research focus to the negative impacts of salmon farms on wild salmon.

Today, the 2010 Women of Discovery Sea Award recipient is embroiled in an ongoing battle, involving direct action with indigenous communities, high-stakes litigation and a research on viruses in farm salmon for sale in markets. Alex spoke to us about her research and her efforts to protect wild salmon in Canada.

>> Read the rest of the blog post

What WINGS' Women of Discovery Are Up To

Krithi Karanth, who was inducted as a WINGS Fellow in April, is one of the five winners of the 2019 Rolex Awards. She was selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applications. Here, she talks more about the prestigious honor, which comes with a $200,000 prize for a global development project.
A team led by Edie Widder captured a giant squid live on video for the first time in U.S. waters. Edie, who designed a special camera system that can detect deep-sea creatures, was also one of the scientists who filmed a giant squid for the first time ever, in 2012.
Jill Tarter talks about her advocacy efforts for the SETI Institute on the A Giant Leap podcast.
Meenakshi Wadhwa has been named the Director of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Congress is considering naming the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, currently under construction in Chile, after the late Vera Rubin. Vera contributed revolutionary research on dark matter to science, only after persisting in her pursuit to permit women to work in the leading observatory of her time, the Palomar Observatory.
Listen to Sylvia Earle discuss her long career working to save the world's oceans on the TED Interview podcast.

Save the Date: Q&A with Kate Harris

Join us in Brooklyn on September 18 for a special event with

WINGS Fellow Kate Harris.

We'll be hosting a book club discussion about Lands of Lost Borders, a travel memoir Kate Harris wrote about crossing the Silk Road by bicycle. Kate, who received the 2010 WINGS Field Research Award, carried the WINGS flag during her Silk Road expedition. This year she also won the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize, a $30,000 award that recognizes the best in Canadian literary non-fiction.

After the book discussion, Kate will join us over the Skype for a Q&A. The event takes place on Wednesday, September 18 at 61 Local in Brooklyn, NY. Keep an eye out for an email invitation to sign up.

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