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Monday, August 30
Posted 11:00 am
GEOFF
A great day was spent yesterday in Le Bic, a park on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in the Estuary just west of Rimouski. We arrived early in the morning and a beautiful sunrise revealed flat calm seas and spectacular scenery all around. I'm amazed to discover these hidden gems of the St. Lawrence. Seals, whales, seabirds, tidal flats, cliffs, forests…its all here.
We anchored in a beautiful cove and spent the day kayaking around the islands and rocky coasts. For many of the students it was their first time in a kayak! It was a great day to relax and reflect on our expedition. There was lots of activity on board - climbing the masts, journal writing, packing, and preparing for our big evening celebrations last night. And what a night it was!
After a wonderful dinner prepared by Lyne, we thanked our incredible SEDNA crew (Lyne, Michel, Guy, Gerard, Benoit) for everything they did to make our expedition such a great success.
The thank yous continued for our SOI staff of Barb, Carol and Denise! And last but definitely not least Richard who gave so much of his knowledge and passion for whales) and his father Richard Sr. who kept us all entertained!
We also celebrated birthdays for Alexis, Lindsay and Richard Sr. that took place during the expedition. Then the real party started with skits, songs, poems, lots of laughs, and a slideshow with photos from the last 12 days. It was a great final evening on board SEDNA.
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We are presently sailing through rough seas on the way to Forestville, which has stalled the packing process! We will be arriving at approximately 11:00am, and disembarking our floating home SEDNA. No doubt it will be a sad farewell. Once the van is packed we will hit the road for our afternoon road trip to Quebec City. It is hard to believe the journey is over…
Our expedition has been a fantastic success in so many ways. The highlights are too many to mention. We could not have asked for a better group of students and staff. We've watched the student's grow and learn and develop friendships that will last a lifetime. Hopefully this will prove to be a life-changing and enriching experience that will impact them for weeks, months and years to come. It's certainly been much more than learning about whales. It's also been about learning about themselves.
One of the main messages the expedition has instilled into these students and what's important for all of us to understand, is that we can all make a difference in the protecting and conserving our environment. Individuals can and do make small, medium, large and enormous impacts and contributions everyday. To paraphrase a great quote by Margaret Mead:
"Never forget that a small group of committed individuals can change the world.
In fact, it's the only thing that ever has".
Caring about our environment and things like the conditions of our oceans does not make you a psycho, tree-hugging, whale-hugging, bleeding-heart liberal. It just makes you smart. Clean air and clear water are rather important to our life and must be one of our top priorities. Everything is inter-connected and yet we seem to be distancing ourselves from our connection to the natural world.
70% of our planet is covered by water. We live in a marine environment. The health of all life on this planet depends on the health of the oceans. Its good for business, its good for the whales, its good for our children, its good for our health, its good for our souls. We are not going to turn the world into a Utopic paradise, but we can definitely be much better stewards and live in a more sustainable and environmentally intelligent way. There are so many things we can do. Programs like the One-Tonne Challenge show us ways we can all start today.
I believe our education system could and should be making a much greater contribution when it comes to environmental and outdoor education. Why did the Ontario Government just shut down yet another Wilderness Education centre (the Leslie Frost Centre)? Was it to invest more money in the math and science in the classroom? Why is this type of education so totally under-funded if not ignored? News flash - one of the best ways to learn math and science is to get kids out of the classroom and inspire them in nature. It is also a great way of instilling an environmental ethic in our youth at a time in their lives when it can change their perspectives and lifestyles choices. It's proven and very effective, and we see it in action with the Students on Ice program all the time. Unfortunately, Students on Ice can only take a limited number of students on these expeditions every year.
A big part of the success of this expedition has been the partnership between Students on Ice and the Mingan Islands Cetecean Study (MICS). It is a partnership that started last year when Richard Sears joined our Antarctic Expedition, then one of our students from a previous SOI expedition went to MICS as an intern, and of course now this SOI Whale Expedition! We hope this partnership will continue for years to come.
Without all our partners, SOI would not exist and these experiences for students could not happen. On behalf of all the students and everyone involved with this expedition (including the whales!) I sincerely want to extend our thanks and gratitude!!
FYI, last night the students decided to adopt a Blue Whale. For those interested in doing the same you can check out - Adopt a Blue Whale - Contact Sylvie Angel at the Mingan Islands Cetecean Study at 418-949-2845 or check out www.rorqual.com for details or email mics@globetrotter.net.
Thanks to all of you who have followed and shared our journey with us via the web. We hope you have all enjoyed it and learned along with us. Please stay tuned for more photos, journals and reports about the expedition in the days to come.
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