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Health & Fitness

Follow Along on an Arctic Expedition; Long Island Sound Loses an Advocate

Explorers who visited Aquarium ready to mush on; and a salute to Art Glowka

 

We want to mention two items today. One is exciting. One is sad.

The first is to let you know that an expedition is getting under way this week that you’re invited to join remotely.  Back on Nov. 29, The Maritime Aquarium hosted polar explorers John Huston and Toby Thorliefsson, who explained their plans for a March 2013 expedition to a remote island in Canada.

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Well, it’s now March 2013 and they’re just about ready to leave. Huston, Thorliefsson and two other fellows are going to hike and mush for 70 days – and 630 miles – across Ellesmere Island, the northernmost landmass of North America and one of the last untouched wildernesses on Earth. They’ll be retracing an expedition route blazed by Otto Sverdrup, a Norwegian who led an Arctic mapping exploration from 1898-1902.

During their presentation at The Maritime Aquarium, they showed lots of cool slides and videos from their past expeditions and their trainings. But what really stuck with us what they eat on their trips: sticks of butter. And fudge. And deep-fried bacon. Just like high-altitude climbers, polar explorers expend a lot of energy. So they need to eat a lot to maintain their endurance – some 7,000 calories a day. But because they also have to carry everything with them, the weight of each item they pack is a huge issue.

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For food, Huston said, “You want as much calories with as little weight as possible.”

They’ll be posting a regular blog about their journey. Follow along at www.forwardendeavors.com/blog.

*  *  *

And we are saddened to learn about Monday’s death of Art Glowka of Stamford, who was a fierce advocate for Long Island Sound.

A number of Aquarium staffers knew Art over the years, mainly from conferences and workshops when organizations got together to plan and share for the health of the Sound. Art was an avid fisherman who knew the Sound … and what was wrong with the Sound and what was wrong with some of the best-intended plans to help the Sound.

Every cause needs folks who will doggedly held those accountable … accountable. That was Art Glowka with the Sound. In its Facebook post about Art today, even Save the Sound acknowledged that it had “sometimes been on different sides of an issue” with Art.

But, as one Aquarium co-worker said, “He was usually right.”

We all need to be stewards of Long Island Sound.  The Sound lost a big one Monday.

Here’s a story about Art from today’s Stamford Advocate: www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Longtime-Long-Island-Sound-advocate-dies-4383329.php#src=fb

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