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September 2026 – Volume Thirty-Two, Number Nine
Celebrating our 32th year!
EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects, and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate, and educate.
EXPEDITION UPDATE
| | A computer-generated 3D illustration of Christopher Columbus's ships (L-R) Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. | | |
Mystery of the Santa Maria Remains Unsolved
In June 2014, EN reported about marine archaeologist Barry Clifford’s Explorers Club press conference claiming discovery of the Santa Maria, one of the most influential exploration ships in human history, that gently ran aground and sank in 1492.
Since then, Clifford, 81, has been determined to conduct further study of the 15-foot-deep wreck site off Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a plan so far quashed by political turmoil and violence plaguing the Caribbean nation. UNESCO months after the discovery rejected that identification, a finding Clifford considers false and misleading.
| | Barry Clifford at a May 2014 Explorers Club press conference presented evidence that he discovered the wreck of the Santa Maria. | | |
History.com reports American explorer Edwin Link searched for the Santa María in 1955. He failed to locate the wreck but recovered a coral-crusted anchor in Cap-Haïtien Harbor thought to be from the fabled ship. The anchor entered the Smithsonian collection and has reportedly remained in deep storage since 1960. Two other anchors thought to be part of the Columbus expedition are in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but their provenance has yet to be determined.
Locating a confirmed wreck of a Columbus ship – particularly one of the three ships from the first voyage – is considered the “Holy Grail” of undersea archaeology and an irresistible lure for treasure hunters, Roos writes.
Consider the case for renewed archaeological examination of the Santa Maria wreck site here:
https://www.history.com/articles/christopher-columbus-ships
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Marine Microbe Survey Reaches Farthest North
The cNAMMs Expedition – circumnavigation-North American Marine Microbe Survey (see EN, April 2025) reached its farthest degree of latitude north (74 degrees 32 min. 06 sec.) as it entered the Canadian Northwest Passage enroute to Pond Inlet, Baffin Island in Nunavut. At press time in late August it was at Beechey Island where the ill-fated 1845-48 Franklin Expedition wintered over from 1845-46 and left three graves containing expedition crewmen.
Home base for the approximately six-week project is the 459-ft. M/S Fridtjof Nansen, named for the famous Norwegian explorer. Begun in stages starting in early 2025, cNAMMs will continue through late this month.
| | Expedition leader Tom Dietz at work. | | |
The study of microplastics and plankton species along the route is part of the group’s remit, according to expedition leader Thomas J. Dietz, Ph. D., Director/Field Scientist, of the GAC Research Institute, Mill Valley, California. Dietz originated and planned the expedition, solicited and enlisted global scientific collaborators, secured funding and ship time, and recruited the scientific team.
To date, studies have revealed unique microbes from hydrothermal vents and identified many new unclassified bacteria. Details are being withheld until publication next year.
cNAMMs Expedition’s sampling survey is supported by: Basecamp Research Institute, GAC Research Institute, The Explorers Club (flag no. 76), The Adventurers Club of L.A. (flag no. 129), The Voyagers Club, HX Expeditions, and Fjallraven. The Expedition is carrying the Explorers Club-Rolex Submariner watch on loan.
For more information:
https://www.gentadv.com, tdietz@gentadv.com
EXPEDITION NOTES
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Hot and Cold Corner – Just ask any London cabbie to take you to “Hot and Cold Corner” and you’ll arrive at the intersection of Exhibition Road and Kensington Gore, home of the RGS. It’s named for its contrasting statues of African explorer David Livingstone (hot) and polar explorer
Ernest Shackleton (cold). (Photo: cabbieblog.com)
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Speak at RGS Explore Weekend 2026
The Royal Geographical Society with IBG in London invites new and emerging explorers to apply to speak at Explore Weekend, Nov. 6-8, 2026, the UK's leading gathering for explorers, field researchers and expedition practitioners, attracting around 350 to 400 participants each year.
If you have an idea that could help others develop their skills, rethink established approaches or broaden understanding of modern geographical exploration, apply here:
https://www.rgs.org/exploration/rgs-explore-weekend/open-call
For more details, contact the RGS Explore team at explore@rgs.org.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American polymath, Founding Father, printer, scientist, and diplomat.
MEDIA MATTERS
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Rescuers use an earthmover to carry a flood victim to safety
along the Trishuli River in Nepal's Nuwakot district.
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NPR Here and Now:
Causes of Nepal “Mountain Tsunami” Still Evolving
Most renowned explorers have at least three traits in common that serve them well. They conceive and plan significant expeditions, execute them flawlessly, and are adept at telling the rest of us, who couldn’t tag alone, the importance of their findings in a manner that’s clear and understandable to a lay audience.
One master at this is Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña, 40, a glaciologist, climber and science communicator at the University of Colorado Boulder, who recently provided background on last month’s catastrophic glacial collapse and flash floods in Nepal and Tibet.
At press time in late August there were at least 677 fatalities across Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, with an estimated 3,000 still missing, many of whom are foreign nationals.
Peña, who used to live in Nepal as part of her research, tells host Peter O'Dowd on NPR’s Here and Now (Aug. 28) about the still evolving disaster.
“I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this,” she says. “Nepal has known about the potential for the hazard of it. No one was prepared for the magnitude and scale of this kind of disaster unfolding.”
Listen here:
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2026/08/28/nepal-glacier-flood
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World’s Most Disposable Shoes Choke Paradise
When April Burt, a marine biologist at the University of Oxford, arrived on Aldabra Atoll in 2019, she expected plastic. Aldabra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Seychelles – a ring of raised coral so remote that a charter flight or boat is the only way in.
Sadly, it’s home to big piles, meters high, of just flip flops, according to the story in Ethos (July 2).
Over a five-week cleanup years ago, Burt’s team of twelve removed some 60,000 flip-flops. They estimated that more than 370,000 remained, strewn across four islands almost no one visits.
A 2025 study in the journal Microplastics notes that plastics have replaced the leather, wood, and plant fiber that footwear used before the 1960s. Roughly 22 billion pairs of shoes were produced worldwide in 2021, and the summer sandal is engineered to be the most expendable of them.
Remote atolls are useful laboratories precisely because their tiny populations generate almost none of the plastic that lands on them; it all arrives from elsewhere and stays … the findings suggest the world has drastically underestimated the scale of the problem, writes Ethos.
Because the sandal fragments float rather than sink, they linger at the surface, which is where fish swallow them. A summer sandal, in other words, sheds plastic particles with every step, and the particles it leaves behind are buoyant enough to sit exactly where fish feed.
A flip-flop that washes ashore whole is a problem anyone can see. The same flip-flop, ground down by sun, sand, and use into fragments the size of fish food, is the problem almost no one does, according to the story.
Read it here:
https://the-ethos.co/on-the-remotest-beaches-on-earth-the-flip-flops-arrive-by-the-hundred-thousand/?blm_aid=24437
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#ToiletWeasel
The free non-profit phone app iNaturalist was featured on CBS Sunday Morning (Aug. 16). About six million use the app every month; many often report finding a new species.
In one case, a university professor in the Andes reported an elusive Columbian weasel that jumped into his bathroom. (Of course it went viral – see #ToiletWeasel). The app has a function allowing users – some 340 million from 197 countries – to share information with scientists.
Watch it here:
https://youtu.be/KlNoXewjcyY?si=VDRhBEY4ZTa77t3k
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Samuel is still learning and practicing new bird calls.
(Photo: Via tiktok.com/@diabetic4one)
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Sing Like a Bird
Another segment of the popular U.S. weekend morning show on April 4, 2026, features eleven-year-old Samuel Henderson who has a knack for perfectly imitating the sounds of over 50 types of birds. He regularly wows his fellow students in Choctaw, Oklahoma.
https://youtu.be/znNnFQYAM_w?si=m-XBGH8PkBT8bH37
| | Mina Guli runs through haze during her nearly 1,800-mile journey down the Colorado River on June 21, 2026. (Photo: Andrew King) | |
Wildfires and Extreme Heat Challenge Water Activist’s Mission
Australian ultrarunner Mina Guli, 56, the CEO of the nonprofit Thirst Foundation, is running 2,000 miles along the Colorado River in 100 days to campaign for action on the water crisis.
Guli tries to run at night to avoid the higher-than-average temperatures baking the U.S. Southwest – but she has no way of avoiding the choking wildfire smoke in the air, according to Maya McDaniel writing for Inside Climate News (Aug. 13).
For Guli to reach the ocean from the river headwaters, she needs to run the equivalent of around 65 marathons before the end of September. Her route will bring her to the U.S.-Mexico border before she runs nearly 300 more miles to the Santa Monica pier outside Los Angeles to see the Pacific Ocean that the Colorado River no longer reaches having been fully consumed by upstream users.
| | Mina Guli (Photo: Kirsten Oliver) | | |
Guli hopes that the run – and the summits her nonprofit is holding for conservation, government and industry leaders along her route – will encourage action on solutions to the water crisis.
Guli’s project is sponsored by the Water Resilience Coalition, an initiative of the U.N. Global Compact composed of the CEOs of major multinational corporations. While the coalition seeks to provide “global leadership” in water sustainability, its membership includes companies whose business practices have been criticized as detrimental to water resources, McDaniel writes.
McDaniel explains environmental nonprofits have drawn scrutiny in the past for accepting money from “greenwashing” polluters. The World Wildlife Fund, for instance, has taken donations from Cargill, Chevron and BlackRock, among other multinational corporations.
Guli believes the connection to industry will help Thirst accomplish its goals. “We all know that none of this happens without money,” she said. She hopes that the businesses supporting the project and attending the Thirst river summits will “generate the kind of financial returns that incentivizes, encourages and inspires the financial markets to move in behind innovations.”
Last month, LightHawk Conservation Flying took Guli above Lake Mead to view it at, depressingly, just 27% of capacity.
Read the story here:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13082026/colorado-river-wildfires-and-heat-challenges-ultrarunner/
Learn more about Guli:
https://www.minaguli.com/
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Ages of Ice
PBS premieres Ages of Ice this month, a three-part documentary series narrated by Scottish actor David Tennant. The hour-long program is a science-driven exploration of Earth's polar regions produced by Emmy Award-winning Northern Pictures in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and ITV Studios.
The doc combines natural history filmmaking, scientific research and human stories to examine the rapidly evolving ecosystems of the Arctic and Antarctica.
The series follows scientists working across some of the planet's most extreme environments as they investigate the effects of climate change, biodiversity and the search for life in frozen ecosystems.
Learn more:
https://senalnews.com/en/tv/pbs-sets-september-premiere-for-ages-of-ice/amp
EXPEDITION FUNDING
| | Mikayla Carrier, won a 2026 Stephenson Exploration Advancement Grant for her project, “Seeing the Soundscape: 360° Reef Imaging for Species’ Sound Identification and Community Engagement.” Her research focuses on marine bioacoustics and coral reef conservation, with an emphasis on identifying fish sounds to improve reef monitoring and biodiversity assessments. | | |
• Stephenson Exploration Advancement Grant – Supported by the Philip Stephenson Foundation, funds exploration and field science that advances marine conservation and protection. Awards are given in the amount of $10,000. Applications for 2027 grants are open until October 2, 2026.
Apply here:
https://www.explorers.org/grants/the-stephenson-explorers-advancement-program
• Kensington Conservation Grant – Annual grant that funds research of cultural and environmental conservation. It’s open to graduate students, post-graduate researchers, early-career scientists, and independent explorers.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old and demonstrate a passion for exploration and a commitment to storytelling. Awards are $10,000. Applications due September 28, 2026.
Apply here:
https://www.explorers.org/grants/kensington-explorers-club-grant/
| | One of Akeley's dioramas on display in the American Museum of Natural History. | | |
• Explorers Club Fine Arts Grants – Carl Akeley (1864-1926), pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, and conservationist, fundamentally transformed expedition art and museum display by elevating taxidermy and natural history presentation from crude "stuffed animal" collections into an exact science and a respected form of high art.
He revolutionized how expeditions were presented to the public by inventing the modern ecological diorama. Before his innovations, museum specimens were stiff, anatomically inaccurate, and packed with straw, according to the quirky website taxidermy4cash.com.
His masterworks can still be seen today in major institutions like the American Museum of Natural History (the 28 dioramas in Akeley Hall of African Mammals) and the Field Museum.
Throughout history, sculptors, taxidermists, and other artists have traveled alongside explorers. The work they brought home changed how the world saw itself.
The Fine Arts Field Grant by Society Awards pairs artists with recipients of Explorers Club Impact Grant – scientists, researchers, and adventurers actively working in the field. Selected artists will join real expeditions to some of the world’s most remote locations, creating original work inspired by what they observe along the way.
The Fine Arts Field Grant is looking for painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers, and practitioners of any fine arts discipline. Explorers Club membership is not required.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Grantees receive expense reimbursement to cover the costs of the expedition and of creating the art.
For more information:
https://www.explorers.org/grants/
WEB WATCH
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Explorers Hub Advises Marine Explorers, Adventurers
Explorers Hub is a free platform providing practical information for expedition teams operating in remote maritime environments. The platform includes guidance on permits, anchorages, logistics, weather windows and expedition planning across more than 170 destinations worldwide, maintained by experienced captains, expedition leaders and mariners.
It’s free for captains, guides and decision-makers of exploration yachting – the people who take yachts to Antarctica, the high Arctic, and the atolls in between.
For more information:
www.explorershub.pro
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Thumb on the Scale Division
In our July story about rhino poaching, we incorrectly converted the weight of one kilogram. It’s 2.2 pounds, not 4.4 pounds. We were obviously out that day when they were teaching the metric system in school.
Hmmm, no one caught this error, so the prestigious Eagle Eye Typo Award goes unclaimed this month.
IN PASSING
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We note the passing of two accomplished explorers and an acclaimed climber
• Mary Wallace (Wally) Funk (1939-2026) – American aviator, commercial astronaut, and one of the original Mercury 13 (but was denied the chance to fly because of her gender). She recently died at age 87. Funk became the oldest person to go to space on July 20, 2021, at age 82, flying on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft during its suborbital flight, breaking a record held by John Glenn for 23 years. Currently, Funk is the oldest woman to have traveled into space.
Read her obituary:
https://www.lucasfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/mary-funk-ii
See a short yet enthusiastic interview with Funk which streamed the day New Shepard launched its first crewed mission to sub-orbital space. The NS-16 flight lasted approximately 10 minutes and crossed the Kármán line with Funk aboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMHhXzpwupU (fast forward to 50 minutes)
• Geoff Somers, MBE (1950-2026) – The renowned British polar explorer who died at 76, made a 3,741-mile crossing of Antarctica by dog sled in 1989-90 with the International Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which has been described as “the most inspiring, brilliant polar expedition” of the modern era.
Somers had the most previous Antarctic experience on the team thanks to his years running dogs for the British Antarctic Survey, thus was given the responsibility for laying out caches of equipment and dog food the year before.
His dry British humor was classic. Author and filmmaker Jon Bowermaster recalls inviting him to lunch at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central. When he suggested Somers try the specialties of the house, he demurred. "If I saw that on the sidewalk, I'd walk around it."
Somers authored Antarctica … The Impossible Crossing? (Grosvenor House Publishing, 2018) with a foreword by Sir Chris Bonington.
Read his obituary here:
https://www.rgs.org/about-us/our-work/latest-news/geoff-somers-obituary
• Nimal “Nims” Purja (1983-2026) – Called by William, Prince of Wales, "one of the world's greatest mountaineers," Nims, 43, died July 30, 2026, along with nine team members, including U.S. climber Mallory Geis, in an avalanche on Broad Peak (8,051m/26,414 ft.) in Pakistan's Karakoram range. He became a mountaineering celebrity in 2019 when he summited all the world’s 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters in six months and six days.
The subject of a Netflix documentary titled, 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible, the Nepali-British climber’s reputation was shadowed by allegations of sexual misconduct from female climbers. He denied any wrongdoing and called the claims an attempt to defame him.
In light of the allegations, Osprey Packs withdrew as Purja’s sponsors. Grivel and Scarpa suspended their marketing and promotional activities featuring the mountaineer.
View his website:
https://www.nimsdai.com
ON THE HORIZON
Climate Week, Sept. 21-25, 2026, Explorers Club HQ, New York
Climate Week is a high-profile series of events, panels, and exhibitions at Explorers Club headquarters in New York. Running parallel to the United Nations General Assembly, the Club's programming brings together world-renowned scientists, field explorers, policymakers, Indigenous leaders, artists, and innovators to discuss urgent environmental challenges and actionable solutions. inspires members and the exploration community around the globe.
Learn more at:
www.explorers.org
| | Paul Schurke (left) with teammate Will Steger prepare for the North Pole in 1986. | | |
1986 Steger International Polar Expedition
40th Reunion, Oct. 8, 2026, St. Paul
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of what National Geographic deemed an "historic landmark in polar exploration." Join Will Steger, Ann Bancroft, Paul Schurke and other members of the 1986 Steger International Polar Expedition.
The event includes a public reception to meet the team and view their dogsleds, tents and special polar clothing, plus team stories about their epic two-month trek to the top of the world where temps reached minus 74 degrees F. Tickets $15.
Learn more:
www.mnhs.org/events/59843152157
| | Wings Voice of Discovery Award recipient Mireya Mayor, Ph.D., will be honored as outstanding science communicator. | | |
WINGS Voice of Discovery Awards, Nov. 5, 2026,
Cosmopolitan Club, New York
This inaugural award recognizes a science communicator – an explorer, artist, creator, journalist or storyteller – whose work connects with audiences and sparks curiosity. By partnering with storytellers who command an audience, WINGS extends its mission: championing women making pioneering discoveries in science, exploration and conservation worldwide.
The 2026 WINGS Voice of Discovery will honor Mireya Mayor, Ph.D., primatologist, conservationist and award-winning television host sometimes hailed as the "female Indiana Jones." General tickets: $300-$500.
For more information: https://wingswomenofdiscovery.org/
| | Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld – People are traveling in record numbers and many include voluntourists. Be ready to lend a hand wherever you go. How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? Read excerpts and “Look Inside” at: tinyurl.com/voluntourismbook | | |
Get Sponsored! – Need money for your next project? Read about proven techniques that will help you find both cash and in-kind sponsors. If the trip is bigger than you, and is designed to help others, well, that’s half the game right there. Read Jeff Blumenfeld’s Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers.(Skyhorse Publishing).
Purchase it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Sponsored-Explorers-Adventurers-Travelers-ebook/dp/B00H12FLH2
Advertise in Expedition News – For more information: blumassoc@aol.com
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2026 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com.
Research past issues of Expedition News dating back to May 1995 courtesy of the Utah State University Outdoor Recreation Archive. Access is free at: https://tinyurl.com/ENArchivesUSU
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