Talk to an Expedition Specialist
1.800.EXPEDITION (1.800.397.3348)
Sep 05, 2019 - National Geographic Explorer
Seemingly endless flocks of dovekies (little auks) streamed by us as we crossed through the middle of Baffin Bay. The weather was kind, decidedly mild for this latitude, with sunshine, slack winds, and a broad, gentle swell that rolled beneath the us as we worked steadily southeastward. As we sailed over the continental shelf edge of western Greenland, we spotted a couple of sperm whales and approached them for a closer look.
Conor Ryan is a congenital ecologist. His career began in the late 1980s, when he developed a keen interest in intertidal ecology, undertaking almost daily field trips to the seashore across from his home in Cobh, Ireland. Though he logged significant hours searching beneath barnacle-studded rocks for eels, his publication record on this seminal research was sorely lacking because he was five years old. As he grew, so too did the size of the marine creatures that he was preoccupied with.