Sponsors – Patagonia Projects

The Blue Marine Foundation has been supporting Saoirse and our Patagonia Projects – Return to the Whales since the beginning. Their patience and perseverance to help private individuals fund the projects has been critical to the success of these whale study projects.

Global Marine Networks (GMN) and Iridium are sponsoring vital communications for the expedition which will allow us to keep connected to the outside world. With this satellite communications service we will be able to download weather forecasts with wind and swell height, send out emails and receive emails, update our expedition blog and, very important, have
emergency communications in the event of a medical mishap.

GMN has beenn supporting our past expeditions in Patagonia and Antarctic over the years with our first sailing vessel, Northanger, and we are very pleased to have their continuing support.

PRAXES Medical Group from Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been supporting Saoirse since 2014 with their 24 hours on call telemedicine. With our projects taking us to Antarctica and here in the isolated regions of Patagonia, their services and support allow us to be better prepared for a medical emergency on board.

Ocean Sonics, another Canadian company specializing in digital hydrophones, has generously lent us one of their top hydrophones, an icListen, for this expedition. This piece of equipment is a central part of the new studies we are beginning with the live whale populations which inhabit this area. We are very grateful for their support and participation in this project.

ocean sonics people — Photo: Saoirse expedition member Michael Kean gets lessons on the icListen with Mark Wood and Jillian Duggan of Ocean Sonics

Deeptrekker, yet another Canadian Company, and their Chilean affiliate, AquaRov has come aboard our Return to the Whales expedition with one of their amazing ROV’s, the DTG2. This remarkable piece of equipment will be exploring underwater for more whale skeletons from the past whale mortality and even more exciting, has the potential to aid in the filming and photographic documentation of marine life and habitat in these regions.

So much thanks to Springcreek Conservation for their continuing support. There motto is something we could all take to heart: “Conservation is good business”.

HUGE THANKS to Dr. Robin Cristofari and Dr. Daniel Zittbart for the generous loan of their Ocean Instruments ST200 Sound Trap.

And THANKS to Navimag Ferries for their generous discounts on transport of our volunteer scientific expedition team and their equipment to and from Puerto Eden, the starting point of the Patagonia Projects: Return to the Whales – Saoirse/HF38 expedition.