Paddling the Zambezi for the Sailors’ Society and Safer Waves

For Gordon Foot (FIMarEST), a love of adventure and a gift for fixing things laid the foundation for a career in the maritime world. Now, he is channelling those lifelong passions towards a new goal – raising money for the Sailors' Society and Safer Waves with the Zambezi River Challenge 2025 – ‘Inspiring the Maritime.’

While Foot has enjoyed a successful maritime career, he has all too often come across stories of abuse, harassment, abandonment, bullying, unpaid salaries, and more.

“I’m privileged as a white, grey-haired guy that does have a voice. So… I use that voice for other people,” says Foot. Among other activities, Foot regularly speaks out about bullying, harassment, and sexual assault and champions women in maritime through his role as a STEM ambassador supporting school outreach programmes. Raising money for the Sailors' Society and Safer Waves is another way Foot says he can use his privileged voice.

Established in 1818, the Sailor’s Society is a global welfare charity dedicated to supporting seafarers and their families 24/7, year-round. They provide a crisis response network, emergency grants, peer-to-peer support, e-learning support tools, and more.

Safer Waves is a newer charity. First started in 2019, they focus on supporting seafarers who have experienced sexual abuse, harassment, or gender discrimination while working at sea. They provide an anonymous email support service run by specially trained volunteers and provide fact sheets, and other information.

Read the full article IMarEST Fellow paddling down African river to help stop sexual violence at Marine Professional - Interactions.

You can donate to the Zambezi River Challenge at JustGiving.

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Discussions abound at the 6th Pacific Ocean Mapping Meeting

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In November 2024, 90 participants from 27 countries gathered in Nadi, Fiji, for Seabed 2030’s 6th Pacific Ocean Mapping Meeting. The event aimed to exchange knowledge, skills, and ideas, showcase regional seabed mapping efforts, foster collaboration, and accelerate progress towards creating a comprehensive, open-access global seabed map by the end of the decade.

Inspiring keynote addresses from The Nippon Foundation, IHO, IOC-UNESCO, and the Fijian government, alongside an introduction by the Chair of the GEBCO Guiding Committee, set the tone for a dynamic and productive gathering. 

Read more at Seabed 2030.

Celebrating Geodiversity Day with five spectacular undersea features

What’s geodiversity you ask? It’s short for geological diversity - the diversity of the natural parts of our planet that aren’t alive. The rocks, soils, sediments, landforms, and hydrological features, for example, and the processes that create and change these and other non-living features. Geodiversity isn’t just the stuff we see on the land. It’s underwater too. Let’s take a peek at just five spectacular undersea features that make up some of our World’s geodiversity.

Sea Stories: Icebergs by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865) was a popular poet in her time, but today has largely been forgotten. In her poem Iceberg, Sigourney recounts the journey of the steamship “Great Western” from Europe to the USA in 1841, in which the steamship passed through a “fleet” of icebergs. The captain of the Great Western (Captain Hoskins) reported the fleet stretched for approximately 3/4 of a mile, and estimated to be 300 - 400 in number.

Poetry corner: Sargasso Weed by Edmund Clarence Stedman

In 1879, Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833 - 1908) designed a rigid airship inspired by the anatomy of a fish. His airship was never built, by Stedman’s literary works came steadily. Between 1875 and 1892, Stedman had the fortune to travel to the Caribbean. His poem “Sargasso Weed” was inspired by this journey and is as much about the swaths of sargassum that float in the sea as it is a criticism of European and American imperialism in the region.