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EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Dr. Brad Schram, Ornithologist
Ever since he was 9 years old, Schram realized his innate love for birding. Upon graduation from high school in 1961, he purchased Peterson’s A Field Guide to Western Birds. Since then, he has gone from enthusiast to career birder, making several contributions to the ornithologic world, including several discoveries in his native Southern California.
Schram is an accomplished author of more than seven birding related publications, including the last two editions of the American Birding Association’s A Birder’s Guide to Southern California. He is also known to be a great storyteller, hence the nickname Master of Ceremonies. Schram has birded on all seven continents and led birding expeditions all over the world, including Mexico and an array of South American countries.
EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Christian Walter, Historian
Mr. Walter’s expertise in anthropology, archaeology, art and history, has enabled him to traverse the globe extensively. He has lectured aboard expedition cruises in the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as throughout the Pacific.
Prior to his expeditionary work, his main interests revolved around Chile, where he conducted field research to compare Easter Island’s petroglyphs with the islands ancient writing system, Rongorongo. Still a passion of his, the Easter Island resident has since 1976, worked to improve the use of the Rapa Nui National Park. Additionally, restoring archaeological sites and artifacts while improving the island’s infrastructure and concepts of tourism are also top of mind for Mr. Walter. In this endeavour, he serves as consultant to Easter Island’s mayor and is vice president of the Easter Island Development Corporation.
This Swiss native was raised in Germany where he studied at the Insituto Alemán. He continued his studies in Chile at the Universidad Austral. He has authored several articles, which have been published in Flemish, French, German, Spanish and English. He is a member of the European Society for Oceanists (ESfO).
EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Richard Harker, Photography Professor
Exploring the world and photographing it has become a life’s work and joy for photography professor Richard Harker. For the past three decades, he has photographed everything from emperor penguins to imperial palaces. In the last five years he has spent austral summers documenting the splendour of Antarctica from the peninsula to the Ross Ice Shelf. As for the remainder of the year, he skips around through South America, the South Pacific and the Mediterranean, shooting everything from urban landscapes to wildlife.
From large format 19th Century-type cameras to state-of-the-art digital media technology of today, Mr. Harker exemplifies extraordinary talent. His underwater work alone has appeared in more than 100 articles and books about Indo-Pacific and Caribbean coral reefs.
He began teaching photography to college students, but his restless spirit could not be harnessed to a college campus. The perfect outlet, he quickly discovered, was teaching photography aboard expedition ships. From uncultivated natural terrain to breathtaking landscapes, Mr. Harker explains the nuances of photographic challenges in a myriad of diverse environments.
EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Juan Jose Apéstegui, Naturalist
JJ, as he is better known, began his career in the hotel industry after receiving his bachelor’s degree in business administration from UACA (Universidad Autónoma De Centroamerica) in San José, Costa Rica. However, it wasn’t long before his love of nature took over and he began training at the University of Costa Rica and later the National Apprenticeship Institute, San José, where he earned a natural history guide license.
JJ speaks five languages (Spanish, English, French, Italian, and Portuguese). With 20 years of experience under his belt, he is now well versed in rainforest ecology, camouflaging of tropical insects, reptile and amphibian activity, birding, coral reef ecosystems, as well as climate, natural history and animal study of the Arctic/Antarctic regions.
EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Ignacio Rojas, General Naturalist
Bringing awareness about some of the planet’s last untamed and remote regions is a lifelong passion of this Brazilian. Soon after earning his bachelor’s in biology from the University of Saõ Paulo, Brazil, he began sharing with other enthusiasts his knowledge and travel experiences to the far reaches of the world.
Mr. Rojas is quite skilled in the ecology field through his work with INPA (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia), the Brazilian National Institute for Research in the Amazon. The renowned tropical expert has served as naturalist, Zodiac driver and Expedition Leader on multiple excursions for the past 16 years. His voyages have taken him to the Amazon, Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falklands, and the remote sub-Antarctic islands of Australia and New Zealand.
EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Jarda Versloot, Assistant Expedition Leader
A zealous spirit has driven Ms. Versloot to the remote corners of the world. At age 18, this Amsterdam native, who now resides in South Africa, used her small Holland home as a jumping off point for an ever-growing adventure packed career.
She began with a degree in International Tourism Consultancy. However, it was her love of the ocean and hunger for learning about the wide, wide world around her that brought her to working aboard expedition ships. To date, she has explored all seven continents, including Antarctica, the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea, the Northern Marianas, Japan, Australia, the Indian Ocean, the British Isles and Australia. She is also a certified PADI rescue diver; qualified in first aid; and can drive a Zodiac.
EXPEDITION VOYAGE: Hosted by Robin West, Dive Master/Expedition Leader
Being in nature and on the water are two of Mr. West’s dreams. He has spent the last five years realizing this dream. After obtaining his human movement science degree, he realized his passion for the outdoors and the world’s oceans could not be suppressed. Today, the South African native and German national lives in Holland, but spends the majority of his time aboard expedition ships.
He began making a living doing what he loved by opening two PADI dive centres, both of which work in conjunction with outdoor adventure companies along South Africa’s Garden Route. This enterprise was a fabulous venture, but it proved to not be enough to fill the hunger for adventure that coursed through Mr. West’s veins. As he gained experience, he began working on expedition ships as a Zodiac driver, snorkel & dive master, staff assistant and expedition leader. He now works full-time aboard cruise ships, voyaging to the far reaches of the earth. So far, he has trekked across Antarctica, the South Pacific, Indonesia, Australia, the Indian Ocean, the British Isles and Japan.
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