Crew of marine scientists to row across the Atlantic for ocean conservation

A crew of four marine scientists are about to embark on the journey a lifetime—rowing across the Atlantic—all in the name of ocean conservation.

Two B.C. marine biologists are on the all-women team dubbed “Salty Science” competing in the annual 4,800-kilometre race called “The World’s Toughest Row.”

They’ll be crossing the ocean in a 28-foot rowboat, without stopping and without support. The women will make the trip in two-hour, two-person shifts, with one pair taking the oars and the other getting some sleep.

The team will have to contend with all kinds of weather, physical exhaustion and sleep deprivation as they row around the clock. Organizers estimate crews will take 1.5 million oar strokes during the gruelling journey, and burn 5,000 calories a day.

There’s no toilet on board, just a bucket.

Salty Science, along with 37 other crews from around the globe supporting their chosen causes, will depart from Sebastian de La Gomera in the Canary Islands on Wednesday, weather permitting.

Around six to seven weeks of rowing later, they’ll arrive at Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua.

“It's a long time to be offshore with just your three teammates in a small boat in big waves, completely exposed, but we're excited,” Lauren Shea, a master’s student at the University of British Columbia, told CTV News.

The other members of the crew are Simon Fraser University marine biology professor Isabelle Côté and her former PhD student and University of South Florida instructor Chantale Bégin—both from Quebec—and Alaska-based researcher Noelle Helder.

Shea was in Antigua when the rowers finished in 2020. “I was like, ‘Wow, that's crazy. Why would anyone do that?’” she recalled. The next year, something changed and she decided she wanted to try the world’s toughest row herself.

Shea got the team together, they signed up in January 2021, and have been preparing for the race since.

The group has been training with an athletics coach for the past 18 months to prepare for the physical challenge, and worked with a sports psychologist for the past year to get ready for the mental one.

They’ve also been fundraising for the past three years for a trio of ocean science and conservation organizations: the Bamfield Marine Science Centre on Vancouver Island, Shellback Expeditions in the eastern Caribbean and GreenWave. Salty Science is currently halfway to its goal of raising $500,000 USD.

According to UBC, the funds raised for the Bamfield Marine Science Centre will go toward a scholarship for students from underrepresented groups to study conservation.

“We just wanted to kind of see if we could do this, you know, this awesome expedition, and hopefully raise awareness and raise money for some causes that we really cared about,” Shea said.

“Our tagline is that we're rowing across an ocean for the oceans.”

People can track the crew’s progress as they cross the ocean using an app or on their Instagram.