Sherman Basin, Nunavut, Canada-2024/08/16: National Geographic Explorer and marine biogeochemist Kristina Brown getting ready to deploy niskin bottle rosette that will collect ocean water from different depths and measure its physical, chemical, and biological properties with attached sensors. Credit: Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne / National Geographic.
Uncovering the Mystery of the Sherman Basin
Dr. Kristina Brown of the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty is taking part in a new multiyear expedition, as part of the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Ocean Expeditions. This program aims to uncover the effects of changes in marine systems while developing innovative, community-led strategies to help protect the global ocean.
On June 3, 2025, the National Geographic Society and Rolex announced the launch of Perpetual Planet Ocean Expeditions. This is a series of scientific research expeditions that span across the world’s ocean.
Supported by Rolex as part of its Perpetual Planet Initiative and anchored by National Geographic Explorers, the field research involves expeditions to all five ocean basins — the Arctic, Pacific, Southern, Atlantic and Indian — that will integrate cutting-edge science and local ecological knowledge to examine the causes and impacts of marine systems change while developing bold and innovative solutions in collaboration with coastal communities.
Dr. Kristina Brown, a National Geographic Explorer, is working in the Sherman Basin, which is located in the Kitikmeot Sea in the southern Canadian Arctic. This region and Dr. Brown’s research are important in understanding the marine food security of the local Inuit.
Dr. Brown has been conducting oceanographic studies on board the Arctic Research Foundation’s R/V Martin Bergmann and is collaborating closely with the community of Gjoa Haven in an effort to support sustaining marine food security in the face of a rapidly changing and warming Arctic Ocean.
The objectives and outcomes of the Perpetual Planet Ocean Expeditions aim to deepen our understanding of this essential ecosystem while generating solutions in support of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
To learn more about this project, use this link: https://news.nationalgeographic.org/national-geographic-society-and-rolex-announce-ambitious-exploration-encompassing-all-five-regions-of-the-global-ocean/
To learn more about Perpetual Planet Expeditions, use this link: http://natgeo.org/perpetualplanetexpeditions