February 25th, 2010 | By Nora Sawyer | Filed in Conservation, Current Events, Global Warming

An Arctic Kingdom Diver Enjoys a Relatively Warm Summer Swim

Today on CNN, there’s an article up about Ann Daniels, a widely respected polar explorer (and British mother-of-four) who is embarking this week on a 500-kilometer trek up the Canadian sea ice toward the North Pole, part of the 2010 Catlin Arctic Survey.

On the way, Daniels and her team will be taking water samples and other field data on the changing Arctic climate, providing raw data for scientists studying the state of the Arctic today. This year’s survey will focus on ocean acidification as increasing levels of carbon dioxide are absorbed from the atmosphere.

Another side affect of climate change is an decrease in sea ice, and a corresponding increase in the amount of swimming Daniels and her team will have to do — through cold, dark water. And swimming in the Arctic winter sea, Daniels notes, is no easy task. Along with the cold, there’s the psychological element to swimming in the winter dark:

“Nothing from under the sea is going to jump up and eat you. But as a human being there’s that feeling of, ‘what is under here? It’s pitch black and anything can get me.’ Mentally you start imagining all kinds of things in the water,” she said from her home in Devon, southwest England.

Daniels notes that, in the 13 years since she started making regular trips to the pole, the amount of swimming has increased.

The first time I swam was in 2002 and steadily we’ve had to swim more and more as the years go on, and we’re certainly expecting this year to do an awful lot of swimming. We’ve got a flotation device to go around the sledge as well because we’re expecting more water than ever before.”

via Arctic explorer prepares for icy swim – CNN.com.

Tags: ann daniels, arctic expedition, Diving, global warming, north pole, swimming