Expeditions

Book Your Own Expedition

Your mission, your schedule

You provide the mission and the team; we provide the boat and the crew. Teams of up to four are best, but the boat can accommodate six, plus crew. The Endeavour has all the safety gear, two shore boats, two kayaks, and fishing gear. See below for past expeditions.  Click for more.

The Glaciers of Kenai Fjords

Graphic evidence of climate change

A glaciologist and two image specialists took the Endeavour to seventy-five sites in the Kenai Fjords to photograph glaciers and measure their changes against historical images, graphically documenting the rate and magnitude of climate change. What we saw was sobering. Click for more.

The Fossils of Lost Coast

In search of the wily Desmostylian

Two paleontologists, a geologist, an artist, and a fisherman boarded the Endeavour to hunt for the extinct desmostylian (something like a marine hippopotamus) and other fossils along the difficult, dangerous, and infrequently visited Alaskan Gulf coast. Click for more.

The Humpbacks of Sitka Sound

Whales and climate change

The humpbacks were just back from Hawaii. The Endeavour went to Sitka Sound in March to support the Alaska Whale Foundation in checking in on the health of the returning whales using drones to measure body mass.  The conditions were rotten, but the whales were there.  Click for more.

The Star of Bengal

The great unresolved Alaska maritime disaster

The Star of Bengal went down in 1908 off Coronation Island. Of the 27 white crewmen, 15 died. Of the 110 laborers – most of them Chinese – all died except one. The Endeavour and a team of eight set out along the course of the ship to find and document the wreck, and tell the story of those who died.  Click for more.

Salmon Streams of Tenakee Inlet

Habitat protection by degree

Molly Kemp and Nick Olmstead have been measuring the temperature of the salmon streams in Tenakee Inlet for years. Some streams, they've found, are colder than others and will sustain salmon as the climate warms.  These streams need protection. The Endeavour visited in May 2022. Click for more.

Paleontology on Shelikof Strait

Filling in the Earth's history

Most of the team from our 2021 expedition, Fossils of the Lost Coast, reboard the Endeavour in Chignik on a fossil survey east up the peninsula and across the strait to Kodiak Island. We're especially looking for plant fossils, ammonites, and desmos! It's also prime brown bear season. Scheduled for August 2022.

The Walruses of Round Island

Over 14,000 walruses in one place

The Endeavour will take an arctic biologist and a film crew to study and document the mass congregation of walruses on Round Island, a remote preserve at the top of Bristol Bay. As one scientist put it, "Walruses are the animals we all know but almost no one has seen." Scheduled for June 2023. Click for more.

The Glaciers of Glacier Bay

Measuring the melt of Muir's favorite glaciers

Dr. Bruce Molnia, the leader of our 2021expedition to Kenai Fjords, reboards the Endeavour to photograph the most iconic glaciers in the park, including Muir Glacier, comparing his new photos to earlier pictures -- some taken more than 100 years ago -- to show their changes. Scheduled for September 2023.