Back in 2018, our glorious Oceanographic magazine launched its Issue No 1. Its cover story, written by me was called Saving the Arctic, and subtitled One man’s mission to protect the Arctic Ocean before it’s too late. Supported by Florian Ledoux’s world-class images of polar bears, the article reported on the evolution of my work over 30 years on the Arctic Ocean, since my first experience on its ephemeral sea-ice cover.

Now, at the end of 2024, I’m delighted to introduce myself as one of Oceanographic’s new online columnists. I’ll be sharing contexts and insights on some of the big issues swirling through our global ocean system, reflected through the prism of my own experiences as an ocean explorer-conservationist.

In 2017, I had led two 50ft sailing vessels into the ‘High Seas’ region of the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) – the first vessels to do so without icebreaker support. I returned, armed with some ideas on how to catalyse the processes within the ocean policy-making community, to establish a North Pole Marine Reserve as the world’s largest such reserve. The response to a speech I later delivered to the main session of the UN International Maritime Organization in Autumn 2018 encouraged a belief that potential support was out there.

The Arctic ‘bug’ embedded in my psyche, was likely laid by an extraordinary childhood connection with British polar explorer, Captain Robert Falcon. It pupated through a series of personal Arctic adventures, polar guiding services, and the master-minding of an international research programme, before finally finding full expression as an impassioned conservationist – focused on conserving the biodiversity of the waters surrounding the North Pole.

So, why the urgent need for conservation of this region? Because within 10 to 35 years the CAO may become routinely ice-free in September, and ice-free May-January (9 months) annually within 75 years. For the wildlife dependent on the floating ice-reef ecosystem facilitated by the sea-ice cover, it’s catastrophic habitat loss. With the seasonal 40% sea ice-loss observed to date, the region’s biodiversity is already stressed. But on the back of the disappearance of this natural barrier, for the first time in human history, vessels can soon access these waters – and with them come the host of impacts, stressors and risks associated with commercial fishing, cargo shipping, cruise vessels and deep-sea mining.

But now for some more encouraging news. The existence of the notion of ‘Arctic exceptionalism’, as given expression through the work of the Arctic Council. This substantive notion is a proven game-changer, and can accelerate the process now needed to secure the treaty establishing the North Pole Marine Reserve, with its appropriate conservation measures.