Emily Burke
Emily loves all marine-related things and especially sailboats, marine biology, and weather. Wherever she explores coastlines and currents, Emily brings an infectious enthusiasm for adventure and the natural world that engages everyone around her.
Emily has been exploring coastal Alaska since 2015 and now spends her summers living on a sailboat based out of Seward. She has worked in the Kenai Fjords as a sea kayak guide and as a deckhand/naturalist on wildlife tour vessels. In the winter, she migrates to the Southern Ocean and works as an expedition guide and zodiac driver in Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands. She first fell in love with the Antarctic while working at a remote field camp studying Adélie penguins at Cape Crozier, Ross Island, and she is thrilled to continue exploring inspiring icy landscapes. Emily is currently a marine biology graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, studying the movement ecology of green crabs. She also has a degree in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. Her interests in science, adventure, and education led her to the Sea Education Association (SEA), where Emily has taught marine science to university students aboard traditionally rigged sailing ships in New Zealand, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean. These sailing research vessels provide an educational platform for long-term oceanographic research and multidisciplinary approach to understanding the oceans and maritime cultures. |
Brent Pikolas
Brent is an avid (if not obsessed) surfer, sailor and ocean enthusiast. He currently calls Seward, Alaska, home and has spent nearly two decades exploring wild Alaska as a guide, naturalist, and captain. He has driven a variety of boats from passenger tours focused on wildlife and glaciers to the National Park Service research vessel. In recent years, he's also taken those explorations to the Southern Hemisphere working as an expedition guide and zodiac driver in Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands.
Brent has a degree in Environmental Education from Prescott College, which led him to countless days in the field all throughout the Western US, Mexico, Canada, and Nepal. He is extremely passionate about the natural world and loves to share his in-depth knowledge whenever he can. If Brent is not sailing, kayaking, or fishing around coastal Alaska, he is probably surfing in El Salvador. Brent also creates linoleum and wood block prints with a variety of landscape and wildlife designs. He gains his inspiration from these incredible environments with his work being directly influenced by the natural world. |
Sailing Vessel Katabatic is a Mercator Offshore 30, built in 1981 in Kent, WA.
She is heavily constructed of fiberglass with a masthead sloop rig and displaces 10,600 pounds. Katabatic has a modest sail plan and is a stable and seaworthy vessel, sailing Alaskan waters since 1982. Katabatic is laid out with simple systems that require very little electricity. Equipped with a wind generator and a large house battery system, she has a small carbon foot print and is an excellent platform for exploring the fjords. She can be powered by a small Volvo diesel engine. Katabatic has enough deck space for two small kayaks and a surfboard, and storage for several months of provisions. |