Explorer Island
Azucena Mcquay
The fare-free Island Explorer features bus routes linking hotels, inns, and campgrounds with destinations in Acadia National Park and neighboring village centers. Clean propane-powered vehicles offer Mount Desert Island visitors and residents free transportation to hiking trails,carriage roads, island beaches, and in-town shops and restaurants.
The Island Explorer cordially invites bus drivers with commercial licenses (CDLs) to applyfor the 2024 season. Flexible shifts, a team-oriented environment, and a wage scale well above most in the region ($23.25 per hour plus shift differentials for nights and weekends) makethis a fantastic choice for your summer / fall job. We offer full and part-time seasonal work.
Although ocean islands are ubiquitous on the planet, and are homes to a stunning variety of people, plants, and animals, there have been surprisingly few attempts to accurately delineate all the islands on Earth. Every landmass, no matter how big, is surrounded by ocean waters. Island sizes range from continental (e.g. Africa), to very large (e.g. Madagascar) to large (e.g. Tasmania) to medium (e.g. Maui), to small (e.g. Key West) to very small islands and tiny rock outcrops. Size is relative, however, and there is no accepted standard for what separates big islands from small islands. A new mapping of global coastlines from satellite imagery was used to develop a new global islands database, which can be accessed using the new Global Island Explorer (GIE). The new islands data are also available for download.
This resource was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with Esri. The tool was developed as part of a Group on Earth Observations (GEO) initiative called GEO Ecosystems (GEO ECO), and is associated with a GEO ECO task to develop global coastal ecosystems data. The tool allows for the visualization and query of the new global islands data, which includes 340,691 islands. Pan, zoom, and query functionality are included. The islands can be displayed over a number of backdrops including satellite imagery, topographic basemaps, light and dark background canvas, etc. A query of any island returns its name (in English and when available - over 60,000 islands currently have name attributes), size, size class (continental mainland, large island, or small island), length of coastline, and the tectonic plate to which it is attached.
Islands were grouped into three size classes: continental mainlands, big islands, and small islands. There are five continental mainland islands in the database: North America, South America, Africa, Eurasia, and Australia, where the Americas are separated at the Panama Canal, and Africa is separated from Eurasia at the Suez Canal. The five continental mainlands are single, very large polygons representing the continental landmass interiors not including any offshore islands. Big islands are any island greater in size than 1 km2, and there are 21,818 big islands in the database. The remaining 318,868 islands are all less than 1 km2 and are classed as small islands.
The global islands database was developed in association with a GEO ECO project to map standardized, robust, and practical global coastal ecosystems. The coastal ecosystems are to be mapped in three ecological zones: coastal land areas, nearshore coastal waters, and offshore coastal waters. To separate the coastal lands from the nearshore coastal waters, a high resolution global shoreline vector is necessary as the boundary between terrestrial and marine environments. After judging existing global shoreline characterizations as unsatisfactory based on accuracy, standardization of development, and availability in the public domain (non-proprietary), a new 30 m resolution Global Shoreline Vector (GSV) was produced by interpreting satellite imagery from 2014 in Google Earth Engine. After the GSV was produced, it was converted to a polygon database to create a new global islands resource. Details on both the new global shoreline vector and the new global islands database, as well as plans to use these resources to map standardized coastal ecosystems, are available in (Sayre et al., 2018).
The Navigator's special ability is that it can move any other player up to 2 adjacent tiles. "Adjacent" usually means up/down/left/right, however the Explorer's special ability is that it can move diagonally too, so: Can the navigator move the explorer to adjacent diagonal tiles, or just the standard up/down/left/right?
The National Geographic Explorer Spotlight Asia event was held in South Korea, located on the enchanting island of Jeju, from June 6-9, 2022. I had no dream to visit this advanced and charming country until I received an invitation from National Geographic Society (NGS), as the leader of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI). ASRI received support from National Geographic in 2021 to conduct research on COVID Resiliency as well as supporting the ex-loggers community through Rainforest COVID Stimulus. The selected National Geographic Explorers would be trained to tell incredible, inspiring stories to the world. NGS believes great stories have the power to transform our understanding of the world and our role in it.
The flight from Jakarta to Seoul took about seven hours. Another one hour flight brought us from Seoul to Jeju. We stayed at Maison Glad Hotel, a very nice, yet super busy, hotel in Jeju. That night, we had a welcome dinner where we got to meet all of the Nat Geo staff in Asia and the other Explorers who will participate in the event. It was truly amazing to meet brilliant scientists, photographers, and project founders from different Asian countries. Despite the freezing temperatures caused by heavy rains and strong winds, it warms my heart to know how happy the next few days will be and how grateful I am on behalf of ASRI to be a part of this incredible National Geographic Society.
As part of the National Geographic Explorers, we were asked to share our stories with hundreds of students and Nat Geo / Walt Disney Executives. What a challenge it is to speak in front of a large audience and to keep it very brief (only three minutes!) but compelling. We gathered in a rainy and foggy morning to begin our first day of storytelling bootcamp. A fancy, comfortable bus with a big Nat Geo sticker on it took us to the Nat Geo office in Jeju.
We then began session after session in a very cozy workshop room (I wish I had a space like that in ASRI!). There, we learned about the Nat Geo Society and the Explorers, the support NGS provides to the Explorers, storytelling through public speaking and photography, and the work of other Explorers.
Universally, Nat Geo is a trusted brand with a huge number of fans. According to data, @natgeo is the #1 non-celebrity brand on Instagram. Only 14% of customers trust ads on social media, but 98% of customers trust National Geographic. I was not really surprised when I saw those stats. Simply because, in South Korea for example, I have seen so many people wear Nat Geo items such as suitcases, bags, t-shirts, etc. My fellow Explorers and I learned about the above stats from our first class at the bootcamp.
After the nice walk on the coastline and learning about Haenyeo, we visited the Dongbaek dongsan wetland conservation area. We walked to the forests and saw an almost-dry pond. The guide told us that many years ago, the villagers used the water from the pond for drinking.
Next, we went to Branksome Hall Asia, an international school for girls. When I first set foot there, I was completely blown away. This is a very large and magnificent educational area. I have never seen such a school or university building. When we entered the hall to get ready to speak, we were a little taken aback. Really, we thought the school auditorium would be just like the others.
Nope, the stage was amazing! Hundreds of students and teachers came to hear our stories. My hands became cold as I realized how difficult it would be to speak in English on such a large stage, and livestreamed! However, I sensed a very supportive atmosphere among the Explorers and NGS staff. We encouraged one another.
Finally, I delivered my speech, and thank God it went well! After the talk, a girl approached me and said she enjoyed my talk because she is very interested in planetary health. I was curious how she knew about planetary health. She said that she wishes to pursue medical studies. I hope she can visit ASRI in Borneo someday to learn more about planetary health in action!
This was the last day of the National Geographic Explorer Spotlight Asia. We had a final task to present our stories to the Nat Geo / Walt Disney executives and partners in Asia. The venue would be at the National Geographic auditorium. Everything was nicely set up, plus an event backdrop with the red carpet!
We finished the event that night by having a gala dinner and listening to a poetic photo storytelling account from a Nat Geo photographer, Hannah Morales. It featured lullaby songs from several countries in the world before and after the pandemic. Last, but not least, I enjoyed the happy moments with all the Explorers, Nat Geo staff, and volunteers. The next few days before going back to Indonesia, I had a chance to explore the beauty of Seoul, which was really amazing and refreshing.
For those lucky people that have already gone - has there been any issues in missing any of the ports (?) - I ask since so many people say that it is rare to get on Easter Island. Even though, it shows as embarkation at Easter Island - the one TA I just spoke with, said that it might not happen due to weather? I pointed out that this was embarkation so I assumed it would happen!!!!! she disagreed - was she right?
I am also in the process of trying to secure a knowledgeable TA to assist with this trip. We have travelled on expeditions to Antarctica twice before and didn't have as difficult a time gathering information as we are finding for this particular voyage.
Most ships have to tender and therefore visits to the island quite frequently get canceled due to sea conditions. Explorer is probably small enough to dock at the island. I can't imagine why they would use Easter Island for embarkation if they couldn't guarantee picking up passengers.
93ddb68554