Press Release

Celebrate World Penguin Day With Quark Expeditions

Become A Citizen Scientist For Penguin Watch For a Chance To Win A Quark Expedition

[Seattle, WA] – April 25, 2015 – Quark Expeditions, the world's leading polar expedition company, invites polar-passionate people around the globe to take action for penguin conservation on World Penguin Day April 25, 2015. By visiting PenguinWatch.org, penguin enthusiasts can become a “citizen scientist” and make a personal contribution toward penguin conservation for a chance to win a Quark 11-day voyage to Antarctica to encounter these tuxedoed birds in their natural habitat.

Help penguins in Antarctica – become a citizen scientist for Penguin Watch

Penguin Watch offers a unique way for anyone to volunteer in assisting penguin research – by tagging penguins in still image data found on PenguinWatch.org.

Volunteers who register on Penguin Watch assist by viewing and tagging adult and chick penguins as well as penguin egg images. By doing so they greatly assist researchers to secure accurate counts at each site, and also train the computer program to increasingly recognize image objects, improving data efficiency over time.

"Penguin Watch allows us to practice the role of an observer near a base, but on a massive scale," Dr. Hart explained. "We leave cameras at multiple sites and obtain simultaneous, highly accurate data from various locations. Our huge Penguin Watch volunteer base helps us extract and interpret that data rapidly and gives volunteers the opportunity to get involved in meaningful research."

Count penguins for a chance to win a trip to Antarctica

Quark encourages people worldwide to learn more about penguins and penguin preservation by visiting the Penguin Watch website. Register and assist with the Citizen Scientist initiative by counting and tagging penguin images to be entered to win an 11-day Antarctic Explorer: Discovering the 7th Continent small ship expedition, compliments of Quark Expeditions.

Meet Dr. Tom Hart, lead penguinologist, Quark Scientist In Residence

Penguinologist Dr. Tom Hart has been a Quark Scientist in Residence for four years. In exchange for passage to remote Antarctic research sites, Dr. Hart makes his work accessible to those onboard, engages with Quark passengers throughout the voyage and lectures on his findings.

Through the study of still image data supplied by cameras installed in colonies around Antarctica, Hart and his team examine threats to global penguin populations, in order to identify risk factors, inform policy, and educate the public on the impacts of climate change, fisheries and other issues affecting declining populations.

Meet the Penguin Watch Team

Those wishing to meet and engage with the Penguin Watch team in person can do so on the following Quark voyages:

  • Antarctic Explorer: Discovering the 7th Continent – departs 4 Dec 2015, 12 Jan and 3 Feb, 2016
  • Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica – departs 13 Dec 2015
  • Crossing the Circle: Southern Expedition – departs 31 Dec 2015, 22 Jan 2016

About Penguin Watch

Penguin Watch is a web-based “citizen” science project involving the efforts of countless of volunteers to help researchers monitor scientific data. Its scientists, including Dr. Tom Hart and his team, travel to some of the most remote areas of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to capture images of penguin colonies for the purpose of monitoring, and better understanding, their populations. Through the Penguin Watch website, volunteers can register and become involved as “citizen scientists” by helping to mark images taken from nesting sites to advance research efforts.

About Quark Expeditions

For 25 years, Quark Expeditions has been the leading provider of polar adventure travel. With its diverse fleet of specially equipped vessels, unique land-based adventures and seasoned expedition leaders, it offers travelers unparalleled access to the most remote regions on earth: the Arctic and Antarctica. In 2013, Quark Expeditions was voted “World’s Leading Polar Expedition Operator” by the World Travel Awards™, received the “Blow the Budget” award from the Amadeus & World Travel Awards™ Travel Experience Awards and was named one of National Geographic Traveler’s 50 Tours of a Lifetime for its “Three Arctic Islands” voyage. In 2014 it earned “World’s Leading Specialist Cruise Line” designation by the prestigious World Travel Awards™.