Mark Maftei

From Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic to South Georgia Island in the Southern Ocean, Mark's passion for seabirds has taken him around the globe, but he has spent the last 18 years working across northern Canada and Alaska where he has conducted research in some of the most remote and poorly studied parts of the Arctic. In 2011, Mark founded the High Arctic Gull Research Group, a collaborative association of government and academic researchers as well as private partners. This group has undertaken several ambitious projects to study some of the least known seabirds in the world at multiple sites across the circumpolar Arctic.

Mark first traveled to Antarctica working for Quark Expeditions in 2008, and was captivated by the incredible beauty of the Antarctic peninsula and the Southern Ocean islands. When he’s not on a ship, Mark lives in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island where he works as the executive director of the Raincoast Education Society. He enjoys fishing, surfing, and watching birds and marine mammals.