A Request for Guano Happens!

Guano Happens is Brash Talk‘s most popular section and for good reason! It’s vital for guides and our community to learn from each other’s experiences in safety management. Understanding past events provides us with the knowledge and tools to prevent or lessen similar situations if they arise.

Share a past event here. All submissions are anonymous and we never identify individuals or companies. Our focus is purely on education and awareness through the basic facts.

New Svalbard Field Guide

One of our Senior Polar Guides and Provisional Assessor, Marcelo Flores, has co-authored a pocket-sized Field Guide for Svalbard. This guide features 25 bird species, 15 mammal species, and 12 types of flowers. It includes unique illustrations that depict the species, their behaviors, and comparisons to enhance the experience for guides while interpreting information in the field with guests. The book is currently available at the “Barbara Foto & Ramme” shop in Longyearbyen and will be available at the Svalbard Museum starting in July. For more information, you can contact Marcelo here.

Pro Deal Update

For our Arctic guides, Longyear 78 is a store in Longyearbyen that offers a superb range of brands and gear. They offer PTGA a Pro Deal for qualified guides. In order to receive your discount at Longyear 78, you must be a Polar Guide or Senior Polar Guide and present your status certificate.  If you need your certificate, contact ushere.

Remember, you can access Pro Deals on our Member’s Only Pages here (then click on the button for Pro Deals).

A Reminder about Pro Deals:

• Platform vs. Individual Deals: Access a wide range of deals through our “Pro-Deal Platforms” (many feature 50+ companies!) or explore individual Pro-Deals listed directly.
• Application Required: Most platforms and some individual deals require a quick application. It is up to the individual company to determine acceptance.
• Geographic Restrictions: Some deals have shipping limitations based on location. We’re working to expand our global reach!
• PTGA Status: Many Pro-Deals require proof of your Polar Guide or Senior Polar Guide status. If you need your certificate, contact us here.
• Play by the Rules: Please respect these exclusive arrangements and their terms.
• Suggestions Welcome! Know a great gear company that would be a good fit? Let us know and we’ll explore a partnership!

Guide’s Guide to Leading Hikes: Dynamic Positioning
This Guide’s Guide picks up on a previous Training section from our BrashTalk newsletter. We’ve expanded the content into an easy to read format and included a case study at the end for training purposes.

Guano Happens
Arctic Encounter 

Guano Happens

This Guano Happens comes to you courtesy of the Arctic, serving as a timely reminder of how quickly things can change when heavily governed wildlife encounters are a significant part of the equation. This encounter is a couple of seasons old, but the lessons are universally relevant, and reading about how it unfolds, and the actions taken, provides an excellent window into what can happen, even with a carefully planned excursion.

Narrative

At 7:15 the scout team departed the ship and went ashore to scout the landing area. There were six Firearm Handlers (FH) including a Lead Firearm Handler (Lead FH), an Expedition Leader (EL), and Assistant Expedition Leader (AEL). The team cleared the landing site by 8:10 and approved the landing for guests to arrive. The FH set up a flagged route towards the lake for general operation, and the plan was for a group to follow the flagged route, accompanied by expedition staff and two FH. Two additional FH were positioned on high ground, one on each side of the flagged route. The hikers were to follow a different route, led by a Lead FH and an additional FH.

The first group came ashore at 8:30 (26 hikers), with the rest afterwards to be guided in the flagged area between 8:45 and 10:45.

The excursion went as planned.

By 10:45, all guests from the flagged area had departed the landing site and were in zodiacs returning to the ship. The hikers were coming down from a different direction, accompanied by two guides. At this time, three FH and 2 Guides started to return from the lake, collecting flags and making their way to the landing site.

At 11:05, a FH scanned the vicinity and spotted a polar bear. They called the Lead FH to change to channel XX. The following was the approximate conversation:

BM: “Lead FH, there is a Polar Bear, it is just below FH2, between FH2 and the water. It is heading towards me.” Lead FH: “Can you give me some more details on direction and where in relation to FH2?”

BM: “Between FH2 and the water”

Lead FH: “Are there any guests”?

FH: “There are no guests here. It is heading towards me, not particularly fast. Now it’s going to the water.”

Shortly after the radio call, the Lead FH and guide with the hikers saw the bear walking towards the water. The Lead FH briefed all guests next to him, and the FH guide briefed all the guests in the back of the group, so the message was clear to all. “We have a polar bear on the landing site. We need to evacuate immediately. We will walk slowly towards the landing site, put on our life jackets, and depart as soon as possible. Do not run, keep a slow and steady pace, and please do not stop to take photos”.

By 11:10, the group had arrived at the landing site, next to the life jackets, and Lead FH reminded guests to stay together, put on their life jackets, and board the first available zodiac.

Lead FH instructed FH Guide to remain with the guests. Lead FH positioned himself between the guests and the bear (now in the water) and monitored its behaviour.

The FH guide arriving from the lake area asked if assistance was needed. Lead FH replied, “Yes, get your flare gun ready”. FH loaded a flash flare and moved closer to the group. Another guide was helping with life jackets, so FH Guide joined Lead FH to help deter the bear.

The bear, by this time, was swimming quickly towards the landing site, where guests were boarding the zodiacs. When the bear was about 120 meters away, Lead FH radioed to the Expedition Leader that flares would be shot off. When the bear was approximately 100 meters away, the Lead FH + FH Guide began shooting flares. Initially, the bear started to move faster in the direction of the landing site. 11 flares were fired before the bear was successfully deterred and swam away.

All guests and staff evacuated the landing site safely.

A meeting was called with the Firearm Handlers involved to review the incident once back on board. They discussed what had occurred, what each person had observed, and how the incident was handled. All staff and guests seemed calm and in control, and they were all in agreement that the protocols they had learned and practiced during the preseason training played out and worked as intended. The zodiac drivers who brought guests on board were consulted to see if they had any upset guests after the incident. They confirmed that the guests were all fine and very complimentary of how calmly and professionally the incident was handled.

Review

No matter who you are or how careful you are, a polar bear can always arrive unannounced and crash your party. Paramount with these encounters are the well-being of your guests and the bear. All companies, ELs, and guides should train and prepare specifically for such encounters.

The first two questions a government official might ask are: Did you know the bear was there, and how did it get so close to the excursion group?

In this case, the bear was neither observed nor observable during the scouting period. It came through a saddle between two mountains on rough and rocky terrain and descended rapidly to the waterline. This is what bears do, if they want to.

What might be done differently from the narrative provided?

The initial description of the bear’s location could have been more accurate if the FH had used cardinal directions and provided more precise distances from geographic features. This would have saved the multiple radio transmissions between the Lead FH and FH. We have discussed this before in our training and development sections for guides spotting wildlife from vessels and giving more accurate locations.

What worked well for this team, and we can all use as takeaways?

• All guides should maintain constant vigilance and remain alert when entering polar bear environments.
• Having a good number of firearm handlers who were trained on an agreed-upon system in what to do in an event like this
• Utilizing flares as a non-lethal deterrent.
• Having boats on standby for a possible evacuation.

Having an incident review immediately afterwards to collect all the relevant information and be able to create a narrative with such a detailed timeline.

Meet Your Colleague: Jane McPhee-Frew

Jane has been guiding in the polar regions for eight years, thirteen in outdoor and remote environments. She is a PTGA Senior Polar Guide and Antarctic specialist, with an academic background in Antarctic science. She is currently balancing polar guiding with part-time PhD studies, researching cetacean ecology and lives in rural New South Wales in Australia.

PTGA: Tell us how you got to be where you are working in the polar regions?

Jane: Since I was small, I’ve been fascinated by Antarctica and terrible at staying indoors for long. I studied ecology at university. I did the Aussie thing and went travelling around the world before a brief stint as a consultant ecologist. But the need to move and the draw of Antarctica didn’t let up, so I decided to enroll in a Masters of Antarctic Science at the University of Tasmania. Through that I managed to wangle the opportunity to study at UNIS in Svalbard. I kept travelling in between and I started doing contract work for conservation volunteering projects and academic field courses in various remote locations. It had always been my one career goal to go to Antarctica so once I found out about polar tourism, I knew I had to figure out what you needed for that and work backwards. I had a taste in 2013 when I talked my way into an “internship” on an expedition ship departing Svalbard and going along East Greenland. It was not a structured program, just the outcome of my nagging and looking back, I was 25, scattered, dumb as a rock and definitely did not prove myself to be an asset to the team – not that they were even hiring. But I kept upskilling and emailing and trying. It took me four years but I eventually got my foot in the door in 2017. I thought I would go to some cool places, get it out of my system and then get a “proper job”. It turns out this is the proper job. I’ve found something I enjoy, that works to my strengths, that gives me the flexibility I like and I’m hoping to do this as long as I can.

PTGA: You have a vast scientific background and have also worked in land-based/non-polar tourism. Could you share how that work is different from guiding in the polar regions?

Jane: I describe myself as a slashie. I am a guide / PhD student / boat driver / science lecturer / barmaid / whatever other gig I happen to be doing. Although it’s eclectic, to me it all feels connected by a few common threads – travel, nature, science and animals. And customer service. You use different hard skills driving a zodiac full of guests on a bad day in Antarctica vs guiding hikers on multi-day walk in the desert vs being responsible for a bunch of American high school students on a remote island and trying to teach a full college-level marine biology course. But the soft skills are the same. You have to be able to connect with people, anticipate their needs, understand their fears, cope with their behaviour when they push their comfort zone for the first time in a long time, know how and when to be firm. I spent a long time working in hospitality, making drinks and waiting tables. It allowed me to travel the world despite having very little money and to take risks with the knowledge that I could always pick myself up again with hospo work. I also made great friends. As a polar guide, I use my Antarctic Science degree often but I use the skills I developed in hospitality every single day.

PTGA: You joined PTGA back in 2019 – what made you want to join and what’s kept you around since then?

Jane: Honestly, I joined for a pretty material reason – because the company I was working with supported it and paid accordingly. There are several reasons I’ve remained a member: I like that my polar qualifications let me communicate my skill-set quickly and honestly to potential employers, I want to support the PTGA as a guide-led industry organisation, I appreciate the professional and educational resources available to members and many of the people I admire most in this industry are involved with the PTGA, so I want to be part of that. I also appreciate (not enjoy) the fact that it forces me to keep a log of my work.

PTGA: What was the assessment process like as an experienced guide?

Jane: It was really positive. It allowed me to take what I already knew and put it in a framework. It let me feel more confident in my strengths and helped me identify the gaps in my knowledge and skills that needed refining. I learned a few things even in areas that I was already well versed. The assessors were so generous with their time and energy, it felt like peer learning and practice rather than a test.

PTGA: What lessons have you found important to pass on to new guides working alongside you?

Jane: The one thing that everyone (EVERYONE) seems to experience is imposter syndrome. And it’s almost always about hard skills – I haven’t been to this region before, I’m not as fit as I should be, I’m not publishing research in this area, I’m not as good as the other guide who’s here for their twentieth season. We all have an impossibly high bar for ourselves. I don’t think it’s a bad thing because it pushes you towards continual improvement. Don’t ignore your weaker areas but be reasonable about it and leverage your strengths. Soft skills are incredibly important. Are you super excited to be there? So are the guests. Do you have a “dumb” question that a more experienced guide would know? The guests definitely have that question too. Find out the answer and share it. Are you getting really cold? Your guests will be too, ask them. The skills or knowledge that you’re beating yourself up over can be trained. Attitude can’t. You got this job for a reason.

PTGA: What do you see as the biggest challenges to the polar tourism industry over the next five years?

Jane: Oof. At the moment there is a lot of focus on overcrowding, especially on the Peninsula. I do think it will be very challenging to manage the environmental impacts of growth of the industry but overall I trust IAATO and the ATCM parties to ensure the rules are effective and evidence-based. I think we might underestimate the operational and safety challenges related to growth, risks associated with greater exposure to hazards and less flexibility over sites, the proportion of inexperienced guides, and not to mention the socioeconomic / cultural impacts in the Arctic due to the concentration of a large fleet in a few areas. I do think a more sophisticated risk management approach in the industry as a whole, as modelled in some heavy industries, would bring massive benefits in safety, sustainability and profitability. All this against the backdrop of climate change, bird flu and the wild political landscape in the world. I’ve bummed myself out now. But in general I’m an optimist. None of us saw covid coming, it utterly shut the industry down and here we are on the other side of it. We’re very adaptable and we’re an industry made up of people who really care about polar regions. Whatever happens, I intend to enjoy it in the moment.

PTGA: What advice would you give your younger self about a career in this industry?

Jane: That’s a good question but I’m not sure I have an answer. I doubt I would have taken it lol. Taking my own advice is something I’m constantly working on. Maybe I would tell myself to seek out an ADHD assessment sooner. I think back to my early experiences in polar guiding and I was *rubbish*. I was very lucky that I had such good guides around me and even luckier that they took the time to mentor me. Even some of the times I got harsh criticism from someone who didn’t seem to like me, they often were right and I learnt a lesson. I must have had enough sense to take advice from guides I admired because most of them are now my friends and I’m still in awe of them.

PTGA: What is your favorite place in the polar regions and why?

Jane: Overall, it’s Antarctica. It’s anywhere you get that moment of solitude or that perfect view of the mountains when the snow clouds shift or that special wildlife encounter you can’t predict. You never know when you’re going to get unexpectedly hit by a moment that is seared into your memory for years to come. I’m on a mission to see as much of Antarctica and the subantarctic as possible and one of my takeaways is how easy it is to take the Peninsula for granted. It really is breathtakingly beautiful and bursting with wildlife.

PTGA: Who is your favorite creature and why?

Jane: I should give a more professional answer but the honest one is that it’s my cat. She’s been my sidekick for more than 16 years and still going strong. When I’m home, my daily routine revolves around our content co-dependence. Life is better shared with animals.

PTGA: Who is your favourite polar explorer and why?

Jane: I’m low-key a Roald Amundsen fan girl. The reason why is a lecture no one asked for. But the more I read about any of the polar explorers the more I feel that the hero-worship is misplaced and the vilification is unfair (with a handful of exceptions, some of them were proper jerks). Last season was my first time in the Ross Sea where I heard some incredible lectures about some lesser-known explorers and did a lot of reading about Scott and Oates. I had accepted the popular narrative that Scott was incompetent, unprepared and a poor leader, which is often most used against him in comparison to Shackleton. But they were all complex humans and we very often judge them with contextual knowledge that they didn’t have at the time and assumed goals we apply retrospectively. I spent a lot of sea days obsessing over this and philosophising about modern lessons. (Thanks team for putting up with me.) I can see why historians get so into it.

PTGA: Thanks for your insights, Jane!