Pen Hadow, a world-class explorer, is now dedicated to the process that will deliver protection for the wildlife and ecosystem of the Central Arctic Ocean that surrounds the North Pole.
In 2017 his Arctic Mission project involved sailing two 50’ yachts into the North Pole’s high seas region (the Central Arctic Ocean), becoming the first vessels in history to do so under their own power and without icebreaker support. The voyage demonstrated the increasing accessibility of these waters to international shipping, commercial fishing, cruise ship tourism and deep-sea mining, and therefore the associated threats to the wildlife, already stressed by their reduced sea-ice cover habitat.
Previously, Hadow led the multi-award-winning US$10m international scientific research programme, Catlin Arctic Survey (2007-2012) investigating the rates, causes and impacts of the Arctic’s rapidly melting sea ice. It secured the equivalent of US$112 million worth of public communications about the Arctic Ocean’s environmental issues.
He made his first Arctic expedition in 1989, set up the world’s first guide service to the North Pole in 1995, co-organised the first all-women expedition to the North Pole in 1997, and enabled the first physically disabled adventurers to achieve their dream of reaching the Pole.
Hadow’s affinity with the polar regions and its wildlife began through his extraordinary personal childhood connection with the dying words of Captain Robert Falcon Scott (‘Scott of the Antarctic’) and his son, the world-renown naturalist and WWF founder, Sir Peter Scott.
