K-Bay SeaFest

ASMI and BP

Join us for a reception at the Pratt Museum, Saturday May 23 at 6:30 pm

Shipwreck Historian Mike Burwell CANCELLED

Mike Burwell writes environmental impact statements for the U.S. Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS), assessing impacts from MMS leasing projects on subsistence, socio-cultural, environmental justice, and historical archaeological resources. He has presented papers on the incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into federal environmental impact analyses in Alaska and is working on an MA in anthropology at the University of Alaska-Anchorage (UAA). He also maintains the Alaska Shipwrecks Database that at the moment contains over 4,600 records, and has written numerous articles and papers on ships that played a part in Alaska's history.

In the Spring of 2004, he participated in an expedition to Katalla, east of Cordova, that identified the remains of the S.S. Portland, the ship widely credited with starting the Klondike Gold Rush. He participated in a July 2004 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funded dive survey effort in Kodiak, verifying the identity of the Russian-American ice freighter Kad'yak that was lost off Kodiak Island in 1860. In April 2006 he was part of a NOAA funded expedition that performed baseline surveys of three shipwreck sites in Lynn Canal.

By no means limited to technical writing, Mike has taught creative writing at UAA since 1989. His poems and stories have appeared in a number of periodicals and regional anthologies, and he has published two chapbooks of poetry. In 2007 his full-length volume of poetry Cartography of Water was published by NorthShore Press.

Saturday evening at the Pratt Museum, Mike Burwell will present an overview of Cook Inlet shipwrecks, focusing on the Salvator or Seldovia and the Corea at Ninilchik.

Expedition Sea Kayaker -
Sean Morley

Originally from the United Kingdom and now a resident of Marin County, California, Sean Morley began kayaking at the age of ten with the Boy Scouts and often paddled alone, exploring the relatively sheltered waters of St. Austell Bay on the south coast of Cornwell, England. He took part in his firs kayak race in 1978 and has competed in many disciplines of paddle sport since then, including white water slalom and downriver racing, marathon, sprint, wave ski, surf life saving and surf kayaking with success at the national and international level.

Sean began expedition sea kayaking in 1996, and in 1998 set a record for the fastest crossing of the Irish Sea. In 2004 he competed the first solo circumnavigation of the United Kingdom and Ireland by sea kayak, the first ever to include all of the inhabited islands. The 4,500-mile expedition took 183 days and is the longest kayak journey ever undertaken in British waters. Sean raised over ₤10,000 for charity and was nominated as the Royal National Lifeboat Institute's "Individual Supporter of the Year".

In 2005 Sean assisted British kayak manufacturer Valley Sea Kayaks with the design of a new high performance surf kayak, and began participating in kayak surfing competitions. In 2007 he became the World Maters Champion and gained 2nd place in the Open category of the High Performance Class at the World Surf Kayak Championships.

Just last fall Sean broke the record for the fastest kayak circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, completing the 700-mile voyage in just over 17 days, taking over 6 days off the previous record. Sean's 90-minute slide show presentation on Sunday night at the Islands & Ocean Visitor Center will include a photographic journey around beautiful British Isles and images and stories from his most recent expedition around Vancouver Island.