Faculty of Science
SFU professor and team win women’s class of World’s Toughest Row, cross the Atlantic in 38 days
A team of four marine scientists, including SFU鈥檚 Isabelle C么t茅, have rowed 5,000 km across the Atlantic Ocean, winning the women鈥檚 class of the annual the .
The all-woman crew arrived in Antigua on Saturday, completing the winter crossing from the Canary Islands in 38 days, 18 hours and 57 minutes. Family, friends and loved ones from Canada and the United States gathered at Nelson鈥檚 Dockyard to greet the team as they landed at the end of the long, successful row.
鈥淓veryone was focused on the race,鈥� team member Chantale B茅gin, told the World鈥檚 Toughest Race. In addition to C么t茅, a Distinguished SFU Professor of marine ecology and conservation, and B茅gin, the team included Lauren Shea, a master鈥檚 student at the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and Noelle Helder, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
PHOTOS: WORLD'S TOUGHEST ROW
鈥淲inning was not the goal initially,鈥� says B茅gin, C么t茅鈥檚 former PhD student, now a professor at the University of South Florida. 鈥淲e set out to come across safely, have a good time doing it and 鈥� to row as fast as we could.鈥�
The team worked in two-person shifts, alternatingly sleeping for two hours, then rowing for two hours, spending 24 hours a day on the 28-foot rowboat. Rowers can burn up to 5,000 calories a day and the average rower loses about 17 pounds on the trip.
Salty Science aimed to raise $500,000 US for marine science and conservation through three organizations: GreenWave, focused on sustainable seafood production; Shellback Expeditions, which supports marine research, conservation and education in the eastern Caribbean; and the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, which will use the team鈥檚 funds to create a scholarship for students of underrepresented minorities to help train the next generation of marine conservationists.