By Dillon Collins
There’s what we see, and then there’s what’s beneath the surface. Jill Heinerth is among the rare few who’ve had the opportunity to experience that different side, one as dark as it is tranquil, full of mystery and wonder. The world below.
“No day is like the last,” Jill jokes during a one-on-one with Downhome. “You know, my business card says explorer on it. So I am constantly exploring underwater or using my mind to explore the next great project. And I kind of pinch myself. I’m a pretty lucky girl.”
A Toronto native, Jill is no stranger to making history. The celebrated polar explorer, cave diver, author, speaker, filmmaker, and climate advocate was the first Explorer-in-Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the first person to dive inside an ice cave. Her exploits as one of the leading authorities on underwater exploration have been documented by the CBC, BBC, PBS, Discovery, and National Geographic. According to famed filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar), “more people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the places Jill Heinerth has gone right here on earth.”
And through it all, she’s held a love affair with this province since first setting foot on our windswept rock.
“Newfoundland’s like a second family for me,” she says. “It was 2013 when I rode my bicycle across Canada, finishing in Newfoundland. And it was the last province and territory that I had yet to visit as a Canadian. And I cannot believe I waited so late in my life. And now I’m in Newfordland a couple of times a year. There’s something about the rugged landscape that makes the most beautiful people who love and support each other. I just love it.”
Jill’s considerable expertise recently led her to accompany CBC’s The Nature of Things team to Newfoundland for an in-depth examination of the life and death of icebergs. The special, fittingly titled “The Berg,” traces the journey of one particular iceberg, from its stunning birthplace at the Eqi Glacier in southwestern Greenland, to its eventful resting place on our eastern shores.
Documenting the behemoths of the sea from land, air, and – chiefly related to Jill – from below the surface, “The Berg” sheds light on the ecosystem that exists around these magnets for marine life, while underscoring the dangers they can pose to the shipping industry and those who underestimate their immensity.
Jill’s dances with icebergs began some 25 years ago, when the ground she tread was considerably more virgin. Her then groundbreaking cave dives inside an iceberg in Antarctica in 2001 laid the groundwork for future underwater exploration.
“Nobody had ever done that before. And this just happened to be in the largest iceberg that we’ve ever seen on our planet,” she shares, noting that she’s had her fair share of close calls. “There’s no handbook for the first person to do something. So when you go down there, every day is new. And we soon learned there were a lot of risks. I had a doorway calve and close after I’d gone inside an iceberg. I had currents that suddenly turned and trapped us inside. There was so much that happened on those first dives down in Antarctica that it really opened my eyes to the risks of these bergs.”
Having led countless iceberg expeditions in the years since her historic dive, she’s more than qualified to point out that only experts should tango with these titans.
“I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that anyone go iceberg diving because it’s not safe. We do our best through experience to pick the safest possible scenario to get the images and data, but it’s really about getting in, getting out, staying safe and spending as little time close to the iceberg as possible. They can crack, break and roll. You don’t want anything to hit you on the head. They also like to rise up and down in the ocean, sometimes even piledriving into the sea floor. That creates currents that actually lift you and drop you, and all of that on top of the fact that the water is near freezing. It’s a lot going on.”
A self-described “adventurous, curious water baby,” Jill bucks the convention of everyday adventurers by applying an ultra-safe, risk-averse approach to her career.
“I like things that are termed impossible, and I like to problem solve and figure out how to do them as safely as I can, but I always think about risk, not just for myself, but because risk is messy, right? If something happens to me, it spills out on the community and the operation that took me diving and my husband, my family and everybody else. So I’m very clear about why I’m doing something, and whether it is worth it for the data that I will bring back, and how I can make it as safe as possible.”
Mitigating risk and uncertainty means equipping yourself with the right people, and Jill has quickly found a home base here in Newfoundland and Labrador with Ocean Quest Adventures.
“I mean, there are times that I say no to projects, not because I don’t want to go to a place or do a particular thing, but because the team’s not right. But I know every time I come to Newfoundland, and I hook up with Ocean Quest and Rick and Johnny, that they’ll make it right, they’ll keep us safe and do a real professional job,” she says, singing the praises of the Ocean Quest family and calling Rick Stanley, John Oliviero, Jason Sooley and co. her “second family.”
Beyond what scientists and spectators alike can see above the surface, icebergs are a sight to behold beneath the depths, a marriage that’s part geometric wonder and biological marvel.
“These things are sculpturally magnificent, both out of the water and under the water. I mean, we see the different layers, some clear, some white, some filled with dirt and things. The iceberg’s fizzing and it’s cracking, and it’s moaning, and it’s melting, so it’s very much alive. Then it’s enveloped by this like biological soup, plankton and all being fed by the minerals that are coming out of that melting ice. So it’s this sculptural thing, but it’s also this biological engine that’s sort of driving the life in the ocean,” Jill says.
“They’re dragging the minerals from the landscape, bringing them to the ocean, and they’re seeding little microscopic algae that are feeding everything up through the food chain. And that ice algae is gonna suck up carbon, it’s gonna make oxygen for us to breathe, and it’s going to feed the ocean. So these little things that we can’t even see without a microscope are so important to the health of the ocean.”
Today, fascination with icebergs is at an all-time high. Record numbers of tourists flocked to our shores this past summer, packing the Avalon and Iceberg Alley to catch a glimpse of these leviathans of the sea. But is the clock running out on one of our true natural wonders?
“I look at these icebergs, and they’re like an endangered species, you know? We may be living in an ice-free world in my lifetime,” Jill says somberly. “When I used to go to Greenland and see the ice coming off the glaciers there, the ice would tower above the landscape. And year upon year, as those glaciers have receded, the icebergs are getting smaller and smaller. So they might not make it all the way around to Newfoundland and Labrador eventually.”
And while we still have these icebergs gracing our shores, researchers and adventurers like Jill Heinerth will continue to collect data, research and capture them in their impressiveness. Though taking the plunge to swim with giants does not come without its share of anxieties, wrestling that fear is part of what it means to be truly alive.
“People think I’m fearless, and I’m not. I’m scared every time I go diving because I respect that I’m taking a risk, and I want to come home safely at the end of the day. And I step into that fear. I do so with the right backups and the right people around me, the right gear. But I’m still doing something that I’m kind of afraid of, but when I drop beneath the surface of the water, I leave those emotions topside, and I’ll come back to them later,” she shares.
“I hope that people don’t constantly run from fear. I hope they’re willing to step into the darkness, willing to do something new, to expand their mind and their experiences in this incredible world that we’re so lucky to be a part of.”
Watch The Berg on CBC’s The Nature of Things now on CBC Gem. For more on Jill Heinerth, visit intotheplanet.com
