Hobby LAB Expedition Recap
What: Hobby LAB Expedition
Who: Sixteen multidisciplinary, multigenerational women
Where: Arctic Norway, leaving from Tromso
When: November 2025
Why: Honoring Louise Arner Boyd, observing and recording orca and humpback whales
For six unforgettable days aboard the Polarfront with Waterproof Expeditions, our Arctic Norway journey unfolded beneath soft winter light and towering snow-covered fjords, where science, storytelling, and adventure merged into something truly extraordinary.
Our expedition brought together sixteen remarkable women from backgrounds spanning education, writing, research, conservation, and media, each united by a shared curiosity for the ocean and its wild inhabitants. In honor of pioneering polar explorer Louise Arner Boyd and her beloved vessel The Hobby, we followed in the spirit of her fearless expeditions into the Arctic, carrying forward her legacy of exploration, discovery, and female leadership in some of the world’s most remote waters.
Between moments spent excitedly scanning the horizon for dorsal fins and slipping into the icy sea alongside pods of North Atlantic orcas, we immersed ourselves in daily educational presentations that deepened our understanding of the region—from the extraordinary life and expeditions of Louise Arner Boyd, to workshops on using the Happy Whale identification platform, to in-depth lessons on Norwegian orca populations, feeding behaviors, and Arctic marine ecology.
Born and raised by the waves in San Diego, Megan Hanna is a wildly enthusiastic marine biologist and green sea turtle telemetry nerd with a heart permanently tethered to the ocean. Fueled by adventure, exploration, and a deep love for citizen science and photo ID, Megan designs marine research and monitoring projects with curiosity, kindness, and an unapologetically nerdy passion for the wonders of the worlds oceans—especially sea turtles. 🌊🐢
Guided by the whimsical calls captured through our hydrophones, we witnessed orcas moving through the fjords in synchronized carousel-feeding formations beneath massive shimmering schools of Atlantic herring, while breaching Atlantic humpback whales erupted from the dark Arctic waters around us in breathtaking displays of power and grace.
We collected underwater acoustic recordings to preserve the hidden soundscape of the Arctic—clicks, whistles, distant whale songs, and the profound silence between them. These passive acoustic recordings are the core of our citizen science efforts.
Yet beyond the science, this expedition became a story of resilience, wonder, and connection: women gathered at the edge of the world, sharing knowledge and courage while experiencing one of the last truly wild places on Earth.
