An 18-member expedition team will accompany guests on the Seabourn Quest on all her voyages in Antarctica and Patagonia during the 2019-2020 season, according to a statement from the company.

The team comprises experienced wilderness experts, scientists, historians, Zodiac operators, kayak guides, and photographers.

“There is so much waiting to thrill Seabourn guests in Antarctica and Patagonia, and this season’s expedition team will be there with them heightening the excitement of every kayaking paddle stroke, Zodiac ride, and shore excursion along the way,” said Robin West, vice president of expedition operations for Seabourn.

Expedition team members will be part of the ship’s Seabourn Conversations program, and will interact with guests throughout each sailing, sharing insight and in-depth knowledge about the history, ecology and culture of the region.

Their insights are offered both in complimentary formal presentations on a variety of topics and in more casual conversations on deck, over meals or at leisure.

The expedition team includes Antarctic explorer Colin O’Brady, who in December 2018 became the first person ever to cross the landmass of Antarctica solo, unaided by kites or resupplies.

Other members include expedition leaders Ignacio “Iggy” Rojas and Chris Srigley; Professor Sean Todd Ph.D., who has been researching marine mammals for three decades andTrevor Potts, who in the early 1990s was on a team that re-created Ernest Shackleton’s epic 1916 rescue mission from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

Brent Houston, whose wildlife research has taken him on over 450 expeditions to 100 countries; Luciano “Luqui” Bernacchi, who has worked as a mountain, naturalist and birding guide throughout Argentina and Jennifer Fought, a structural geologist who has conducted research from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico to the glaciers of Greenland, will also be on board.

The team is completed by Dr. Saskia Coulson, photographer and videographer; Dr. Anton Wolfaardt, a conservation scientist; Will Wagstaff, who leads wildlife walks and works on expedition vessels in the Arctic and Antarctica and Kara Weller, a biologist raised in Alaska, who has been an expedition leader to remote locations for the past 15 years.