B.C. man wins inaugural Mohn prize for Arctic research

Eddie Carmack was onboard the Canadian icebreaker, CCGS Louis. St. Laurent — one of the first two North American ships to reach the North Pole on Aug. 22, 1994.

Carmack, a senior research scientist emeritus for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, has been studying the Arctic for five decades and now is being honoured with the inaugural Mohn prize for outstanding research, presented by the Arctic University of Norway.

"Of course it feels very, very good … It's a lifetime achievement type award, and I've had a lifetime working with really amazing, wonderful people. Colleagues who have become friends, memories that I'll never forget," said Carmack, who is from Sidney, B.C.

Carmack will share the award with the scientific team that authored the book The Meaning of Ice.

The prize, which is worth approximately $319,000, will be presented during a ceremony Jan. 22 in Tromso, Norway.

Carmack has been named in the award as "the most influential and cited oceanographer at work in the Arctic Ocean."

The selection committee recognized Carmack for leading the development of a unifying pan-Arctic perspective on concepts and theories, including Arctic ecosystems.

Carmack shared his memories of first working in the Arctic on CBC's All Points West.

"At that time, the general picture of the Arctic was remote, and it was pristine, and really not connected to the rest of the planet. It was a place to go for adventure," said Carmack.

"Now, if you've come forward 50 years almost, or five decades, it's still a place to go for an adventure, but we now know it's not pristine, it is changing rapidly," he said.

He says with the loss of sea ice the Arctic is changing twice as fast as any part of the planet, and becoming the leading signal of climate change.

Carmack says these developments are creating an appreciation that the Arctic is a crucial ecosystem.

"It's a place where we need to experiment with new policies to maintain what is there as best as possible as it changes to support its resilience," he said.

After receiving the prize, Carmack will be heading out on his 96th expedition, which will take him to the North West Passage to study how the transfer of heat and nutrients from tides and rivers affects sea ice melt.

With files from CBC's All Points West