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(the following statement can be attributed to “The Explorers Club”)
All of us at The Explorers Club are heartbroken to learn that one of our newest members Ms. Karla Dana lost her life while on an expedition this week. She was part of a six-person international crew attempting to sail more than 500 nautical miles from The Faroe Islands to Norway to conduct research in honor of famed Viking navigator Naddodd. The crew’s Viking replica boat Naddoddur capsized in rough seas off Måløy, Norway Tuesday, August 27. The remaining crew, including Explorers Club member Andy Fitze, a Swiss skipper and the expedition leader, were taken to shore with no signs of physical injuries.
The Explorers Club sends its deepest condolences to Ms. Dana’s family and friends. We are in contact with her family and they shared that she was very proud to be a member of the club. May her memory be a blessing. Her pursuit of meaningful science to the betterment of humankind and her spirit of exploration will continue to inspire us.
“This brave Explorer left this planet entirely too early doing something she loved. It is a better world having had her in it. Continue to live boldly,” said Joseph Dituri, PhD, Chair of the Florida Chapter of The Explorers Club and the sponsor of Ms. Dana’s membership.
Important Biographical Information on Ms. Karla Dana
Karla Dana was a 29-year-old explorer and scholar from Mexico. She began her career at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley where, as a teenager, she co-founded a tech startup focused on restoring Wi-Fi connectivity in disaster-stricken regions, winning multiple international awards for her team‘s scientific innovation.
In her early 20s, Karla’s path took a turn from technology to cultural preservation. She immersed herself in cultures around the globe as an ethnographic field researcher.
Earlier this year, Ms. Dana presented her ethnographic field research on the Ngöbe Indigenous Tribe of Costa Rica to Chapter members at the Orlando Science Center. She spoke on the history of the Ngöbe and the current threats to their cultural survival. Her passion for her work culminated in a project to transcribe the first book to document the tribe’s ancestral stories and language. Hundreds of copies were printed and distributed to schools throughout their region to preserve their unique heritage.
In June, Ms. Dana began her graduate studies in Archeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland. As she finished her first excavation unearthing Iron Age Viking artifacts in the Orkneys, she shared, “I’m happy to say I’m living out my dreams.”
Karla Dana was one of the youngest members of The Explorers Club. She believed that exploration is not merely a pastime but a duty to push the bounds of human capability and contribute to our planet‘s cumulative knowledge.
The “Viking Voyage” expedition aimed to document speed, navigation, weather and human performance data with the six-person crew sailing more than 500 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands to Norway on a 10-meter, wooden double-masted vessel built in the Faroese rowboat tradition. The boat is named after Naddodd, the famous Norwegian Viking navigator from the late 8th century.
About The Explorers Club
Founded in 1904, The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary, professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration and resource conservation. Headquartered in New York City with a community of chapters and members around the world, The Explorers Club has been supporting scientific expeditions of all disciplines, uniting our members in the bonds of good fellowship for more than a century.
Header photo: Karla Dana and the expedition team at a community event in Suðuroy, the Faroe Islands on 19 August
