Portsmouth Woman Headed For Arctic Circle On Science Expedition

PORTSMOUTH, RI—Just as many Rhode Islanders are bracing for a nor'easter possible later this week, a Portsmouth woman is planning a trip in the opposite direction. Breezy Grenier is headed for the Arctic Circle as part of a scientific expedition.

"I am a member of the Sedna Epic Expedition as an ocean science educator," she told Patch. "We are an all-female, multi-year underwater project—involving the study of climate change via snorkeling and diving—that takes places in Canada’s High Arctic. The Sedna Epic involves an international team of women ocean professionals working with Inuit and Inuvialuit girls and young women in the Arctic with a focus on health, wellness, environment and empowerment issues."

When she leaves Aug. 4 with the expedition, she will be making her third trip to the Arctic Circle. The first happened in November 2007 when she was stationed with Coast Guard. In July 2016, she went to the North Pole. A year or so later (December 2017) she was graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor's degree in Geology and Geological Oceanography, and minor concentrations in Marine Biology and Underwater Archaeology. Towards the end of her studies at URI, she met Susan Eaton, the woman who started the Sedna Expedition. Eaton was looking for seawomen to help investigate disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.

Based on her two previous trips, Grenier can confirm the ice is "disappearing at an exponential rate." She also feels the changes have put stress on the wildlife there.

"They don't look as healthy," she said.

This trip will combine a study of climate change with cultural outreach to the Inuit, the indigenous people who have lived in the Arctic Circle for thousands of years, she said. They'll be teaching the Inuit about ecotourism, as well as snorkeling. Expedition members have to pay their own way, so Grenier has started a Go Fund Me page. She hopes to raise $15,000.

Grenier grew up in Sherman, Conn., and came to Rhode Island in the summer of 2005 to work on Block Island. Her friends in Connecticut told her about summer jobs. She's worked there seasonally 14 years, first at Old Harbor Bike Shop and then as dock master at Ballads Marina on Block Island. But in between she signed up with Coast Guard and was stationed in Homer, Alaska; Petaluma, California; Rockland, Maine with temporary assignments in Burlington, Vermont and New London, Connecticut.

She still spends time in Sherman because her ailing mother is there. But her home now is Portsmouth, with husband Mark Mollicone, an engineering teacher at Portsmouth High. She met him on the last high speed ferry from Block Island back to Galilee in August 2015.

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