UNDER THE ICE

A Story Of Extreme Citizen Science

Algae communities that are key to understanding the health of our lakes were recently discovered living on ice ceilings in the winter months. Very few samples have been collected due to the challenging nature of accessing the ice ceilings. Scientists are hungry for these samples because the window to understand what’s going on down there is closing: each winter there is less ice coverage on freshwater lakes and we are losing the opportunity to understand how important ice coverage is for the health of freshwater lakes before that ice disappears forever as a result of a warming planet.

With support from the Trebek Initiative, National Geographic and Canadian Geographic, Andrew Budziak is creating a documentary that follows an elite team of ice divers in the Kenora region as they enter some of the most hostile environments on the planet to collect winter algae samples which will provide crucial information about the future of our planet’s freshwater. Through breathtaking underwater cinematography, fascinating characters and easily digestible science, Andrew’s documentary will tell the story of citizen science at its most extreme and perhaps most important.