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REPULSE BAY - A Repulse Bay student has embarked on an adventure with a message aboard the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition.

This week, Tusarvik school's Devin Aviugana can be found somewhere between Reykjavik, Iceland, the southern tip of Greenland, and Iqaluit, on research vessel the MV Akademik Shokalskiy.

Repulse Bay students Devin Aviugana and Lee-Ann Tungilik are both taking part in the Cape Farewell expedition. Although passport problems kept Tungilik from travelling on the research ship, she will attend a conference in Ontario later this fall. Aviugana, who was chosen as Tungilik's alternate, is currently somewhere off the coast of Greenland aboard a research vessel. - photo courtesy of Leonie Aissaoui

He's one of 16 Canadians chosen by the British Council and British charity Cape Farewell to take part in the international climate change project. The Canadian contingent will join other youth from Brazil, Germany, India, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

"I'm a bit nervous about it because I'm not sure if I'll be seasick, but I'm more excited about everything - sleeping on a ship, doing scientific experiments, and stopping on land in different places," said Aviugana, shortly before departing.

After a week of training in Toronto, he and the other expedition members boarded the ship on Sept. 7 in Iceland. They will arrive in Iqaluit by Sept. 20.

The youth will complete a number of science projects on topics like climatology and oceanography, as well as some creative pursuits.

The youth will also be developing art projects like film and drama with the common theme of climate change.

Climate change is a topic Aviugana said he has experienced firsthand, living in the Arctic.

"It's getting hotter, and usually the ice always drifts away, but this year it just melted right in the bay," he said.

He and a group of his fellow students at Tusarvik school have been actively working on related issues with their environment club, called EARTH - Every Act Reduces the Heat.

"We've been helping to clean and do stuff at school like save energy, and we ask the community to help by turning out the lights to save energy," said EARTH member Lee-Ann Tungilik.

The group has also been collecting pop cans, which they plan to crush and make into an inuksuk as a symbol of the need for environmental action.

Tungilik had been initially chosen to go on the Cape Farewell expedition, but Aviugana went as her alternate when Tungilik's passport didn't arrive on time.

She will now have the opportunity to attend a conference in Ontario later this fall to discuss climate change and other environmental issues.

Throughout the expedition, Aviugana will be keeping in contact with the group online with video and blogging.

"Everybody here will be contributing daily with climate change information to the Cape Farewell website and conversing with him," said teacher Jeremy Chippett. "He's going to return to the club with as much information as possible. These kids, they've been passively watching climate change happen, seeing the ice become unsafe in places where it previously was. Now they're getting more into the issue."