Page 37: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2019)

CRUISE SHIPPING • LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS

NOW 68 AND LIVING IN NEW

YORK CITY’S WEST VILLAGE,

SVEN LINDBLAD HAILS FROM

SWEDEN. EARLY ADULTHOOD

WAS IN KENYA WHERE HE

LIVED UNTIL FROM 1969 TO 1977. NATURE, WILD PLACES

AND PEOPLE WHO UNDER-

STOOD REAL SURVIVAL CHAL-

LENGES IN AFRICA SHAPED HIS

FORMATIVE YEARS.

Everything becomes a scale with positives and negatives, and when positives outweigh negatives, proceed with good conscience.”

Now 68 and living in New York City’s West Village,

Sven Lindblad hails from Sweden. Early adulthood was in Kenya where he lived until from 1969 to 1977. Nature, wild places and people who understood real survival challenges in Africa shaped his formative years.

A young Sven’s company was originally a division of his father’s enterprise, Lindblad Travel. It became inde- pendent a few years later. Now Lindblad Expeditions is an innovative travel company offering marine-focused expeditions aboard a ? eet of eight owned ships (nine in 2020) and ? ve chartered with over 70 itineraries.

“My father, Lars Lindblad, had a deep sense of conser- vation and believed there are new possibilities for human experience and understanding,” said Sven. “He built his business incorporating these values and was an acciden- tal entrant into the travel business, he wanted to explore the world. Of course, he is one of my great heroes, with what he did with Lindblad Travel.”

The renowned adventure-travel pioneer, Lars Lindblad, led the ? rst laymen traveler groups to the Galapagos,

Antarctica and other regions, all of which need careful care for future generations. “Think about coral reefs disappearing entirely, the whole food chain of the ocean interrupted and ceasing to function,” he said. “That’s scary, motivating stuff. The greatest wonder on earth are coral reefs. The temperature of the world is heating up, and our environment is threat- ened by that. Coral reefs depend on water temperatures that don’t rise above certain levels.”

Lindblad believes contributing to scienti? c knowledge and communicating are our assets; this allows us to help people interconnected in balance in a sacred place.

“We can’t be ostriches, can we?” said Lindblad. “I am not being pessimistic, I am realistic. We must be proac- tive and leave value. We must protect our asset and avoid destructive intrusion. A surfer doesn’t want to go to Bali and surf through plastic bags.”

Photo: David Vargas/Lindblad Expeditions www.marinelink.com 37

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