In 2025, a small red, white, and blue flag flew from the Western Flyer’s mast in the Gulf of California. It was Explorers Club Flag No. 226 — entrusted to our expedition as part of a century-long tradition of scientific exploration.
The flag was carried by Western Flyer Foundation Chair Tom Keffer, an Explorers Club member whose scientific career and leadership in ocean research made him an ideal candidate to lead the flag expedition. Membership in the Explorers Club is by invitation and nomination, and proposals to carry one of the Club’s numbered flags are reviewed through a formal application process before approval.
Since 1904, the Explorers Club has issued its numbered flags to expeditions that advance knowledge through field research. Carrying one is both an endorsement and a commitment: the work must matter.
Our Gulf expedition brought scientists, educators, students, and community partners back to waters explored by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts in 1940. We conducted intertidal biodiversity surveys, collected oceanographic data, and offered place-based education programs that reflect the Flyer’s enduring blend of science, story, and shared discovery.
Following each Flag Expedition, the expedition leader submits a formal report to the Explorers Club. Tom Keffer prepared and submitted the report for the Western Flyer expedition. Each year, only four or five reports are selected for special recognition in the printed Explorers Log, and we are honored to share that the Western Flyer’s 2025 Flag Report was among those chosen.
Over the past century, Explorers Club flags have traveled to the poles, into the deep ocean, and across remote landscapes in pursuit of understanding. Flag No. 226 now joins that lineage — carried aboard a 1937 fishing vessel still doing real work at sea.
Posted in Baja 2025, Blog