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Brad Rhees |
| A long time resident of Colorado and British Columbia studied in Business Administration. After 5 years working in a corporate environment he realized that his destiny was to be in an outdoor or recreational occupation. Brad met Lars Eric Lindblad, an innovative leader in the adventure travel business, where an agreement was struck between the two and he found himself working in Egypt, Galapagos, Amazon and Antarctica. |
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Brent Stephenson |
| Brent was born in New Zealand and has been a birder since childhood, and in 2005 completed his Ph.D., studying the breeding biology of Australasian gannets in New Zealand. In 2003, along with Sav Saville, co-owner of their bird-guiding business, he rediscovered the “extinct” New Zealand storm-petrel, a bird known previously from only three museum specimens collected during the 1800s. With support from National Geographic, he has been leading a team conducting further research on this enigmatic seabird. |
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Callum Thomson |
| Callum Thomson was brought up in the British Isles and spent his youth as a crofter, lobster fisherman, expert ditch digger and dairy farm manager before emulating his Highland Clearance forebears and clearing out to Canada. He somehow completed degrees in archaeology and anthropology at University of Calgary, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Bryn Mawr College and parlayed them, along with his expertise in ditch digging, into a job as Provincial Archaeologist for Newfoundland and Labrador and Curator at the Newfoundland Museum. |
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Chantal Cookson |
| Chantal was born in Suffolk and now lives in Northumberland where her husband farms. Chantal has been associated with Noble Caledonia since the company was founded in 1990, having worked for Serenissima Travel before. She was part of the Expedition Team for many years on the MS. Caledonia Star and has led tours, be it cruising or land, all over the world. Chantal’s initial experience of cruising in British waters was in 1990 when Noble Caledonia did the first cruise around the British Isles, which was a ground breaking voyage and led to a very successful and popular concept. |
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Cheli Larsen |
| Cheli Larsen has been involved for more than a dozen years full-time in the tourism and diving industry, both in her home country of New Zealand and internationally. Always popular with passengers and crew for her great enthusiasm, Cheli has worked aboard the Clipper Odyssey and other ships as Expedition Leader on many different voyages, and has travelled extensively throughout Alaska, Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, the Arctic, the South Pacific, and South America. A PADI Master Dive Instructor who also holds a Commercial Launchmaster Skippers Ticket, Cheli spent three years working on the Great Barrier Reef, first in Cairns, then at Heron Island Resort, where she worked in marine-turtle research. |
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Chris Harbard |
| Chris Harbard has travelled the world in search of birds, from his first trip abroad to Austria to far flung places like Antarctica, Greenland, Saudi Arabia (to monitor the effects of the Gulf War on birds), South Africa (to help penguins following the Treasure oil spill), Chile and Japan. He is a well-known British ornithologist and conservationist who lives in Cambridgeshire. |
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Colin Baird |
| Colin grew up on the west coast of Canada and developed a love for the sea at an early age, sailing and scuba diving the local waters off Vancouver Island. He spent 10 years as a marine mammal trainer working with seals, sea lions and orca (perhaps better known as Killer Whales). In 2002 he was hired by Jean Michel Cousteau as the director of field operations for the Free Willy/ Keiko Project in Iceland and Norway. This was and remains today the only attempt to release a previously captive orca back into the wild. |
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Dr. Ingrid Visser |
| Ingrid is a whale biologist who completed her doctorate studying orca-whales (killer whales). She is the only person to study these animals in the South Pacific and bases most of her research in her native country, New Zealand. Ingrid is one of the few people in the world to study orca underwater, and does this without backup support such as ‘shark cages’. She has worked with the internationally-renowned Discovery Channel to produce a documentary about her research as well as with various other film companies. Ingrid is an avid wildlife photographer and her work has been published in National Geographic and BBC Wildlife magazines. |
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Dr. Susan Currie |
| Susan was born and brought up in North East England but has lived for the last 24 years in Aberdeen in North-East Scotland. After obtaining her Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Exeter and a Doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge she was employed to work as a geologist in the oil and gas industry. As a senior geologist for the BP company her responsibilities included exploring for new oil and gas fields, developing existing fields, working offshore on oil rigs in the North Sea, and geological field studies in isolated areas on land. She has published papers in a number of academic journals. |
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Emily Schindler |
| Emily is a Canadian businesswoman with a wide range of interests, starting in the business world as an engineer and later owning and managing a software development company. Even as a young child growing up in Switzerland she showed an unusual desire to explore nature and later became an avid rock and ice climber, skier, mountaineer, sailor and long-distance runner. She has skied and sled-hauled on a North Magnetic Pole Expedition, a South Pole Expedition and also guides clients on ski and sled hauling expeditions across Baffin Island. |
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Geraldine “JD” Massyn |
| From Pretoria, South Africa, JD was studying law at the University of Pretoria when she accepted her first contract aboard a cruise ship. Having spent the last 18 years working in diverse roles aboard ships, she now specializes in Expedition travel as expedition leader, cruise director, dive master and zodiac driver, leading select passenger groups to the most remote locations on the globe. The polar regions are strong favourites, with a growing passion for the tropics. JD is a highly disciplined, enthusiastic and gregarious team member and someone who enjoys sharing her skills in these areas. |
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Graham Bell |
| Graham Bell is a well-known British ornithologist living in Wooler, Northumberland, in north-east England. Educated at Manchester Grammar School and Durham University, he graduated with Honours in French and English, later gaining a Diploma in Education and pursuing a career in teaching. But his chief interest has always been natural history, with birds paramount. Formerly County Bird Recorder for North-East England and editor of three annual County Bird Reports, he was a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee for 14 years and of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Council, Conservation and Education Committees. |
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Guy Esparon |
| Guy Esparon was born in the Seychelles and migrated to Australia in 1971, where he spent 30 years living between many of Australia’s cities and the outback. However, his heart never left the Seychelles. Guy lived his dream when he worked on the Aldabra World Heritage Site as Chief Warden. He has an incredible passion and love for Aldabra. He has worked on various expedition ships calling at the Seychelles, and has shared his love for nature and Aldabra with those fortunate enough to visit |
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Ian Bullock |
| Ian Bullock is a British biologist who lives in St.Davids, Pembrokeshire, on the south-western seaboard of Wales. Since 1978 he has specialised in seabird surveys, habitat management for endangered species and the conservation of remote island nature reserves. For 25 years he worked for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as both research biologist and warden, establishing new reserves for conservation and managing offshore islands. In spare moments since 1990 he has worked as guide and lecturer on board expedition ships in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as Arctic and Antarctic environments. He loves the sea, wildlife and wilderness and relishes any opportunity to share this enthusiasm with fellow adventurers. |
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James Thomson |
| James William Stuart Thomson is named for the first and only all-steel sailing schooner constructed in Canada. The James William, built by J. W. Carmichael, three-masted and 399 metric tons, was launched at New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1908, effectively presaging Jimmy’s own launch into the cruise industry only 102 years later. |
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Jane Thomson |
| A Nova Scotian “Bluenose”, Jane Sproull Thomson grew up by the sea, learning to swim perforce when her dad threw her off the family sailboat. Passionate about art but lacking in talent, she became one of those who teaches rather than does, writing and lecturing on cultural history, archaeology and art history to museum, university and avocational groups. Until recently she was professor of Inuit and native art and culture at the University of Calgary, and is a former curator for the Glenbow, Newfoundland and Red Deer College Museums. |
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Jane Wilson |
| Jane was born and raised in Australia. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Science and then a Master of Environmental Studies. She worked for the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service for the following 15 years until she was bitten by the Antarctic bug. For several years Jane worked in remote field camps in Antarctica as a wildlife research scientist, specialising in the ecology of seabirds, including several petrel and penguin species. This coincided with the boom in expedition cruising and Antarctic tourism in the late 1990s. |
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Jannie Cloete |
| Jannie, a native South African, grew up on a farm in the beautiful Mpumalanga Province. After obtaining a degree in Advertising and Public Relations, Jannie traveled extensively throughout Europe before returning home to pursue a career on land. During this time he met up with two cruise line entrepreneurs based in Israel and joined their company as Public Relations Officer. It was during his first cruise season sailing around South Africa and the remote islands of the Indian Ocean that he found his sea legs - and his calling. |
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Jarda Versloot |
| Jarda was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and resides in South Africa. In neither country she spends too much time as she has been working full time on ships for the last six years. She said farewell to Holland at the age of 18 and left this small country to explore the world. During her travels she discovered her love for the ocean. |
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John Love |
| Born in Inverness, John Love graduated in zoology at Aberdeen University. In 1975 he went to live on the Isle of Rum where he managed a highly successful project to reintroduce the white-tailed sea eagle. While he remains involved with birds of prey, seabirds are another passion. For over forty years he has been cruising the Hebrides and visiting remote islands but in that time he has also travelled extensively throughout the world, from Arctic Norway to the Antarctic, and from India and Africa to the Galapagos. |
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Juan Carlos Restrepo |
| Juan was born in Manizales, a coffee growing city in the Colombian Andes. At a tender age he was initiated in the boating world. Later on he obtained his Masters degree in Geology from the Universidad de Caldas in Colombia. His thesis project was related to coastal geomorphology and digital mapping in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. He left his comfort zone in January 2002 and traveled non-stop around the world for four and a half years, the last of which, he did on a motorcycle across 2 continents. During his time abroad he worked on board of different sailing passenger vessels, organizing Scuba Diving, Water Sports activities and Shore Excursions for guests. |
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Kit Van Wagner |
| Kit Van Wagner grew up in Japan, Norway, England, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Experiencing life in these diverse places fostered in her a curiosity about the natural world from an early age. After earning a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont, she journeyed south spending several years as a backcountry kayak and sailing guide, and as a marine science educator in the Florida Keys. While living in the Keys, Kit obtained her USCG Captain's license and scuba instructor rating. |
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Laurie Dexter |
| Laurie is an extreme athlete whose feats include skiing for 91 days from Russia to Canada through the Geographic North Pole, skiing and sled hauling to the South Pole, traversing the ice caps of Greenland, Baffin Island, and King George Island in Antarctica, and numerous other polar region expeditions. As a runner he also goes to extremes, including having run 100 km in 8 hours, over 200 km in 24 hours, 600 km in 6 days, and 10 marathons in 10 days. He is also a mountaineer and has made numerous first ascents in the Arctic and in recent years has climbed a number of mountains in the Swiss Alps including the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc. |
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Lori Gross |
| Inspired by the natural world and her love of travel, Lori Gross has spent over 15 years sharing her knowledge of marine and environmental science with others through experiential education, ecotourism and photography. Her work on expedition ships as a lecturer and zodiac driver has taken her to both the tropics and the poles. In 2001, Lori founded a non-profit organization specializing in interactive museum exhibit design and international ECO Journeys programs for students. Lori also works as a consultant for schools in curriculum design, program evaluation and teacher training. |
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Louis Justin |
| Louis was born and grew up in Normandy. He has a keen interest in history and the sciences of the Earth, geophysics, geology and geography; he always enjoys discovering nature’s remote wildernesses and encountering the world’s great civilisations, past and present. This interest led him to leave Europe upon graduating from a Masters Degree and seek employment overseas. He spent four years working and completing his studies in Australia and New Zealand, taking every opportunity to thoroughly explore these countries as well as other South-Pacific lands and islands, from the deserts and volcanoes of the South American Andes to those of Polynesia, Melanesia and the Australian Outback |
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Mark Brazil |
| Mark developed his fascination with the natural world, especially birds, during his boyhood in the landlocked English county of Worcestershire.He then pursued his academic interests in biology during studies in England and then Scotland, while exploring the coasts and mountains of Britain in search of birds. Mark earned his Ph.D. from Stirling University, Scotland, for his work on avian ecology and behavior in Iceland. |
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Martin Enckell |
| After learning that his father worked for Jacques-Yves Cousteau aboard the famous ship Calypso, Swedish-born Martin Enckell insisted on learning to dive right away. His training started at the age of 12 with Israeli navy divers in the Red sea, and since that time he has successfully combined his love of travel with his love of nature. Martin began his career at sea 15 years ago and has been on the move since then, having stood at the Geographical North Pole 7 times, spent long over a year in the Drake Passage, 10 Austral summers in the Antarctic, and crossed the Antarctic Circle several times. |
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Michael Moore |
| A Chicago native, Mike earned both his B.S. in biology and an M.S. degree in Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution at the University of Illinois. Since then he has spent 10 years doing research around the Pacific Rim, studying endangered honey creepers in Hawaii, native hens in Tasmania, and everything from pythons to wallabies in Northern Queensland. He has lived in the Highlands of New Guinea, logged hundreds of hours beneath its waters working for conservation organizations, taught field biology courses for the University of PNG, and is working on the second edition of the field guide, Birds of New Guinea. |
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Mike Murphy |
| Mike was born on the Isle of Wight, England, and raised in Southampton, his home, just a stone’s throw from the once proud and largest passenger ship terminal in the world. He joined his first ship at 22 and spent almost the next 40 years at sea, both sailing its surface and exploring the colourful depths below. His travels have taken him to most countries around the world; he has dived in almost every sea, and worked as expeditionary staff and cruise director on both small and large luxury cruise liners. Sailing the icy, spectacular waters of Alaska and Antarctica, to the emerald seas of the South Pacific and beyond. |
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Niall Johnson |
| Niall belongs to the Isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Formerly a college lecturer he returned to these islands in 1992 to establish his own adventure training centre. A highly respected outdoor professional, Niall has pioneered adventure training in the Outer Hebrides and his knowledge and skills are sought all over the world. |
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Noreen Haukland |
| Noreen hails from Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in speech communication. Shortly after graduation she embarked on a career in the travel industry and hasn’t looked back. Over the last 10 years she has worked on a variety of expedition vessels in various capacities, including cruise director, expedition leader and Zodiac driver, and has led varied groups of travellers to all 7 continents and over 50 countries, including the Russian Far East and Alaska, the Antarctic and South and Central America. |
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Olle Carlsson |
| Olle was born in Sweden and is currently lives there. Formerly a teacher, he left the profession in order to write, photograph, play jazz and travel. He has travelled extensively in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, including the Northwest Passage, Greenland and Svalbard. Since 1991 he has spent the northern winter seasons in his favourite area: Antarctica, sharing the migration route of the Arctic tern, always heading for summer, in the North as in the South. In Antarctica he has been an expedition leader, naturalist and lecturer for different companies |
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Pamela Le Noury |
| Pam comes from Durban in South Africa, where she owns a marine ecotourism business. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in zoology and physiology at the University of South Africa. The last 10 years she has been in or on the ocean just about every day, in the capacity of scuba diving instructor, skipper, marine guide or scientist. She has also been involved in many marine research cruises and projects, and documentary film productions. |
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Pete Raine |
| Pete is a lifelong naturalist, and an experienced lecturer, writer and broadcaster. He enjoys sharing his experience and passion about birds, plants, insects, and about the history of the planet and the forces that have made our wildlife what it is. After an early career as a chartered accountant in the 1970’s, Pete’s work has always revolved around the environment. He worked for Friends of the Earth from 1976 to 1979, and was Director of the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth from 1980 to 1986. |
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Peter Crawford |
| Peter Crawford has made many prestigious and award-winning documentaries and television series for the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit. Many of his films and programmes have been screened internationally by major broadcasters such as WNET New York and the USA PBS network, NHK Japan, ABC Australia and by most European countries. He is also a successful writer and photographer with several books and many published photographs and articles to his credit. He was recently appointed Honorary Visiting Professor at Exeter University. His special area of interest is the Pacific Ocean and the islands of Polynesia. |
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Peter Nowogrodzki |
| A native of upstate New York, Peter has been working at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology researching flight performance in tree swallows and participating as a field researcher in the Golondrinas de las Americas Project, which studies the swallow genus Tachycineta from Alaska to Argentina. After graduating from Oberlin College, with double majors in Cinema Studies and Biology, he spent time producing "Downtown Birds", a documentary about resident peregrine falcons in Cleveland, Ohio. |
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Richard Price |
| A childhood interest in biology led Rick into a ten year career working as a marine biologist for the British Antarctic Survey. He spent five winters and eight summers on the British station on Signy Island, two as the winter station commander. For this service he was awarded the Polar Medal by HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace in 1988. In 1987 he left science behind and pursued and is still pursuing a career as a wildlife cameraman, specialising in underwater and polar filming. |
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Robin L. Aiello |
| Robin Aiello has spent most of her life on, and in, the oceans of the world. It is her passion. Growing up along the New England coast of the USA, she learned to scuba dive with her family in 1974. Her love for the underwater world led her to Harvard University, where she studied with the famous palaeontologist, Professor Steven J. Gould and graduated in 1984 with highest honours in Evolutionary Biology (Palaeontology) and Geological Sciences |
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Robin West |
| Robin was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has German Nationality and from time to time resides in Holland, however spends very little time in any of these countries since working on Expedition ships. After completing his degree in Human Movement Science he opened up two PADI dive Centres coupled with outdoor adventure companies in the Garden Route. With his passion of the outdoors combined with his great love for the ocean, he decided to work full time on Expedition Ships. |
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Roger Lovegrove |
| Roger Lovegrove is a native of Devon, born in 1935. Initially a school teacher, he taught physical education in Sussex and Mid Wales for twelve years before joining the staff of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as its Director for Wales. He worked in this post for 27 years, developing it from a one-man office to a permanent workforce of over 50 and seeing it regarded as a major environmental force in Wales. He retired in 1997. |
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Sally Escanilla |
| Originally from central England, Sally has completed a B.A. in Modern Languages at Bradford University in West Yorkshire before emigrating “down under. Since moving to New Zealand seventeen years ago she has been able to fulfill this ambition; gradually earning her sea legs across many nautical miles from Antarctica to the Amazon River, Alaska and the High Arctic. Initially cruising amongst the stunning fjords and sub-Antarctic islands of New Zealand, it was a chance encounter in 1998 which led to an invitation to join a small Russian vessel heading to the Ross Sea of Antarctica. Undeterred by many crossings of the infamous Southern Ocean, Sally has served in many different roles over the years, Deck Hand, Shop Manager, Chief Purser, Cruise Director, Zodiac Driver and even Cook from time to time. |
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Sarah Dwyer |
| Originally from the UK, Sarah has completed a BSc in Marine and Environmental Biology at St Andrews University in Scotland. Since then she has worked as a Whale Watch Guide on the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland and in Kaikoura, New Zealand where Sarah now lives. She has spent time volunteering for the Orca Research Trust and had the opportunity to travel to Papua New Guinea on expedition with Dr Ingrid Visser and Jean-Michel Cousteau. |
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Stuart Burmeister |
| Stuart’s home is in Durban, South Africa. He grew up literally in the wilds of Africa and has a good knowledge of the indigenous people and regions of many African countries. His maritime background has covered sea rescue search and recovery operations, sailing and power boating. His qualifications cover all power vessels from a Zodiac to a class six craft over 200 tonnes. |
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Sue Flood |
| Sue Flood is a freelance professional photographer and wildlife filmmaker. After 11 years with the BBC Natural History Unit, working on series such as The Blue Planet and Planet Earth and Disneynature's movie 'Earth' she turned freelance in 2005. Sue has a degree in zoology and was Assistant Producer on The Blue Planet, working on amazing sequences such as killer whales hunting gray whales in California, Polar Bears stalking Beluga Whales in the High Arctic (both filmed for the first time), and glow-in-the-dark Squid in Japan. |
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Susan Adie |
| Susan is a graduate of Cornell University, where among other projects she wrote and presented a radio program on bird biology while a student there. For 30 years she has been exploring and guiding in the remote corners of the earth. In her early years she guided trips and trained teachers for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. |
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