Explorers Club member and Miami ophthalmologist Stan Spielman treats the Amazon's Cat People. Photo / Margaretha Spielman

On March 13 the Southern Florida chapter of The Explorers Club will hold its next monthly meeting in Fort Lauderdale. Chapter members Casey McKinlay and Jarrod Jablonski will give a presentation titled “Exploring the Flooded Cave Systems of San Men Hai, Guangxi Province, China.”

At the invitation of the Chinese Government, the multinational Global Underwater Explorers team recently completed its fourth expedition to the remote karst region of south-central China. The GUE team included Jablonski and McKinlay plus Australia chapter member Steve Trewavas.

According to an e-mail from chapter secretary Beth Jones, “Their mission was to explore, map and unlock the underwater mysteries of San Men Hai, which is located within the massive Fengshan Karst National Geopark.”

“The mysterious underwater rivers, world-renowned dry caves and breathtaking pinnacle karst landscape presented formidable logistical challenges for the GUE team as they worked to physically connect the massive, flooded underwater cave systems, map the flooded chambers and gather water-quality and water-flow data in an effort to support the Chinese government’s pursuit of UNESCO World Heritage site designation in addition to baseline measurements necessary for future protection of these unique and vulnerable natural resources.”

The Explorers Club, founded in 1904, is an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its inception the club, which is headquartered in New York, has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide. The club’s members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts, such as first to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the moon.

To RSVP for the March event at Tropical Acres Steakhouse, e-mail Beth Jones. The cost is $32. A cash bar opens at 5:30 p.m. and dinner is served at 6:30 p.m. with the lecture to follow.