Changes in Latitudes

Tonight Pancho and I are flying to Oslo. Pancho will stay with Rigmor while I work in Tromsø tagging herring. Fingers crossed that he is ok this time around on the plane! I have been in touch with my colleagues a bit about this "tokt" because I have never tagged fish before, and I have been told that it is very different working conditions from a normal survey ("tokt"). We are sleeping on a 50 ft. sailboat that is attached to a floating platform where we will work from. Out in the elements! It is around freezing temperatures with a little wind, rain and snow; so, I've been well informed to bring lots of wool. Four of my colleagues have been up there since November 21st, and as of a couple of days ago they just had their first shower. One of them said that it is pretty cool the first night, but from day to onward it is pretty tight in the boat and comparable to camping. It isn't possible to wash clothes, but at the same time I was told not to bring too...

I will be heading back out on survey ("tokt") on December 1st working from a floating dock near Tromsø to mark herring. But since my last excursion I've been at the office learning how to age fish using otoliths or scales. Right now I'm being taught about Norwegian Spring Spawning herring (the most economically valuable fish that we study). Thought I'd share some pictures. [A few scales from a particular area on the fish are removed when we do the normal sampling, and are cleaned before they are placed on the slides] [Cleaned scales going on the microscope slide] [How the scales look under the microscope. This fish is 12 year old] [7 year old fish]

I have made friends from all over the world, and their voices on facebook were that of fear, despair and shock. I thought I'd share here what they all said this morning when we woke up to the disturbing news. ..Norwegians are just telling me to look forward to Christmas and just stay in Norway a little longer haha! New Zealand Disappointed and gutted.... feel like getting into a huddle, In need a pep talk 2016 -The year where people made decisions and woke up to regret them the next day. Oh shit America... I can't sit by silently. I'm devastated, like so many of my colleagues. That in this day and age: lying, corruption, sexism, racism and so many other things can be seen as okay. Its 2016 for heavens sake! This election thing is getting scary very quickly. It's times like these, we can truely appreciate living in little New Zealand. The nightmare is becoming reality...... Well when he ignores Climate Change Florida will be first to go. Am thinking t...