Three weeks on the Barents Sea

A very delayed post, but I have been super busy since getting back to work!! So I apologize in advance for a poor post.

For the third year in a row I have traveled to Svalbard to start out on a three week tokt in the Barents Sea. This year was my favorite yet because of several reasons (see below), but it makes a HUGE difference to be put on day shift (6AM-12PM, 6PM-12AM) as opposed to night shift.

Here are a few highlights...

Longyearbyen, Svalbard

Research Vessel "Johan Hjort" - home for 23 days
We were delayed the start of the tokt, so we enjoyed a night out getting to know our colleagues and crew in Longyearbyen. And when we set out we had some nice views of the landscape...



Capelin / Lodde - target species for this leg of the Barents Sea Ecosystem Survey
These two were the largest individuals (20cm and 60g) - not very big fish, but a key species.


Deep Vision: A camera box attached to the mouth of the trawl which takes pictures of fish entering the trawl.


Vortekjeks / another type of lumpfish. In the summer we catch the green/grey ones called "rognkjeks"


Fish eggs found in a bottom trawl catch

A seagull party outside the boat waiting for us to toss sampled fish

And I got to finally see "Snowflake" the super rare albino humpback




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