Changes in Latitudes

It has been months since I last posted, and it's been pretty busy lately. But I thought I'd recap my last survey for the year - the Barents Sea Ecosystem Survey. I was on this survey last year, but this year was a different set up. We had pelagic and bottom trawls on the same boat. Last year, the pelagic trawls were done on one boat, and bottom trawls on another. The target species for the pelagic trawls is capelin ("lodde" in Norwegian). We started out from Longyearbyen, Svalbard on September 13th and the sky was blue, but the wind was really strong. We boarded R/V Johan Hjort after a few hours in town. Taxes are reduced on Svalbard, so people like to shop for outerwear, tobacco and alcohol. Longyearbyen I had night shift and we worked 6 hours on 6 hours off for three weeks. It was tiresome and hard work. We had fish coming on deck almost constantly and I nearly passed out again, but now I know the symptoms when they come and I lay on the floor until ...

I have been volunteering for Greenpeace Norway since March, and I haven't really gotten into any campaigns until this summer. The campaign is called Act for Arctic. It is the first campaign Greenpeace has handed over to the community, and I really enjoy it. A declaration was written asking Arctic region countries to take action to protect the Arctic, since currently there are no laws prohibiting destructive activities. We are getting influential people to sign the declaration, which will be taken to the embassies of Arctic nations at the end of September. Our goal is 1500 signatories, and so far we are just over 700. I am proud to say that I have signed up eight relatively high-profile people. Bart Yasso - Chief Running Officer at Runner's World Magazine Eric Philips - Polar Adventurer Aleksander Gamme - Polar Adventurer Kikkan Randall - Olympic cross-country skier Andy Newell - Olympic cross-country skier Dean Karnazes - Ultra marathon runner Steve O'Shea -...