Changes in Latitudes

The route my boat is taking is the green line. After three years I'm back at the Institute of Marine Research (Havforskningsinstiuttet) on the summer ecosystem survey on the hunt for mackerel in the Norwegian Sea. It was hard at first because I had to leave two days before Mom and Dad left Bergen. And since I had to leave before they did it made it a little hard to be excited to work on the boat again. The view from my tiny plane. I flew from Bergen to Stokmarknes (near Lofoten) with my colleagues. From Bodø to Stokmarknes we were transported in a tiny plane that was so small we weren't even assigned seats. The ticket just said "free seating" - a first for me. The views from the plane were great! When we got there we got to the boats and met the others who were continuing the survey. The institute hired two commercial fishing boats for the survey, and mine is called M. Ytterstad. These boats make living and working at sea very comfortable. There is a ...

Work is going fine. My boss has given me some lab activities to keep me interested in my work, so I'm testing antibodies. The positive control turned out as expected, but it is such a pretty staining that I have to share the picture. This is an embryo of a starlet sea anemone ( Nematostella sp.) approximately 30 hours old. The green is actin (a protein in cell walls), the blue is nuclei, and the red/pink is clusters of DNA. There are some pretty examples of cell division in this embryo! Also, as of a couple weeks ago I'm officially a published scientist! ....well, the paper has been accepted for publication, so it will likely not be in the journal before next year. The journal is called ICES Journal of Marine Science. Furthermore, this weekend the mountains got a nice thick layer of snow, so I took Pancho up for his first time in a proper bit  of snow (not counting the icy leftovers that were on Jutenheimen this summer). He's now 6 months old and weighs bout 34...

Long day of talks, some very interesting an others not really my interest, but Marius arrived Thursday night. My talk was on Friday, the last day of the conference. I was nervous because the room was massive. I tried to keep it shorter than 15 minutes for any questions but there were none. Another recent Master grad also wasn't asked questions, so we believe the older guys perhaps didn't want to scare us -- and it was also the last day of the conference.  The weather was very nice on Friday, so Marius and I walked around the coty a little bit before the log walk to a hostel I booked for the weekend. Glad I took part in the conference as it was a valuable experience and was able to make some contacts at NOAA. I was also told that my talk was a highlight for one pf the sessions :)

Wednesday began with my 7am scandinavian high carb breakfast (all they eat is bread), and was followed by a talk by keynote speaker Doug Butterworth from South Africa. He talked fishery quotas in terms of a bank account.  I left earlier to explore the shops while they were open. Bought myself some Icelandic wool yarn - maybe for a nice pair of socks? After I took a 10km joggig trip around the city to find the spots for Marius and I to see the next couple of days. It was great! And finished the night with a pizza that was called the Americana but with ground lamb meat! Not a very nice taste for pizza.  --> "I don't speak Icelandic" -->yarn! --> the old harbor --> best view of the city --> interesting fellow

Today I sat in a session that is called Responses of living organisms to climate change and variability. It sounds very interesting, and some of it is...but I don't know how many more abbreviations I can remember for these talks using models.  Guess I should write these things down ... --> 8am walk to Harpa

Photos from my first 2 hours in Reykjavik --> "The Sun Voyager" statue by the harbor --> Harpa Conference center  --> inside Harpa, waiting for the session on marine litter --> I may as well be a Norwegian

I flew to Reykjavik this morning for the long anticipated ICES Annual Science Conference. I will not present until Friday, but I'm looking forward to the talks and hope to make connections for potential employment.  It is about 50 degrees F and overcast, but looking out I can see clear blue sky to the north. Marius will join me on Thursday and listen to my presentation.  I'm staying at the Best Western, which is fairly pricey but it is near the conference - Harpa Concert Centre.  --> the Blue Lagoon featured in the inflight magazine.  --> Statues at Keflavik airport --> Statues on the drive to Reykjavik

Today was the first of the final phases to completing my Masters degree. I have officially submitted my 59 page thesis titled: Schooling dynamics of summertime migrating Northeast Atlantic mackerel ( Scomber scombrus ) in the Norwegian Sea using multibeam sonar On July 1st I will present my project to an external sensor who will give me my final grade. I'm not finished with this project until after September. Now I need to write an application for travel funds for my trip to the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Annual Science Conference (ASC) held in Reykjavik, Iceland this September. I will soon have my Master of Science in Marine Biology...assuming all goes smoothly, which I'm confident it will. [Cover page]

[Foto: Leif Nøttestad] ICES recommends lower catch quota for the next year. (link) From the abundance estimations of mackerel, herring and other pelagic fish species, the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has recommended that the quota for fishing mackerel be reduced by about 100 000 tonnes; and over 200 000 tonnes for herring. Over the past ten years there has been a significant decrease in zooplankton in this region of the Atlantic, which is the primary food source of migrating pelagic fish. It is believed that because of the way in which mackerel feed during their summer migration (passive filter-feeding), they out-compete herring in overlapping regions. This competition ultimately leads to a depletion of resources...yada yada yada. If fishing continues at the pace it was set for this year, then the scientists at the Institute of Marine Research believe that a collapse in the mackerel and herring stocks is possible. This is another reason why my thes...

[Learning how to fillet mackerel] The ecosystem survey finished July 27th, and we arrived to Bergen around 7AM. I was surprised how it hit me that the cruise was over. A month goes by fast! The last week was full of bad weather, data processing, eating, playing cards and watching movies. When the weather was bad it was hard to concentrate on work. The next four months will now be spent analyzing the data. This survey has been an amazing learning experience and I am so happy to have been given such an opportunity. Now comes the hard work! [Surface-feeding mackerel] [Last night on M/S Brennholm - the officemates] [Saw orcas a few times on the boat but never got a good picture. Photo: Sara Wennerqvist] [My boat swap. Photo: Sara Wennerqvist] [Faroe Island puffin. Photo: Sara Wennerqvist]

[There's something wrong with the synchrony of the acoustics] My job aboard Brennholm is to work on the acoustic part of my thesis. So I am practicing some sonar and echo sounder scrutinozing. I am also relating the mackerel movement to the currents, but this will be hard since mackerel are so hard to see at all on any of the acoustic equipment since they lack a swim bladder. It is nice to just have a 7:30 to 10 work day though and I have my supervisor right next to me for help. Everyone on the cruise has gained weight, and despite doing some exercise almost everyday I am no exception. We are feed too well on the boats and you don't move around too much. (I was even convinced to try salted and dried whale meat from the Faroes. I stayed far away from the blubber!!) At least I have been able to run 13.5 km the past couple of days with the calm seas. There aren't many options for exercise on this ship compared to G.O. Sars. [The "gym" in the bow of th...

Today I moved from G.O. Sars to Brennholm, and in such style! I was taken on the small boat with Leif (my supervisor and the cruise leader). When we got next to Brennhom I had to climb up the side of the boat using the "ladder" which was built into the side. I really hope Leif took some pictures because it was so much fun and it felt really cool climbing up the side of a boat in the middle of the Norwegian Sea!! Thank you, G.O. Sars for such an experience the last 17 days...tomorrow we will be at the Faroe Islands! photo 1: GO Sars photo 2: Faroe Islands boat

I knew that one of these days of my 4 weeks at sea I would be obliged to try whale meat. Today was the day. I did not know it was whale meat when I put it on my plate and started cutting into it. Gunnar, who's father was a whaler, asked me "Do you know what kind of beef that is?" I said no, and he replied "good". So I had a couple of bites not connecting the dots, then Øyvind (another older scientist) said "Oooh! You are trying whale meat? The food of the Eskimos! They say there are many good minerals in whale meat." ...yup, I had done it. I ate a piece of whale meat....but it wasn't bad. It tasted like an overcooked steak. It was not what I had expected. I felt guilty when I had finished my dinner and started to think about the politics, morals, etc. behind whaling. First of all, you should know that Norway is only allowed to take 1400 whales per year, and the meat is very expensive. It is not an economically valuable meat, but has some culture...

I may have been putting up some pictures of nice weather and sitting out on the deck, but it hasn't been like that all the time. We had some rough waves yesterday and it made processing the fish a bit more difficult in the factory and we fell off our chairs in the lab! [We caught this good sized wild Atlantic salmon!]

Here are a couple more pictures from Tromsø. Back at sea now on G.O. Sars the next 4 days before I switch over to Brennholm. [Old ship from polar exploration captained by H. Hanssen] [Common seal at the aquarium in Tromsø - Polaria] We have also now been featured on the IMR homepage - I'm in one of the pictures working hard!! (click the link) Mackerel Leif has been writing many emails and sending pictures to reporters and the research institute because when we get more people engaged, we get more funding and awareness of the importance of these surveys.

Every day has been special so far on this adventure, but today stood out above the rest. Today I had a small sample to process, but BIG mackerel (= great data for my thesis)!!! And then I had the day to relax on deck because we weren't going to do many trawls. The sun is shining and it's warm. I fell asleep on my towel and then I was woken up by someone yelling "Wake up, Justine! Whales!" There were at least 6 pilot whales swimming in front of the ship. It was very exciting since I had never seen whales in the wild before, just dolphins. One group of three came on the port side of the ship and I saw them dive under - VERY COOL! Just a shame that my camera was too slow to get the shot! --- I do have a couple of good pictures though. Whale meat is on the menu for dinner tonight. I think that out of principle I will not have any of the whale meat. We got 130 kgs of fresh meat brought on board today and it is possible for scientists and crew to purchase a couple kilo...

Hasn't been a week yet and I'm feeling my lack of sleep catching up with me. Being on watch 6 hours on and then off has thrown me off a bit. I don't mind the 6PM work, but starting in the lab right at 6AM is not so fun. I don't move so fast as soon as I wake up and I'm a bit more clumsy with the fish - they seem to feel a little more slippery when I'm half asleep. I don't mind preparing otoliths and scales though in the morning - a nice way to start the day. The water is a bit choppy, so not sure how good whale watching will be today. There have only been two sightings - both while I was sleeping. We are required to rest 8 hours, so after my morning shift I have lunch and nap for 2 hours. [Sølvkveite (?) pulled in with the mackerel - when I picked it up two juvenile versions fell out of its mouth] S [Mackerel and herring otoliths - used for aging the fish] [The lab space where we clean the otoliths and scales]