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Published: September 1st 2009
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Ferry to Kjerringoy
It's pronounced something like Chattengay but I can't really pronounce it without an accent. Us Americans just call it "that K word" What's one way to get a homesick, grumpy, fish-loving Alaskan to lighten up and smile a bit? Bring on the fish!!
Over the past week, the Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture have invited all of the International Exchange students studying Bioscience (aka me, Brad, and Libby) to join the Masters students on two excursions and then ALL of the international students from 29 different countries were invited on a cod fishing excursion with the Student Chaplain. It was nice to finally get out of my room and out to the seaside for a little Norwegian fishing introduction.
On the first excursion last Wednesday, Brad and I joined the Masters students and headed to the Kjerringoy Gamle Handelssted aka the old merchant's centre on Kjerringoy. We got told last week at orientation that Kjerringoy is actually translated as "The Woman Island" only it doesn't refer to proper women. Apparently it has a bit of a tawdry history, but the story we heard about the first merchants that made the centre their home. The short film we watched included the story of Anna Elisabeth who married Jens Nicolai Ellingsen and they worked on the fish trade and their home was a
major port. Sadly, Ellingsen died and Anna Elisabeth was left running things on her own. She never gave up though and instead, married a young clerk (much younger than her) to help keep the business alive. Over the years, the centre acted as a major hub for boats and ferries heading to Bodo and people were allowed to wait at the residence. And the grounds were just amazingly beautiful and was such a big factor in keeping the fish trading alive and running smoothly. It also the sight of many movies based off of books by a famous Norwegian writer named Knut Hamsun. I really enjoyed it. And after touring the grounds, we took a short walk on a trail and ended up at the restaurant where we indulge in the local seafood -- shrimp, mussels, and halibut in a really delicious stew with some fruit and whipped cream for desert. It was a lot of fun and the conversation was really nice!
The next excursion was not as exciting but very enlightening. Brad, Libby, me, a bunch of new administrators I didn't really know, and the Masters students headed first to a smolt farm. There, we learned how
they rear the salmon until they induce them to smolt and then send them off to be raised in fish farm pens at a place called Fishmark. A lot of their practices are quite like the way hatcheries are ran in the U.S. The next place we headed was about 100km North to a research farm. On the way, we drove over Salstrumen, the world's most intense maelstrom that apparently can suck boats down all the way to the bottom of the ocean (yah kind of like in The Little Mermaid). I snapped a shot but it wasn't active so it just looked like swirling water. The fish research farm was nice as we had some pizza and enjoyed a VERY LONG talk/lecture/discussion by an over-enthusiastic Scottish man. Nah, he was nice but that man loved to talk. And we got a small boat ride out to the floating pens and learned about the small-scale studies they do for about 100 days and then the more long-term pens. During our tour of one of the pens, we spotted a juvenile halibut about the size of a quarter and a jellyfish. Apparently juvenile fish sneak in through the netting and then
grow bigger amongst the salmon some times. Once ALL of the trials are completed, the fish are all harvested and sold to eat. Since they don't manipulate the fish with chemicals or anything, the research farm is partially like any normal fish farm in Norway but every single fish (about 3 million were there or something) have to be part of a trial. In one pen, there were 250,000 fish alone all being exposed to the same trial (that one was a different feed). It was quite an operation. And before we knew it, it was back on the road (the crazy Norwegian roads with no lines) and back to Bodo.
The last excursion was with the international students and the Student Chaplain, Svein. He took us out on a little steamer-like fishing boat and we went cod fishing this past Sunday. During out trip out to our fishing spot, the wind whipped in our faces and I felt a little refreshed and like I was breathing again. And of course "Come Sail Away" by Styx came into my head, but I refrained from singing it...haha, big sigh of relief from everyone. I even tried fishing and I think
I caught something. The Japanese girl next to me and my line crossed and when we reeled in, there was a fish on so we don't really know who caught the fish but I think we both did. Although I was quiet most of the trip, I did meet a couple of Japanese girls that looked very cold and very unprepared for winter. And we saw some Sea Eagles (yay, finally) and Brad made the comment that they "weren't bald enough for our taste." But we also saw a bunch of seagulls and one guy caught a really cool looking fish. After a couple of hours, we stopped at the island of Bliksvaer, had our soup, and took a 30 minute walk around. No one lives on this island year-round but the houses that are there are just summer homes and they are absolutely gorgeous. Sadly, our time was over too quickly and we were heading back to Bodo on the bus and back to our little home at Hoglimyra. It was a lot of fun and a nice Sunday, but very wet on the walk home. And it was my first time catching a cod in Norway -- well,
sort of! 😊
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