Lofoten Islands
We are still north of the Artic Circle, but it is short sleeves weather. Early this morning, but not before breakfast, we enter Trollfjord: narrow and high walled. The Endeavour is like a child’s toy in an elaborate bathtub of colossal dimensions. Simply magnificent! From the bow of the ship one can almost shower in a waterfall or catch the scent of tiny flowers glistening with moisture. Shortly after lunch we were at sea cruising the eastern shores of the Lofoten Islands—famous for their rugged scenery, beautiful villages and cod fisheries. What’s that noise? Oh, it’s Bud our Expedition Leader saying something on the P. A. Something about a pretty town, cod racks and little, bright boats that have both ends pointy. Down goes the anchor. Down go the Zodiacs. That’s my cue! Must be ready! While most people take a Zodiac cruise about the picturesque harbor of Reine, a small team slip away in a spare boat and race down the coast looking for a deeper, albeit somewhat different experience. After about two miles we are now almost equal distance between Reine and Endeavour’s next stop, the town of Å (pronounced 'Oh’), meaning “end of the road,” which it is. My dive buddy Anders, the man who is usually taking care of us from the other side of the bar, is all geared up and I’m sitting here holding two left gloves! This is more of a problem than you might think because they are dry gloves and must integrate with the suit, which now they don’t. After enduring several witty comments from our surface support and safety man Earl, which means ‘sarcastic’ in all languages, I find my spare pair of wet gloves (O.K., I’ve done this more than once before). Since leaving Bear Island the water temperature has increased by almost 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it is now a delicious 58 degrees and wet gloves are just fine! As we drop into the calm and surprisingly clear water, we are almost immediately surrounded by hundreds of curious, whirling and swirling fish called pollack, a close relative of cod.
I am astounded! Rarely have I ever experienced this, an abundance of a commercially important fish, but that’s Norway and the Norwegian Arctic. Each time I exhale, the entire school flinches and rebounds from me. No wonder bubble net fishing is so successful for the humpback whale. Anders is now pointing below the school. He has spotted a large long rough dab, a flat fish and also commercially valuable. And so it goes during the entire dive. Every place we move there is something interesting—even at such a random dive site! Not only is undersea Norway interesting at diver depths, but also much deeper. Last night we sent our remotely operated vehicle down to 365 feet in fjord and saw many a curious sight. For example, this picture of camouflage shrimp foraging under the tentacles of a particularly pugnacious anemone—pretty effective protection from hungry fish! As we flew about the sea bottom we encountered this scene several more times, which was good because I did not quite realize what we were seeing at first! We also saw a different species of anemone, the miss-named parasitic anemone, riding on a common whelk shell occupied by a hermit crab. This mutual relationship is good for both species: the hermit crab gets the protection of the umbrella of stinging tentacles and the anemone gets food from the sloppy crab. The crab has also been known to toss a tidbit or two up to the anemone!
