You know you are on a Norwegian vessel when ...
... you get served whale meat for lunch. I had been told that there was whale meat on the vessel and was actually hoping that we would get it to eat. I know that I may take some flack over this from some of you but I wanted to know why people who eat whale like it. There was some protest to the whale lunch from some of the scientific staff and some also did not know what they were eating. So what was it like? I enjoyed it a lot after I got used to the texture of the meat. It felt like I was eating liver (which I really don't like) but tasted nothing like it. The best way maybe to describe it is to say that it was very rich and heavy and my stomach took forever to digest it. Would I eat it again? Definitely! The same cannot be said for the salted lamb we got this evening! Apparently this dish is served around Christmas and, if I understood correctly, particularly on Christmas Eve. It was salted beyond edible - not great.
In terms of the work, we have been hard at it and yesterday had two extra trawls added in which was accepted with bad grace by most on deck and the last trawl particularly saw some stress levels a little elevated and some bitchiness coming out on the deck. Some of us had a little "meeting" in the cruise leader's cabin after the work was finished and this soothed over some ruffled feathers. The meeting went on until quite late and there were some tired ducks at work today.
One of the trawls yesterday caught about two and a half tonnes of a fish we all call "No sex" which is not as bad as it sounds, its full name is Notocanthus sexspinis so we have abbreviated it. Anyway this is a smallish fish that is covered in a white slime but usually the slime is not a problem but when there are so many of them it is a completely different story. The entire deck was covered in slime and it was actually difficult to identify any of the other fish species as they too were covered in the slime. So here are a few pictures courtesy of Magne Olsen of us working the catch. The deck was partitioned off to keep all the fish together and we dug through the fish and slime to remove all the non no sex fish. If you look in the lower right corner of the first photo you can see some of the slime seeping under the barrier.
It was pretty gross but at least everyone saw the funny side of it with some rather ribald comments being flung about.
Today we had an early end to the day. The last trawl was cancelled due to the area being unsuitable for trawling so everyone is off on their own missions mostly watching movies or sleeping. And I too am going to make the most of the early evening and head off to sleep.
In terms of the work, we have been hard at it and yesterday had two extra trawls added in which was accepted with bad grace by most on deck and the last trawl particularly saw some stress levels a little elevated and some bitchiness coming out on the deck. Some of us had a little "meeting" in the cruise leader's cabin after the work was finished and this soothed over some ruffled feathers. The meeting went on until quite late and there were some tired ducks at work today.
One of the trawls yesterday caught about two and a half tonnes of a fish we all call "No sex" which is not as bad as it sounds, its full name is Notocanthus sexspinis so we have abbreviated it. Anyway this is a smallish fish that is covered in a white slime but usually the slime is not a problem but when there are so many of them it is a completely different story. The entire deck was covered in slime and it was actually difficult to identify any of the other fish species as they too were covered in the slime. So here are a few pictures courtesy of Magne Olsen of us working the catch. The deck was partitioned off to keep all the fish together and we dug through the fish and slime to remove all the non no sex fish. If you look in the lower right corner of the first photo you can see some of the slime seeping under the barrier.
Today we had an early end to the day. The last trawl was cancelled due to the area being unsuitable for trawling so everyone is off on their own missions mostly watching movies or sleeping. And I too am going to make the most of the early evening and head off to sleep.
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