June 20, 2010
Our Sunday in Bardu was unfortunately another rainy, cold day but after sleeping in, we decided to venture outdoors for an afternoon drive into the nearby mountains. Our first stop along the way was the largest military base in Northern Norway, located in our hometown of Setermoen. Our host, Liev Bjørn, spent some time with the army so was able to get us special clearance to drive through the base. This base is mostly geared toward education and training and neighbors the largest practice shooting area cordoned off for the military. About 2,000 military personnel are on the base at any given time and generally stay in the area for about two years before moving on to different parts of the country. Bardu itself is home to 4,000 residents, with about 2,000 living in Setermoen. Steingrim, our hosts' son, said he too wants to join the army when he has completed his three years of high school but rather than staying in the area, he wants to be based in Finnmark to work the Russian border.
Bardu is a municipality in the Troms County, with the administrative center being in the most urban of villages in Setermoen. Driving through downtown is literally four blocks which include the grocery store, a sports store and a couple odds and ends stores. Right after the "downtown" is a medical complex that houses the town doctors, nurse and emergency room. While we have been in small towns since we've started our stay here in Norway, this community of 2,000 was by far the smallest and most rural of the areas we've been. Bardu is a Norwegian name from the Sami word of Beardu, which means long and steep mountain side. This name is fitting since Bardu is the first of our towns that is entirely inland and surrounded by mountains with the occasional river or lake. It is actually not too far from the coast but because the mountains block the coastline and the warmer Gulf Stream, Bardu is known for colder winters. Our visit to Bardu, in winter, certainly lives up to the reputation with temperatures as low as -2 degrees Celcius and snow! Our hosts did say that once every 10 years, they see snow in June and we just happen to be here to experience the "green winter." One person joked that Norway is always an average 24 degrees Celcius, 20 degrees indoors and 4 degrees outdoors. Sounds about right!
Our next stop along the way to the mountains was a replica of the original power station in Bardu. The hydroelectric plant was essentially a series of wood tunnels used to harbor the power of the water streams coming down the mountain to then generate a saw to cut tree trunks into smaller pieces of wood. While this particular mill was a replica and not in use, the original is still functional but used more to prove its effectiveness rather than as the primary source of energy.
Although wet and overcast, we were able to take in some of the beauty of the surrounding mountains. Our host Heidi comes into the mountains every other day with her two English Setter hunting dogs to keep them active and in shape for grouse hunting season. In the winter, the entire Walle family skis and uses their cabin near Lake Altevatn as their base. Today, Lake Altevatn only has pockets of frozen ice but in the winter, the entire lake is frozen and a popular location for ice fishing. The Norwegian sport of ice fishing actually means riding snowmobiles on the water. Steingrim, who is 15, has already started studying for his snowmobile license which he can test for as soon as he turns 16. During the summer, Lake Altevatn, which is 50-60 km long, feeds the power plants in the area to create hydropower electricity.
From Lake Altevatn, we made a detour to the local Huskyfarm owned by Björn and Regina Klauer. This farm is home to 70 huskies, including six 10 week old puppies. These are all sled dogs, enjoying the summer but anxious to start the winter where they can lead groups for 5-14 day treks into the mountains. A group of five people, plus guide, can book a 5 day trek into the mountains including stays at cabins, weather-permitting depending on whether the dogs can make it to the next cabin, for about 2,100 euros or $3,000. Each person rides his own sled, led by six dogs, and each sled is mostly filled with a homemade dog food blend. The Huskyfarm started when Björn spent 12-months trekking from Oslo through Northern Norway with his husky as a companion. He fell in love with the country and wanted to stay, so found his niche leading mostly German tour groups into the mountains to experience the country the way he saw it and has since written a book, Mystic North, documenting the husky experience.
Our final stop for the day was a picnic lunch at Strømsør at the cabin of Liev Bjørn's great great grandfather, Erik-Bjønn. Erik-Bjønn was one of the first settlers in the region, building his house by the river initially but then moving the house up the mountain after realizing that the rising tides were dangerous. He and his wife lived in almost complete isolation with the nearest family about six km away. Erik-Bjønn started a business with two cows, one that he owned and one that he rented. One day, a bear came into his barn and killed the cow he owned. Immediately enranged, he vowed justice against the bear and spent the rest of his life and livelihood hunting bears in the mountains. Erik-Bjønn and his wife had a large family and there are photos of his daughter standing beside him in the mountains, with the sole purpose of holding rifles and reloading them while he was shooting at the bears. While Erik-Bjønn might have been a tough mountaineer man, his wife was perhaps stronger and more resilient. His wife would be home alone, pregnant, and would keep the neighbors' dog with her. When she was going into labor, she would release the dog who would run home and then the neighbors would know she was in labor and needed help. By the time the neighbors arrived, his wife had already delivered the baby and was busy washing her clothes!
Our picnic was at least dry, though the house was freezing cold! We had a typical Norwegian picnic lunch, which includes bread, brown cheese, jam, coffee and tea. After signing the guestbook - a Norwegian custom at every church/museum/historic site we have visited - we packed up our belongings and trekked down the hill back to the car. At Elin's house later that night, we once again had a homemade feast and spent our last night with our Norwegian friends before they headed home to Sortland. We have definitely been the lucky ones, meeting the Norwegian team in the United States first and having made friends before coming here to Northern Norway. In fact, this whole experience is all the greater because of how hard it would have been to navigate and plan such a trip while sitting at home. It is definitely an amazing country and we have made some amazing friends along the way!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
I need a baby wolf!
June 19, 2010
After saying goodbye to our Narvik friends, we climbed into the big van to drive over to Polar Zoo. We were hoping for a bright, sunny day but instead we got a cold (1 degree Celsius!) and rainy (pouring !) day. It didn’t stop us from putting on our winter gear, followed by raincoats and gloves and heading out to see the animals. We were all so excited to kiss the wolves!
The Polar Zoo is the northern most zoo in the world, located in the Salangsdalen Valley in the Bardu municipality in Troms County. With over 275 acres of land, the zoo prides itself in providing a natural and spacious enclosure for the animals. The animals at the zoo today include moose (referred to as elk here), brown bears, wolves, wolverines, red deer, arctic fox and lynx. The biggest attraction at the Polar Zoo is Wolf Camp, where people can play with the wolves and get kisses. Unfortunately, three days ago, one of the female wolves died from a sickness and the wolf pack was in mourning and therefore, not interested in playing with humans.
Our first animal encounter for the day was with the moose. Elk can weigh up to 700 kg with a body length of 3m and shoulder height of 2m. In Europe, elk are typically found in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Elk is primarily hunted by wolves, though wolverines and bears have been known to steal the carcasses from the wolves. Mating usually occurs in September and October and usually results in a solitary calf. During our visit, we only saw one elk.
Next door to the elk was the home of the lynx. Lynx, which belong in the cat family, are typically a very shy animal and sightings at the Polar Zoo are generally only during feeding hours. During this feeding we saw three lynx come out of the trees and eat the food, both on the ground or after climbing up. Lynx have short tails and characteristic black tufts of hair on their ears. Mating takes place in the winter and usually a lynx litter is about 2-4 cubs. This year, there was only one male in the enclosure and he was too young to know what to do so there were no new cubs. In the winter, lynx grow a thick undercoat of fur to protect themselves from the ice and the cold.
After feeding the lynx, we moved over to the wolves, who were also eager to get their meat for the day. The European wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf and is most common in Europe and Asia. The wolf is an apex predator, feeding on large animals. Wolves travel in packs and are highly sociable animals, especially relying on each other while hunting. A typical pack has 2-8 members, including the alpha male and the alpha female and then their cubs. Mating season is in February or March and the babies are born in May. A typical litter is 2-6 cubs, depending on the amount of space and prey available. This May, the wolves did give birth to babies. Three of those babies are in a separate location where they are becoming familiarized with humans. The rest of the babies are with the wolves in the enclosure. The Polar Zoo does not disclose how many cubs are with the mother because deaths are common at this age. The wolves typically do not leave their cubs unless they know they are in a safe place. When the two alpha wolves came out for the feeding, they left the babies hidden away.
From wolves to the lone wolverine, it was our turn to meet the largest member of the weasel family. These animals typically live in the isolated northern regions of the tundra and prey on reindeer and rodents, though they have been known to kill animals as big as a moose or steal the carcasses. They have a powerful jaw and thick hide, to help them hunt. Wolverines need a lot of space; a male typically needs 240 sq miles though that area can overlap with the females. Even in the same living quarters, males and females stay separate from one another until mating season in the summer. Watching the wolverine is an interesting experience since they are practically blind and rely entirely on their sense of smell. The zookeeper hid pieces of meat in trees, under rocks and in bushes before the wolverine started sniffing out the food and finding each piece. Wolverines are very agile and can easily climb up trees too!
Our last feeding stop was the most playful of the animals: the brown bears! In the enclosure today were three adult brown bears, putting on a show for their food including standing, sitting, leaning against the cages and play fighting with one another. The brown bear can weigh up to 350 kg and live for 20-30 years. They are extremely agile and fast for their weight, running up to speeds of 60 km/h in short distances. They eat berries, roots and herbs, along with rodents, fish and bird eggs. It is rare that a brown bear would kill sheep, deer, reindeer or moose because they are a solitary animal in the wild. In the fall, the bears must eat a lot of food in preparation for their long hibernation from October through March. Mating season takes place from late May through early June and the cubs are born during the winter. Baby bears are born hairless, toothless, blind and weight less than 1 lb at birth. They feed on their mother’s milk through the spring and summer, when they start eating solid food. Cubs stay with their mother for the first 2-4 years, learning survival techniques including how to search for food, fish, defend themselves and where to den.
If the adult bears were cute, there weren’t words for Salt and Pepper. These two cubs, born last year, are now too old to play with humans but until last summer, they would be able to climb all over people and would hug and lick them with unconditional love. Salt is an albino bear, which is extremely rare because albino cubs would usually die early in the wilderness since they can’t adapt as well to their surroundings. Today, I was one of the three people selected to go down to meet Salt and Pepper in their cages and hide some of their food before they were allowed to come out, find their treats and play for a bit. The baby cubs eat the same food as the adults, berries and fruit, with some fish tossed in for protein. Watching them look for food and then tease one another was fun, but watching videos of the two of them a few months ago made me wish we here last year!
After warming up with a mug of hot chocolate and attempting to get blood circulating in our body again, we headed back out into the cold rain to meet the baby wolves! Since we couldn’t kiss the wolves today, we signed up to help feed the baby wolves and the baby arctic fox. We sat outside on the wet log, in the pouring rain, with baby bottles in our hand waiting for the three 40-day old wolf cubs to join us and yes, it was so worth it! The wolves were adorable… they were still clumsy and learning how to use their bodies, so they’d often fall over for no reason. Unfortunately, they were not a huge fan of the rain so would come hang out with us for a few minutes and then run back under the wood logs for some protection from the rain. The zookeeper told us that they always keep the baby wolves in groups of three, so that if two of the animals started fighting, the third one would generally break it up and ease the tension. Wolf cubs might look like puppies, but they were more intense in every way. The zookeeper said that once the wolf has made up his mind about something, they stay focused and determined. For example, if the cubs start howling and scratching the door to go outside, they will not stop until they go outside. A dog would probably try for 10-20 minutes before giving up while the wolves would continue howling for hours unless they were let out. Speaking of howling, the zookeeper started a howl to show us how the babies respond. Sure enough, they each started yelping in response to let the mother know that they are still around and doing okay. Being able to have three wolf cubs play around in front of humans is quite an accomplishment since wolves tend to be very nervous and anxiety-filled around humans. They were incredibly cute… if only there were a way to keep the wolves cubs rather than have them grow up! These wolf babies will stay around humans and will join the other tame wolves for human interactions as they grow up. It is therefore extremely important to keep them associated with humans and to teach them early on to stop biting or feeling anxiety while next to big groups of people.
The Polar Zoo, weather aside, certainly did live up to our expectations! After a change of clothes, we all met back at Elin Uhre’s (the GSE inbound team leader and incoming president) house for taco night!
After saying goodbye to our Narvik friends, we climbed into the big van to drive over to Polar Zoo. We were hoping for a bright, sunny day but instead we got a cold (1 degree Celsius!) and rainy (pouring !) day. It didn’t stop us from putting on our winter gear, followed by raincoats and gloves and heading out to see the animals. We were all so excited to kiss the wolves!
The Polar Zoo is the northern most zoo in the world, located in the Salangsdalen Valley in the Bardu municipality in Troms County. With over 275 acres of land, the zoo prides itself in providing a natural and spacious enclosure for the animals. The animals at the zoo today include moose (referred to as elk here), brown bears, wolves, wolverines, red deer, arctic fox and lynx. The biggest attraction at the Polar Zoo is Wolf Camp, where people can play with the wolves and get kisses. Unfortunately, three days ago, one of the female wolves died from a sickness and the wolf pack was in mourning and therefore, not interested in playing with humans.
Our first animal encounter for the day was with the moose. Elk can weigh up to 700 kg with a body length of 3m and shoulder height of 2m. In Europe, elk are typically found in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Elk is primarily hunted by wolves, though wolverines and bears have been known to steal the carcasses from the wolves. Mating usually occurs in September and October and usually results in a solitary calf. During our visit, we only saw one elk.
Next door to the elk was the home of the lynx. Lynx, which belong in the cat family, are typically a very shy animal and sightings at the Polar Zoo are generally only during feeding hours. During this feeding we saw three lynx come out of the trees and eat the food, both on the ground or after climbing up. Lynx have short tails and characteristic black tufts of hair on their ears. Mating takes place in the winter and usually a lynx litter is about 2-4 cubs. This year, there was only one male in the enclosure and he was too young to know what to do so there were no new cubs. In the winter, lynx grow a thick undercoat of fur to protect themselves from the ice and the cold.
After feeding the lynx, we moved over to the wolves, who were also eager to get their meat for the day. The European wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf and is most common in Europe and Asia. The wolf is an apex predator, feeding on large animals. Wolves travel in packs and are highly sociable animals, especially relying on each other while hunting. A typical pack has 2-8 members, including the alpha male and the alpha female and then their cubs. Mating season is in February or March and the babies are born in May. A typical litter is 2-6 cubs, depending on the amount of space and prey available. This May, the wolves did give birth to babies. Three of those babies are in a separate location where they are becoming familiarized with humans. The rest of the babies are with the wolves in the enclosure. The Polar Zoo does not disclose how many cubs are with the mother because deaths are common at this age. The wolves typically do not leave their cubs unless they know they are in a safe place. When the two alpha wolves came out for the feeding, they left the babies hidden away.
From wolves to the lone wolverine, it was our turn to meet the largest member of the weasel family. These animals typically live in the isolated northern regions of the tundra and prey on reindeer and rodents, though they have been known to kill animals as big as a moose or steal the carcasses. They have a powerful jaw and thick hide, to help them hunt. Wolverines need a lot of space; a male typically needs 240 sq miles though that area can overlap with the females. Even in the same living quarters, males and females stay separate from one another until mating season in the summer. Watching the wolverine is an interesting experience since they are practically blind and rely entirely on their sense of smell. The zookeeper hid pieces of meat in trees, under rocks and in bushes before the wolverine started sniffing out the food and finding each piece. Wolverines are very agile and can easily climb up trees too!
Our last feeding stop was the most playful of the animals: the brown bears! In the enclosure today were three adult brown bears, putting on a show for their food including standing, sitting, leaning against the cages and play fighting with one another. The brown bear can weigh up to 350 kg and live for 20-30 years. They are extremely agile and fast for their weight, running up to speeds of 60 km/h in short distances. They eat berries, roots and herbs, along with rodents, fish and bird eggs. It is rare that a brown bear would kill sheep, deer, reindeer or moose because they are a solitary animal in the wild. In the fall, the bears must eat a lot of food in preparation for their long hibernation from October through March. Mating season takes place from late May through early June and the cubs are born during the winter. Baby bears are born hairless, toothless, blind and weight less than 1 lb at birth. They feed on their mother’s milk through the spring and summer, when they start eating solid food. Cubs stay with their mother for the first 2-4 years, learning survival techniques including how to search for food, fish, defend themselves and where to den.
If the adult bears were cute, there weren’t words for Salt and Pepper. These two cubs, born last year, are now too old to play with humans but until last summer, they would be able to climb all over people and would hug and lick them with unconditional love. Salt is an albino bear, which is extremely rare because albino cubs would usually die early in the wilderness since they can’t adapt as well to their surroundings. Today, I was one of the three people selected to go down to meet Salt and Pepper in their cages and hide some of their food before they were allowed to come out, find their treats and play for a bit. The baby cubs eat the same food as the adults, berries and fruit, with some fish tossed in for protein. Watching them look for food and then tease one another was fun, but watching videos of the two of them a few months ago made me wish we here last year!
After warming up with a mug of hot chocolate and attempting to get blood circulating in our body again, we headed back out into the cold rain to meet the baby wolves! Since we couldn’t kiss the wolves today, we signed up to help feed the baby wolves and the baby arctic fox. We sat outside on the wet log, in the pouring rain, with baby bottles in our hand waiting for the three 40-day old wolf cubs to join us and yes, it was so worth it! The wolves were adorable… they were still clumsy and learning how to use their bodies, so they’d often fall over for no reason. Unfortunately, they were not a huge fan of the rain so would come hang out with us for a few minutes and then run back under the wood logs for some protection from the rain. The zookeeper told us that they always keep the baby wolves in groups of three, so that if two of the animals started fighting, the third one would generally break it up and ease the tension. Wolf cubs might look like puppies, but they were more intense in every way. The zookeeper said that once the wolf has made up his mind about something, they stay focused and determined. For example, if the cubs start howling and scratching the door to go outside, they will not stop until they go outside. A dog would probably try for 10-20 minutes before giving up while the wolves would continue howling for hours unless they were let out. Speaking of howling, the zookeeper started a howl to show us how the babies respond. Sure enough, they each started yelping in response to let the mother know that they are still around and doing okay. Being able to have three wolf cubs play around in front of humans is quite an accomplishment since wolves tend to be very nervous and anxiety-filled around humans. They were incredibly cute… if only there were a way to keep the wolves cubs rather than have them grow up! These wolf babies will stay around humans and will join the other tame wolves for human interactions as they grow up. It is therefore extremely important to keep them associated with humans and to teach them early on to stop biting or feeling anxiety while next to big groups of people.
The Polar Zoo, weather aside, certainly did live up to our expectations! After a change of clothes, we all met back at Elin Uhre’s (the GSE inbound team leader and incoming president) house for taco night!
Friday, June 18, 2010
From Sweden to Narvik... all in a day!
June 18, 2010
It’s finally a beautiful day outside! The sun is shining (at least for the morning) and the temperature is about 13 degrees. Even the residents of Narvik are complaining about the unseasonably cold June this year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather warms up soon since there are only two months of summer left!
Narvik is a town of 15,000 residents, or about 18,000 if you include the suburbs. It is the first industrial community in Northern Norway and a city that expanded with the creation of the Ofoten Railway. The town is known as a shipping and transportation hub. Due to the Gulf Stream, the water in Northern Norway does not ice or freeze in the wintertime. This makes it an ideal base for large companies looking to ship materials into the world. Currently, Sweden sends all of its iron ore to Narvik via train, to be shipped out from the port to locations worldwide. There are currently plans to connect China to Narvik via railway, to take advantage of the same port. Narvik is also the headquarters for Hrutigruten, the famed cruise ship that travels the Norwegian coastline.
On April 9, 1940, Narvik became the focus of attention when Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway. Narvik, as the transportation hub, became the prized target and for two months, there was a bitter war between the Germans and Allied forces (British, French, Polish and Norwegians) but ultimately, the Germans did succeed. Throughout Narvik, there are several World War II memorials immortalizing the landmark battles and events of the war.
Today, Narvik is also a large tourist attraction offering a range of extreme winter sports activities including off-path skiing, dirt biking, jumping, paragliding and anything else you would want to do. The Norwegian system allows individuals to go off the trails or the marked paths, but if any ambulance or police are needed, it is at the expense of the individual. From mid November to early January, Narvik is the home to migratory orcas. Every March, the town celebrates the “Winter Festival” in remembrance of World War II and the Navy period.
Our trip today is on the Ofoten Railroad, which was built in 1891 to bring the iron ore from Sweden to Narvik, the second largest harbor in Northern Norway. The railroad is actually built in the mountains, blasted into the hillside, and requires 20 tunnels. On the Norwegian side, the line had to climb from sea level to 500 meters in only 40 km. It was a difficult project that employed 6,000 individuals working for four years. The railroad was the start of the community of Narvik nearly 100 years ago. Without the railroad, the communities of Kiruna or Malmberget wouldn’t have existed because it was impossible to live in the mountains without access to the cities below. The Sami people were the only ones who lived in the mountains before the railroad existed. The Ofoten Line is dubbed one of the most beautiful journeys in Northern Europe and it certainly lived up to that name with the mountains and the fjords offering a brilliant contrast to the brown tundra just warming up for the summer.
Our host for the day is Svenn-Arne Andreassen, who was born and raised in Narvik and is a proud self-declared authority on the history of the city. We jumped off the train at Riksgränsen, Sweden. Riksgränsen is a tiny town located 200 km above the Arctic Circle in the Swedish Lapland. Laps are another term for Sami people. This area is empty during the summer months, but during the winter, it is packed with Swedes and Norwegians taking advantage of the ski slopes. Our hosts in Narvik wanted to take us on this trip to show us the beautiful scenery and to allow us to step onto Swedish territory. We had a quick lunch at a local restaurant and then drove back into Narvik for our afternoon career days.
This afternoon I visited Fremover, the regional newspaper headquartered in Narvik. My host for the day was Jan Erik Teigen, the kulturjournalist or arts and culture journalist. This newspaper is a small production with only 16 journalists putting together an average 42-page publication. Fremover was created in 1903 and has a subscription base of 9,000 with a pass-along readership of 30,000. A subscription to the newspaper is about 2,000 NOK while the newsstand price is 20 NOK. Fremover is one of 56 publications in a newspaper group owned by Apress, which includes Rana Blad of Mo I Rana. The newspaper is printed at Polaris Trykk in Harstad.
Fremover has a smaller newsroom than most of the other newspapers I have visited in Norway. There are about two editors and 16 journalists working in house with a small sales team of three people. There used to be several designers but the newspapers (as in most of Norway) has decided to consolidate their staffing and laid off the designers in favor of templates that section editors can use directly. The result is what looks like an unfinished newspaper, with lots of white space both around stories and photos, as well as at the bottom of columns. The pages all look standard as well since the editors have to use templates with a limited variation. At Fremover, most of the journalists write their pieces and then are responsible for a certain page which includes dropping the text into the column and the corresponding photo alongside. Another notable trend is there are few photographers, but rather, most journalists are asked to take photos while interviewing for pieces. Jan Erik is a journalist by title but is the only person responsible for the arts and culture section, which is usually three pages every day. As a special section, he does have the freedom of planning ahead and generally works a 7:30-3 shift. His first page is due at 11 am, second and third pages are to be in by 3 pm. He does the initial layout and then sends the pages to the design team – a single designer who works for a company located in Tromsø – for tweaks before giving his final approval.
Talking with Jan Erik was an interesting lesson in Norwegian culture. As I had mentioned earlier, everybody here seems content with their life. Jan Erik said he was working in Bodø for a while and was even paid twice his journalist salary to teach at the local university. He spend three semesters teaching journalism but when he was offered a permanent position, he turned it down because it lacked the excitement he felt while working for a newspaper. At the time, his wife wanted to move so when he was offered a editor position here in Narvik, he took the job so as to bring up his children in a quiet and peaceful city. Soon after working here as an editor, he asked to go back to being a writer because he missed the reporting and as the kulturjournalist, he feels like he has the best of all worlds. He loves what he is doing and is happy where he lives. A typical starting salary for a journalist in Narvik is 300,000 NOK or $50,000. Each year the journalist receives a bump in pay, per the union negotiations. This year, for example, the union negotiated a 10,000 NOK salary increase for all members of the union at the state level and then the local level added more increases based on job descriptions and work produced. Jan Erik said he makes about 450,000 NOK, which is enough to live comfortably in his own house with his wife and three children, travel frequently including an upcoming trip for his wife and himself to Sardinia where they plan on purchasing a summer house. The quality of life is an added incentive. All employees are given a mandatory six weeks of vacation, plus sick leave and holiday time. Any pregnant employee is given one year of full salary during the first year at home with her child. And most work days end by 4 pm with the option of flexible hours to take advantage of three day weekends.
Journalism in Norway are certainly a more respected and honored career than back home in the United States. Norway is a newspaper reading country and according to Jan Erik, that has not changed. There was a slight dip in readership several years ago but that was attributed to the population moving but at the local news level, readership has been consistent through the years. Jan Erik believes that comes from providing local news in a country that topologically is so isolated by the mountain ranges. When it comes to television, radio or the local newspaper, people always choose to pick up the print edition and learn more about their neighbors and their hometown. While Fremover does have an Internet-only reporter, they have made it a company policy to not put all the print information on the web and to use the web as an extension of the print publication rather than an alternative. Jan Erik sees that as a success and doesn’t hesitate to say that job stability and security in the newspaper industry in Narvik at least is not in question.
When I talked about print journalism and the dying industry back in the United States, I mentioned that while the pay is always going to be less than other industries, you can deal with that if you are doing something you love. The issue today is whether newspapers will even continue to exist and whether that is an option as a career. Perhaps the solution is to learn Norwegian and move to Norway!
It’s finally a beautiful day outside! The sun is shining (at least for the morning) and the temperature is about 13 degrees. Even the residents of Narvik are complaining about the unseasonably cold June this year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather warms up soon since there are only two months of summer left!
Narvik is a town of 15,000 residents, or about 18,000 if you include the suburbs. It is the first industrial community in Northern Norway and a city that expanded with the creation of the Ofoten Railway. The town is known as a shipping and transportation hub. Due to the Gulf Stream, the water in Northern Norway does not ice or freeze in the wintertime. This makes it an ideal base for large companies looking to ship materials into the world. Currently, Sweden sends all of its iron ore to Narvik via train, to be shipped out from the port to locations worldwide. There are currently plans to connect China to Narvik via railway, to take advantage of the same port. Narvik is also the headquarters for Hrutigruten, the famed cruise ship that travels the Norwegian coastline.
On April 9, 1940, Narvik became the focus of attention when Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway. Narvik, as the transportation hub, became the prized target and for two months, there was a bitter war between the Germans and Allied forces (British, French, Polish and Norwegians) but ultimately, the Germans did succeed. Throughout Narvik, there are several World War II memorials immortalizing the landmark battles and events of the war.
Today, Narvik is also a large tourist attraction offering a range of extreme winter sports activities including off-path skiing, dirt biking, jumping, paragliding and anything else you would want to do. The Norwegian system allows individuals to go off the trails or the marked paths, but if any ambulance or police are needed, it is at the expense of the individual. From mid November to early January, Narvik is the home to migratory orcas. Every March, the town celebrates the “Winter Festival” in remembrance of World War II and the Navy period.
Our trip today is on the Ofoten Railroad, which was built in 1891 to bring the iron ore from Sweden to Narvik, the second largest harbor in Northern Norway. The railroad is actually built in the mountains, blasted into the hillside, and requires 20 tunnels. On the Norwegian side, the line had to climb from sea level to 500 meters in only 40 km. It was a difficult project that employed 6,000 individuals working for four years. The railroad was the start of the community of Narvik nearly 100 years ago. Without the railroad, the communities of Kiruna or Malmberget wouldn’t have existed because it was impossible to live in the mountains without access to the cities below. The Sami people were the only ones who lived in the mountains before the railroad existed. The Ofoten Line is dubbed one of the most beautiful journeys in Northern Europe and it certainly lived up to that name with the mountains and the fjords offering a brilliant contrast to the brown tundra just warming up for the summer.
Our host for the day is Svenn-Arne Andreassen, who was born and raised in Narvik and is a proud self-declared authority on the history of the city. We jumped off the train at Riksgränsen, Sweden. Riksgränsen is a tiny town located 200 km above the Arctic Circle in the Swedish Lapland. Laps are another term for Sami people. This area is empty during the summer months, but during the winter, it is packed with Swedes and Norwegians taking advantage of the ski slopes. Our hosts in Narvik wanted to take us on this trip to show us the beautiful scenery and to allow us to step onto Swedish territory. We had a quick lunch at a local restaurant and then drove back into Narvik for our afternoon career days.
This afternoon I visited Fremover, the regional newspaper headquartered in Narvik. My host for the day was Jan Erik Teigen, the kulturjournalist or arts and culture journalist. This newspaper is a small production with only 16 journalists putting together an average 42-page publication. Fremover was created in 1903 and has a subscription base of 9,000 with a pass-along readership of 30,000. A subscription to the newspaper is about 2,000 NOK while the newsstand price is 20 NOK. Fremover is one of 56 publications in a newspaper group owned by Apress, which includes Rana Blad of Mo I Rana. The newspaper is printed at Polaris Trykk in Harstad.
Fremover has a smaller newsroom than most of the other newspapers I have visited in Norway. There are about two editors and 16 journalists working in house with a small sales team of three people. There used to be several designers but the newspapers (as in most of Norway) has decided to consolidate their staffing and laid off the designers in favor of templates that section editors can use directly. The result is what looks like an unfinished newspaper, with lots of white space both around stories and photos, as well as at the bottom of columns. The pages all look standard as well since the editors have to use templates with a limited variation. At Fremover, most of the journalists write their pieces and then are responsible for a certain page which includes dropping the text into the column and the corresponding photo alongside. Another notable trend is there are few photographers, but rather, most journalists are asked to take photos while interviewing for pieces. Jan Erik is a journalist by title but is the only person responsible for the arts and culture section, which is usually three pages every day. As a special section, he does have the freedom of planning ahead and generally works a 7:30-3 shift. His first page is due at 11 am, second and third pages are to be in by 3 pm. He does the initial layout and then sends the pages to the design team – a single designer who works for a company located in Tromsø – for tweaks before giving his final approval.
Talking with Jan Erik was an interesting lesson in Norwegian culture. As I had mentioned earlier, everybody here seems content with their life. Jan Erik said he was working in Bodø for a while and was even paid twice his journalist salary to teach at the local university. He spend three semesters teaching journalism but when he was offered a permanent position, he turned it down because it lacked the excitement he felt while working for a newspaper. At the time, his wife wanted to move so when he was offered a editor position here in Narvik, he took the job so as to bring up his children in a quiet and peaceful city. Soon after working here as an editor, he asked to go back to being a writer because he missed the reporting and as the kulturjournalist, he feels like he has the best of all worlds. He loves what he is doing and is happy where he lives. A typical starting salary for a journalist in Narvik is 300,000 NOK or $50,000. Each year the journalist receives a bump in pay, per the union negotiations. This year, for example, the union negotiated a 10,000 NOK salary increase for all members of the union at the state level and then the local level added more increases based on job descriptions and work produced. Jan Erik said he makes about 450,000 NOK, which is enough to live comfortably in his own house with his wife and three children, travel frequently including an upcoming trip for his wife and himself to Sardinia where they plan on purchasing a summer house. The quality of life is an added incentive. All employees are given a mandatory six weeks of vacation, plus sick leave and holiday time. Any pregnant employee is given one year of full salary during the first year at home with her child. And most work days end by 4 pm with the option of flexible hours to take advantage of three day weekends.
Journalism in Norway are certainly a more respected and honored career than back home in the United States. Norway is a newspaper reading country and according to Jan Erik, that has not changed. There was a slight dip in readership several years ago but that was attributed to the population moving but at the local news level, readership has been consistent through the years. Jan Erik believes that comes from providing local news in a country that topologically is so isolated by the mountain ranges. When it comes to television, radio or the local newspaper, people always choose to pick up the print edition and learn more about their neighbors and their hometown. While Fremover does have an Internet-only reporter, they have made it a company policy to not put all the print information on the web and to use the web as an extension of the print publication rather than an alternative. Jan Erik sees that as a success and doesn’t hesitate to say that job stability and security in the newspaper industry in Narvik at least is not in question.
When I talked about print journalism and the dying industry back in the United States, I mentioned that while the pay is always going to be less than other industries, you can deal with that if you are doing something you love. The issue today is whether newspapers will even continue to exist and whether that is an option as a career. Perhaps the solution is to learn Norwegian and move to Norway!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How Safe is Oil Drilling?
June 17, 2010
Our last morning in Harstad started with a greeting by Mayor Helge Eriksen outside Statoil. Last night, we had mentioned wanting a Harstad pin to add to our collection and Lise, who conveniently worked with the mayor before, texted him and asked him to meet the US delegation in town. Since we didn’t have enough time to make a visit to City Hall, Mayor Eriksen made a special visit to meet us at Statoil before our morning appointment at the local oil powerhouse. That makes three mayoral visits in two weeks!
Our host at Statoil was a 16-year veteran employee, Anne-Mette Fjærli, who recently took over as communications officer for the Northern Norway headquarters in Harstad. Anne-Mette gave us a brief overview of the company. With over 30,000 employees representing 40 countries, Statoil is a large entity in Norway and Europe, though the brand has not carried over the seas to the United States. Statoil is very much a Norwegian company. It was started in the 1960s when Norway discovered oil and was entirely governmentally owned. Today, the government still owns 70 percent of the company but individuals can buy stock in the company with shares being sold on Wall Street. Statoil produces 1.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. It is one of the largest net sellers of crude oil and the second largest importer of gas to Europe. It remains the largest operator in water deeper than 100 meters and is a world leader of carbon capture and storage. Most importantly, Statoil is the biggest retailer of oil products in Scandinavia. Norway is in a unique position because it is able to sell most of the gas produced in the country. Statoil is responsible for all of the oil drilling north of 62 degrees.
Our tour took us to the command center of the only oil operation managed by the Harstad office, Norne. This drilling started several years ago and was initially scheduled to end in 2016 but after the latest research, has been scheduled to run through 2030. The team managing the operation includes engineers, drill safety specialists, architects and planners and program managers. The team checks in with the vessel every morning for 24 hour reports and planning updates for the next 24 hours. They then analyze data and decide what the next steps are in laying out the foundation for and continuing to drill for oil in reservoirs several meters below the surface. This particular project works about 380 meters below the surface. The daily operational cost of the drilling is 1 million dollars and therefore efficiency is a priority on any project.
After learning about the above-sea operations, we met with head geologist Anna Fauke who works with seismic data to develop a picture of the sea bed and plan for the best areas to set up oil rigs. The cost for a seismic data test is approximately 1 million dollars, which is quite pricey itself but the cost of installing a rig is about 6 million dollars. To save money from putting in a rig in a wrong location, the seismic data analysis is vital and is conducted every two years. The test is done by blasting cannons or sending out sound waves to bounce off the floor of the sea bed. The geologists calculate the amount of time it takes to receive the waves and then by using other known data like the speed of sound in water and the speed of sound through various objects like rocks, they can develop a fairly accurate picture of the sea bed. No picture is as accurate as going down and drilling, so that must be kept in consideration when analyzing the data available. It is amazing to see how much information they can gather from these sound waves though!
As with any company, we only heard the positives at Statoil and it was reiterated several times that no shortcuts are made and all regulations are rigorously upheld so as to avoid the Gulf disaster that is currently plaguing the Gulf of Mexico. The people at Statoil and any oil company around the world are anxiously watching the Senate hearings play out and are anxious to know the outcome both in terms of the cause of the spill and the resulting fallout for BP and the countries involved.
Speaking of oil, the great debate that has haunted us from the first day we arrived in town is the question of whether to pursue drilling in what is deemed to be new profitable oil reservoirs off the coast of Lofoten. Lofoten, as we know from our travels, is the home to world renowned fisheries. Just nearby the fisheries are deep pockets of oil guaranteed to make the Norwegians richer. The Great Oil Debate in Norway is whether or not the government should pursue digging these wells and risk affecting the fish in the area. Research suggests that the fish are not affected heavily by the digging but there are also possibilities indicating that the fish are affected in the immediate future but learn to move beyond that in time. We’ve heard both sides of the debate but I think the general consensus is that Norwegians have had it too good for the last several years and are now fearing what would happen should their oil money dry up. When we first started our trip, it sounded like the government would vote to drill in the next few years but in the last few days, it seems like the government is going to vote no as a direct response to the oil spill in the Gulf. I guess time will tell but if the project is rejected today, it will certainly be up for debate again tomorrow!
Goodbye Harstad… hello Narvik!
Our last morning in Harstad started with a greeting by Mayor Helge Eriksen outside Statoil. Last night, we had mentioned wanting a Harstad pin to add to our collection and Lise, who conveniently worked with the mayor before, texted him and asked him to meet the US delegation in town. Since we didn’t have enough time to make a visit to City Hall, Mayor Eriksen made a special visit to meet us at Statoil before our morning appointment at the local oil powerhouse. That makes three mayoral visits in two weeks!
Our host at Statoil was a 16-year veteran employee, Anne-Mette Fjærli, who recently took over as communications officer for the Northern Norway headquarters in Harstad. Anne-Mette gave us a brief overview of the company. With over 30,000 employees representing 40 countries, Statoil is a large entity in Norway and Europe, though the brand has not carried over the seas to the United States. Statoil is very much a Norwegian company. It was started in the 1960s when Norway discovered oil and was entirely governmentally owned. Today, the government still owns 70 percent of the company but individuals can buy stock in the company with shares being sold on Wall Street. Statoil produces 1.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. It is one of the largest net sellers of crude oil and the second largest importer of gas to Europe. It remains the largest operator in water deeper than 100 meters and is a world leader of carbon capture and storage. Most importantly, Statoil is the biggest retailer of oil products in Scandinavia. Norway is in a unique position because it is able to sell most of the gas produced in the country. Statoil is responsible for all of the oil drilling north of 62 degrees.
Our tour took us to the command center of the only oil operation managed by the Harstad office, Norne. This drilling started several years ago and was initially scheduled to end in 2016 but after the latest research, has been scheduled to run through 2030. The team managing the operation includes engineers, drill safety specialists, architects and planners and program managers. The team checks in with the vessel every morning for 24 hour reports and planning updates for the next 24 hours. They then analyze data and decide what the next steps are in laying out the foundation for and continuing to drill for oil in reservoirs several meters below the surface. This particular project works about 380 meters below the surface. The daily operational cost of the drilling is 1 million dollars and therefore efficiency is a priority on any project.
After learning about the above-sea operations, we met with head geologist Anna Fauke who works with seismic data to develop a picture of the sea bed and plan for the best areas to set up oil rigs. The cost for a seismic data test is approximately 1 million dollars, which is quite pricey itself but the cost of installing a rig is about 6 million dollars. To save money from putting in a rig in a wrong location, the seismic data analysis is vital and is conducted every two years. The test is done by blasting cannons or sending out sound waves to bounce off the floor of the sea bed. The geologists calculate the amount of time it takes to receive the waves and then by using other known data like the speed of sound in water and the speed of sound through various objects like rocks, they can develop a fairly accurate picture of the sea bed. No picture is as accurate as going down and drilling, so that must be kept in consideration when analyzing the data available. It is amazing to see how much information they can gather from these sound waves though!
As with any company, we only heard the positives at Statoil and it was reiterated several times that no shortcuts are made and all regulations are rigorously upheld so as to avoid the Gulf disaster that is currently plaguing the Gulf of Mexico. The people at Statoil and any oil company around the world are anxiously watching the Senate hearings play out and are anxious to know the outcome both in terms of the cause of the spill and the resulting fallout for BP and the countries involved.
Speaking of oil, the great debate that has haunted us from the first day we arrived in town is the question of whether to pursue drilling in what is deemed to be new profitable oil reservoirs off the coast of Lofoten. Lofoten, as we know from our travels, is the home to world renowned fisheries. Just nearby the fisheries are deep pockets of oil guaranteed to make the Norwegians richer. The Great Oil Debate in Norway is whether or not the government should pursue digging these wells and risk affecting the fish in the area. Research suggests that the fish are not affected heavily by the digging but there are also possibilities indicating that the fish are affected in the immediate future but learn to move beyond that in time. We’ve heard both sides of the debate but I think the general consensus is that Norwegians have had it too good for the last several years and are now fearing what would happen should their oil money dry up. When we first started our trip, it sounded like the government would vote to drill in the next few years but in the last few days, it seems like the government is going to vote no as a direct response to the oil spill in the Gulf. I guess time will tell but if the project is rejected today, it will certainly be up for debate again tomorrow!
Goodbye Harstad… hello Narvik!
To Shoot or Not To Shoot...
June 16, 2010
Our introduction to Harstad continued today with a presentation by our Norwegian friend, Lise Aamot Linaker about her company, Kunnskapsparken. I should start by saying that knowing Lise in Harstad certainly opens doors since Lise is a famous soccer player. In Norway, soccer is not played in high schools and colleges or as a professional (paid) sport. Instead, there is an intramural league with divisions. Lise’s team (her father is the coach, her sister is also on the team) is Division I, which is the second best team. The top two teams in Division I move up to Top Division next year and currently Lise’s team is leading Division I. Needless to say, many people know Lise in Harstad!
Lise and Hilde are co-workers at a company called Kunnskapsparken Nord AS. Kupa, as they refer to it, is a regional industrial incubator working to contribute to the Northern Norway powerhouse for innovation. They do this by working within three areas: industry, entrepreneurship and youth. The goal is to bring attention and with that, people, innovation and ideas, to the Northern Norway region which is suffering from a lack of people to take advantage of the opportunity that lies within the region. Instead, the young people and those seeking professional careers tend to gravitate toward the south, around Oslo. With this company, funded largely by the local big industries including Statoil, Total, Bergen Group and Industri-Inkubator, the team leaders work to develop business ideas, attract talented and qualified professionals to helm projects and instill a sense of pride and loyalty to the northern area in the youth. Within the Dynamic Industry sector, the team works with established businesses to develop their business within the oil and gas, renewable energy and oil spill prevention and control areas. The team works to lead and develop projects, connect different companies with others in particular expertise areas, establish contact with research and obtain capital. Within the Dynamic Entrepreneurship area, the team seeks to create tomorrow’s businesses by connecting with individuals or companies with business ideas in early stages and helping develop business plans and innovative thinking. Within the Dynamic Youth area, the team wants to increase the interest in and knowledge of science and entrepreneurship in young people. They make science fun and interesting through the Newton program so kids can connect the knowledge they learn in the books with the reality of what is happening in their backyard and think about the possibility of growing up and working within the region.
Sitting and listening to these presentations was very interesting, especially keeping in mind that the Harstad area has 23,000 residents and the entire Northern Norway area has about 120,000 residents. I think it is easy for a company like Kupa to exist in a small area where there is no competition and the ability to connect with the individuals is almost on a one-to-one basis. In a country like the United States or a region like the East Coast or even a state like New Jersey, it would be impossible to make those connections because there are just too many people and too may organizations doing some aspect of the same project. There is also too much doubt; the fact that Kupa is funded by big companies working to essentially get more employees in the area for their benefit would be questioned. Although not advertised during our presentation, Kupa also owns a separate entity (Hilde is the CEO) that is strictly an investment group looking to put money into projects or entrepreneurial ideas. At the end of the day, Kupa is a business looking to make money and I think that fact, should it have been better highlighted or openly admitted, would have reduced my skepticism in the presentation. Regardless, whatever the intentions, the end result is that Kupa continues to deliver support to entrepreneurs and youth and that is making for a better Harstad.
After our tour of Kupa, we headed out to the Trondenes Fort for a look at Adofokannon or “Adolf’s Gun.” This area of Harstad was actually occupied by both the Germans and the Allied forces at different times and is referred to as the Atlantic Wall. The Trondenes Fort, which is located at the naval ranger’s base, is home to the world’s largest land-based cannon or the Adolf gun. The gun barrel is 40.6 cm in diameter and has a range of 56 km. It was constructed by the Germans in World War II and was later used by the Norwegians as a defense weapon during the Cold War. While the gun was fired twice for practice by the Germans and the Norwegians, it was never used in war. The last time the gun was fired was in 1957. At the time, the Norwegians had extra ammunition and wanted to dispose of it. However, there was an accident and five men lost their lives. Tore, our tour guide for the trip, remembers being a young boy sitting on a bus waiting to go home when he saw blasts and fires from atop the hill. All the police and ambulance immediately went to the scene and the area was cordoned off and all people in the town of Harstad were asked to stay in because of shooting grenades.
Adolf’s gun is one of four within the same battery on the Trondenes peninsula. The original intention was the deploy these huge cannons on battleships, but instead they were used on the coastal forts of Norway to protect Narvik. Below and next to the canons are bunkers for ammunition, guard quarters, a power station, sanitary installments, hearting/ventilation and an emergency exit. In Trondenes, firing was led from a command post 150 meters north of the cannon. There were 20 people who worked inside of the cannon while 68 total people worked on the general maintenance and operation of the gun. The shells had a weight of 1,020 kg to 600 kg with a recoil power of 580 tons to 635 tons. One shell could be fired per minute at a 20 degree elevation. The gun was decommissioned in 1961, but it wasn’t until 1990, when a group of retired personnel took up the restoration and maintenance of the gun as a monument.
And what better way to end a rainy overcast day then to order pizza and have some drinks with our great friends in Harstad! Hilde hosted an evening in for our team, Lise, Ann and our hosts to toast to our adventures in Northern Norway and to promise a return visit in the near future!
Interesting Observations:
Norwegians are very aware of the legal drinking and driving laws. In Norway, a driver cannot have more than 0.1 miligram blood alcohol content per liter of blood. This means that when we are out to dinner or at somebody's house, the driver will never touch a drink and in fact, non-alcohol beer like Freeze is very popular. The Norwegian penal code for driving and drinking is extremely harsh. First time offenders will lose their license for two years and must pay two month's worth of their salary as a fee. We need stricter laws in the United States!
Our introduction to Harstad continued today with a presentation by our Norwegian friend, Lise Aamot Linaker about her company, Kunnskapsparken. I should start by saying that knowing Lise in Harstad certainly opens doors since Lise is a famous soccer player. In Norway, soccer is not played in high schools and colleges or as a professional (paid) sport. Instead, there is an intramural league with divisions. Lise’s team (her father is the coach, her sister is also on the team) is Division I, which is the second best team. The top two teams in Division I move up to Top Division next year and currently Lise’s team is leading Division I. Needless to say, many people know Lise in Harstad!
Lise and Hilde are co-workers at a company called Kunnskapsparken Nord AS. Kupa, as they refer to it, is a regional industrial incubator working to contribute to the Northern Norway powerhouse for innovation. They do this by working within three areas: industry, entrepreneurship and youth. The goal is to bring attention and with that, people, innovation and ideas, to the Northern Norway region which is suffering from a lack of people to take advantage of the opportunity that lies within the region. Instead, the young people and those seeking professional careers tend to gravitate toward the south, around Oslo. With this company, funded largely by the local big industries including Statoil, Total, Bergen Group and Industri-Inkubator, the team leaders work to develop business ideas, attract talented and qualified professionals to helm projects and instill a sense of pride and loyalty to the northern area in the youth. Within the Dynamic Industry sector, the team works with established businesses to develop their business within the oil and gas, renewable energy and oil spill prevention and control areas. The team works to lead and develop projects, connect different companies with others in particular expertise areas, establish contact with research and obtain capital. Within the Dynamic Entrepreneurship area, the team seeks to create tomorrow’s businesses by connecting with individuals or companies with business ideas in early stages and helping develop business plans and innovative thinking. Within the Dynamic Youth area, the team wants to increase the interest in and knowledge of science and entrepreneurship in young people. They make science fun and interesting through the Newton program so kids can connect the knowledge they learn in the books with the reality of what is happening in their backyard and think about the possibility of growing up and working within the region.
Sitting and listening to these presentations was very interesting, especially keeping in mind that the Harstad area has 23,000 residents and the entire Northern Norway area has about 120,000 residents. I think it is easy for a company like Kupa to exist in a small area where there is no competition and the ability to connect with the individuals is almost on a one-to-one basis. In a country like the United States or a region like the East Coast or even a state like New Jersey, it would be impossible to make those connections because there are just too many people and too may organizations doing some aspect of the same project. There is also too much doubt; the fact that Kupa is funded by big companies working to essentially get more employees in the area for their benefit would be questioned. Although not advertised during our presentation, Kupa also owns a separate entity (Hilde is the CEO) that is strictly an investment group looking to put money into projects or entrepreneurial ideas. At the end of the day, Kupa is a business looking to make money and I think that fact, should it have been better highlighted or openly admitted, would have reduced my skepticism in the presentation. Regardless, whatever the intentions, the end result is that Kupa continues to deliver support to entrepreneurs and youth and that is making for a better Harstad.
After our tour of Kupa, we headed out to the Trondenes Fort for a look at Adofokannon or “Adolf’s Gun.” This area of Harstad was actually occupied by both the Germans and the Allied forces at different times and is referred to as the Atlantic Wall. The Trondenes Fort, which is located at the naval ranger’s base, is home to the world’s largest land-based cannon or the Adolf gun. The gun barrel is 40.6 cm in diameter and has a range of 56 km. It was constructed by the Germans in World War II and was later used by the Norwegians as a defense weapon during the Cold War. While the gun was fired twice for practice by the Germans and the Norwegians, it was never used in war. The last time the gun was fired was in 1957. At the time, the Norwegians had extra ammunition and wanted to dispose of it. However, there was an accident and five men lost their lives. Tore, our tour guide for the trip, remembers being a young boy sitting on a bus waiting to go home when he saw blasts and fires from atop the hill. All the police and ambulance immediately went to the scene and the area was cordoned off and all people in the town of Harstad were asked to stay in because of shooting grenades.
Adolf’s gun is one of four within the same battery on the Trondenes peninsula. The original intention was the deploy these huge cannons on battleships, but instead they were used on the coastal forts of Norway to protect Narvik. Below and next to the canons are bunkers for ammunition, guard quarters, a power station, sanitary installments, hearting/ventilation and an emergency exit. In Trondenes, firing was led from a command post 150 meters north of the cannon. There were 20 people who worked inside of the cannon while 68 total people worked on the general maintenance and operation of the gun. The shells had a weight of 1,020 kg to 600 kg with a recoil power of 580 tons to 635 tons. One shell could be fired per minute at a 20 degree elevation. The gun was decommissioned in 1961, but it wasn’t until 1990, when a group of retired personnel took up the restoration and maintenance of the gun as a monument.
And what better way to end a rainy overcast day then to order pizza and have some drinks with our great friends in Harstad! Hilde hosted an evening in for our team, Lise, Ann and our hosts to toast to our adventures in Northern Norway and to promise a return visit in the near future!
Interesting Observations:
Norwegians are very aware of the legal drinking and driving laws. In Norway, a driver cannot have more than 0.1 miligram blood alcohol content per liter of blood. This means that when we are out to dinner or at somebody's house, the driver will never touch a drink and in fact, non-alcohol beer like Freeze is very popular. The Norwegian penal code for driving and drinking is extremely harsh. First time offenders will lose their license for two years and must pay two month's worth of their salary as a fee. We need stricter laws in the United States!
The Future of Journalism Remains a Question Mark
June 15, 2010
Hilde Svenning, our host in Harstad, asked us if we would like anything in particular for breakfast during our stay with her and Nicole and I jumped at the chance to have some cereal! Cheerios for breakfast was such a treat! Our morning was off to a good start when we met up with the rest of the group for a driving tour of Harstad with Tore Lund, a retired Navy captain.
Harstad is the second largest city and municipality by population (23,000 residents) in Troms County and the third largest in Northern Norway. It is located about 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. The municipality is actually split onto two islands: Hinnøya, which is the Norway’s largest island except for Svalbard and houses most of the population and Grytøya, which is the northern part of the county but located on the southern half. The city of Harstad is located on Hinnøya and is popularly referred to as Vågsfjordens perle or Pearl of Vågsfjorden. Harstad celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. It is a unique city because unlike most cities in Norway, there was no governmental agency that created the city but instead people saw possibilities (rich herring fisheries) and moved here on their own. Today, there is no more fishing on the island (in the 1970s, overfishing caused a demise in herring, and although they are back today, fishing has not been resurrected) but the harbor remains active and Harstad is known as the oil capital of Northern Norway. Several oil rigs are located around the Northern Norway area with Harstad headquartering operations including Statoil.
On April 9, 1940, Norway was attacked by Germans. One of the goals was to occupy the city of Narvik, which is located inland and protected by the waterways of Harstad. The Germans successfully occupied Narvik until the Allied forces counterattacked and reoccupied the city in May 1940. During that time, the Allied forces including the British, Polish and the French worked with the Norwegians in Harstad for what was dubbed the Narvik campaign.
One of the stops during our tour was to the oldest church in the area, located in Trondanes. At the rear of the church, facing out to the ocean, is a memorial for the 800 Russians buried here after World War II. As in Mo I Rana, the Germans came into the area to take all the remains and add them to a mass grave off an island in Nordland County. Unlike Mo I Rana, they were successful and today only a memorial stands to honor the fallen Russians.
Interesting Facts about Harstad:
The cost of a house in Harstad is approximately 2-5 million kroner. The new apartments, although smaller, are significantly more expensive due to the construction costs.
Tine, a dairy factory, is headquartered in Harstad and produces all the consumer milk and sour cream for Northern Norway.
After our morning tour of the town, we spent the afternoon visiting our individual career partners. In Harstad, I was introduced to Bård Borch Michalsen, the editor-in-chief of the Harstad Tidende. Harstad Tidende is the daily regional newspaper and at 123, it is the oldest company in Harstad, outdating the city itself. A daily newspaper in Norway runs Monday-Saturday since it is too expensive to print on Sundays because labor wages are nearly double any other day of the week. Walking through the newspaper offices, operations mimicked the publications back in the United States. A typical workday starts around 8 am with the morning meeting and the printer deadline is 10 pm. In between, reporters work on stories, submit text to a section editor and finally to the copy editor who sends the articles to the design team to lay out the pages and a final copy is sent to the commercial printing press. The Harstad Tidende has a circulation of 13,000 at a price of 2,000 NOK a year versus the newsstand price of 20 NOK a copy. Bård and I had a lengthy conversation on the future of journalism in our respective countries. Even though Norway is one of the top nations of newspaper readers at 1.6 newspapers per household, Bård agrees that the future of print journalism lies in community newspapers. The national and international news happens at a pace that far exceeds the morning paper and will likely be entirely delegated to the Internet. Community newspapers though, still have an appeal for the average parent who wants to see a photograph of their child in the school play or neighbors interested in the new construction project that will affect their morning commute. The Harstad Tidende, like many newspapers back home, has eliminated all national and international news and strictly dedicates its 38 pages to local news with the occasional wire story filling in the gaps. The newspaper has also made a conscious effort to increase its presence on the web, with a full-time web reporter dedicated to adding new and interesting stories to draw in the readership. Approximately 60 percent of the newspaper revenue comes from advertising and the remaining 40 percent comes from subscriptions. In addition to publishing the daily regional newspaper, Harstad Tidende publishes a monthly magazine insert and a quarterly seasonal insert for all of Northern Norway.
My trip to the local newspaper ended at Polaris Trykk, the print house for Harstad Tidende and 15 other local publications. This commercial printer, located about 10 minutes from the downtown area, is a hub of all printing operations in the area and runs two shifts during the daytime and nighttime. This was my first time walking through a printhouse and it was exciting to see the process from start to finish. This particular printhouse uses an Internet-based software that allows the newspaper to upload finished pages and send over a final approval when they are ready. Each of the newspapers has a staggered deadline, so as to not jam up the offset printing towers. Once the pages have been finished or rigged, they are sent over to a CTP machine to be turned into a template. In Norway, all the newspapers are printed in full color and only in a tabloid size. Once the templates are ready, they are transferred over to one of 10 offset printing towers. Each tower can print four pages at a time and are two stories tall. The pages start at the bottom and through each phrase as it moves upward, a new CMYK color is added to the page. The final copy is then picked up by a conveyer belt to be dried and then sent over to the next room to be cut, folded, pressed and packaged by different machines. A separate machine is present to add any inserts, if needed. Norway does not have weekly coupons and advertisements like we do at home. There are occasional company advertisements, particularly grocery stores, but they are not frequent and are not coupons but advertisements about sales and prices. On any given day, 16 or so print jobs are being fulfilled or planned for so the work is truly 24 hours.
It was exciting to see the inside of a print house but it’s true that regardless of where you are, the industry does indeed work similarly and the bottom line is still the same. Even in a country where reading newspapers is a respected culture, print journalism is facing the same problems.
Our night ended with perhaps one of the most exciting activites to date: B&B touring's RIB speedboats. These boats are essentially rafts with seats and are designed to allow the participants to feel the waves and go on a rollercoaster ride through the water. We joined the 20/40 Club of Harstad for tonight's activities. The 20/40 Club is a local organization geared toward professionals between the ages of 20 and 40. Although a relatively young club, the goal is to create a personal and professional network for young individuals so as to create incentive and a structure to stay in the region. After donning our extremely attractive survival suits (this time no fish smell!), a face mask and goggles, we were ready to hit the water. Our stops for the two hour trip included the island of Grytay, where a fence literally divided the island of four houses into two because of fueding heirs to the original inhabitants; Hamnan, home to the Viking chieftain; and Bjarkøy, home to the bird berg of 10,000 migratory krykkjeberget birds. The Krykkjeberget looks like a small seagull and is found in the region only from late February through August 25 where they come to lay and hatch their eggs. The Krykkjeberget berg is an interesting hub of activity. Throughout the day, there are at least a few birds that are circulating the area on the lookout for eagles. The eagles are interested in eating the baby chicks and are therefore, one of the most dangerous hunters during this time. If an eagle is spotted, the Krykkjeberget have a carefully planned and practiced series of actions. The birds all fly in various circles and paths to confuse the eagle, so he leaves the eggs alone. When the chicks hatch, the baby birds are taught this same action to protect themselves when the time comes. The speedboat ride came to an end all too soon!
Food of the Day: Verdens Beste Kake or Kvæfjordkake. A few years ago there was a nationwide contest for the best cake and a local town near Harstad won with what they dubbed the "World's Best Cake." It is a hazelnut infused cake with a cream filling and a flaky spongy cake base. I can't really describe it and I can't say it was my favorite, but it was an interesting local treat! In fact, we are lucky to get to taste the cake since originally a large sheet was ordered but while driving down to Harstad, the driver hit the breaks suddenly and the cake was crushed. Thankfully, they had also ordered a smaller cake which allowed us a taste.
Hilde Svenning, our host in Harstad, asked us if we would like anything in particular for breakfast during our stay with her and Nicole and I jumped at the chance to have some cereal! Cheerios for breakfast was such a treat! Our morning was off to a good start when we met up with the rest of the group for a driving tour of Harstad with Tore Lund, a retired Navy captain.
Harstad is the second largest city and municipality by population (23,000 residents) in Troms County and the third largest in Northern Norway. It is located about 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. The municipality is actually split onto two islands: Hinnøya, which is the Norway’s largest island except for Svalbard and houses most of the population and Grytøya, which is the northern part of the county but located on the southern half. The city of Harstad is located on Hinnøya and is popularly referred to as Vågsfjordens perle or Pearl of Vågsfjorden. Harstad celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. It is a unique city because unlike most cities in Norway, there was no governmental agency that created the city but instead people saw possibilities (rich herring fisheries) and moved here on their own. Today, there is no more fishing on the island (in the 1970s, overfishing caused a demise in herring, and although they are back today, fishing has not been resurrected) but the harbor remains active and Harstad is known as the oil capital of Northern Norway. Several oil rigs are located around the Northern Norway area with Harstad headquartering operations including Statoil.
On April 9, 1940, Norway was attacked by Germans. One of the goals was to occupy the city of Narvik, which is located inland and protected by the waterways of Harstad. The Germans successfully occupied Narvik until the Allied forces counterattacked and reoccupied the city in May 1940. During that time, the Allied forces including the British, Polish and the French worked with the Norwegians in Harstad for what was dubbed the Narvik campaign.
One of the stops during our tour was to the oldest church in the area, located in Trondanes. At the rear of the church, facing out to the ocean, is a memorial for the 800 Russians buried here after World War II. As in Mo I Rana, the Germans came into the area to take all the remains and add them to a mass grave off an island in Nordland County. Unlike Mo I Rana, they were successful and today only a memorial stands to honor the fallen Russians.
Interesting Facts about Harstad:
The cost of a house in Harstad is approximately 2-5 million kroner. The new apartments, although smaller, are significantly more expensive due to the construction costs.
Tine, a dairy factory, is headquartered in Harstad and produces all the consumer milk and sour cream for Northern Norway.
After our morning tour of the town, we spent the afternoon visiting our individual career partners. In Harstad, I was introduced to Bård Borch Michalsen, the editor-in-chief of the Harstad Tidende. Harstad Tidende is the daily regional newspaper and at 123, it is the oldest company in Harstad, outdating the city itself. A daily newspaper in Norway runs Monday-Saturday since it is too expensive to print on Sundays because labor wages are nearly double any other day of the week. Walking through the newspaper offices, operations mimicked the publications back in the United States. A typical workday starts around 8 am with the morning meeting and the printer deadline is 10 pm. In between, reporters work on stories, submit text to a section editor and finally to the copy editor who sends the articles to the design team to lay out the pages and a final copy is sent to the commercial printing press. The Harstad Tidende has a circulation of 13,000 at a price of 2,000 NOK a year versus the newsstand price of 20 NOK a copy. Bård and I had a lengthy conversation on the future of journalism in our respective countries. Even though Norway is one of the top nations of newspaper readers at 1.6 newspapers per household, Bård agrees that the future of print journalism lies in community newspapers. The national and international news happens at a pace that far exceeds the morning paper and will likely be entirely delegated to the Internet. Community newspapers though, still have an appeal for the average parent who wants to see a photograph of their child in the school play or neighbors interested in the new construction project that will affect their morning commute. The Harstad Tidende, like many newspapers back home, has eliminated all national and international news and strictly dedicates its 38 pages to local news with the occasional wire story filling in the gaps. The newspaper has also made a conscious effort to increase its presence on the web, with a full-time web reporter dedicated to adding new and interesting stories to draw in the readership. Approximately 60 percent of the newspaper revenue comes from advertising and the remaining 40 percent comes from subscriptions. In addition to publishing the daily regional newspaper, Harstad Tidende publishes a monthly magazine insert and a quarterly seasonal insert for all of Northern Norway.
My trip to the local newspaper ended at Polaris Trykk, the print house for Harstad Tidende and 15 other local publications. This commercial printer, located about 10 minutes from the downtown area, is a hub of all printing operations in the area and runs two shifts during the daytime and nighttime. This was my first time walking through a printhouse and it was exciting to see the process from start to finish. This particular printhouse uses an Internet-based software that allows the newspaper to upload finished pages and send over a final approval when they are ready. Each of the newspapers has a staggered deadline, so as to not jam up the offset printing towers. Once the pages have been finished or rigged, they are sent over to a CTP machine to be turned into a template. In Norway, all the newspapers are printed in full color and only in a tabloid size. Once the templates are ready, they are transferred over to one of 10 offset printing towers. Each tower can print four pages at a time and are two stories tall. The pages start at the bottom and through each phrase as it moves upward, a new CMYK color is added to the page. The final copy is then picked up by a conveyer belt to be dried and then sent over to the next room to be cut, folded, pressed and packaged by different machines. A separate machine is present to add any inserts, if needed. Norway does not have weekly coupons and advertisements like we do at home. There are occasional company advertisements, particularly grocery stores, but they are not frequent and are not coupons but advertisements about sales and prices. On any given day, 16 or so print jobs are being fulfilled or planned for so the work is truly 24 hours.
It was exciting to see the inside of a print house but it’s true that regardless of where you are, the industry does indeed work similarly and the bottom line is still the same. Even in a country where reading newspapers is a respected culture, print journalism is facing the same problems.
Our night ended with perhaps one of the most exciting activites to date: B&B touring's RIB speedboats. These boats are essentially rafts with seats and are designed to allow the participants to feel the waves and go on a rollercoaster ride through the water. We joined the 20/40 Club of Harstad for tonight's activities. The 20/40 Club is a local organization geared toward professionals between the ages of 20 and 40. Although a relatively young club, the goal is to create a personal and professional network for young individuals so as to create incentive and a structure to stay in the region. After donning our extremely attractive survival suits (this time no fish smell!), a face mask and goggles, we were ready to hit the water. Our stops for the two hour trip included the island of Grytay, where a fence literally divided the island of four houses into two because of fueding heirs to the original inhabitants; Hamnan, home to the Viking chieftain; and Bjarkøy, home to the bird berg of 10,000 migratory krykkjeberget birds. The Krykkjeberget looks like a small seagull and is found in the region only from late February through August 25 where they come to lay and hatch their eggs. The Krykkjeberget berg is an interesting hub of activity. Throughout the day, there are at least a few birds that are circulating the area on the lookout for eagles. The eagles are interested in eating the baby chicks and are therefore, one of the most dangerous hunters during this time. If an eagle is spotted, the Krykkjeberget have a carefully planned and practiced series of actions. The birds all fly in various circles and paths to confuse the eagle, so he leaves the eggs alone. When the chicks hatch, the baby birds are taught this same action to protect themselves when the time comes. The speedboat ride came to an end all too soon!
Food of the Day: Verdens Beste Kake or Kvæfjordkake. A few years ago there was a nationwide contest for the best cake and a local town near Harstad won with what they dubbed the "World's Best Cake." It is a hazelnut infused cake with a cream filling and a flaky spongy cake base. I can't really describe it and I can't say it was my favorite, but it was an interesting local treat! In fact, we are lucky to get to taste the cake since originally a large sheet was ordered but while driving down to Harstad, the driver hit the breaks suddenly and the cake was crushed. Thankfully, they had also ordered a smaller cake which allowed us a taste.
Lidar, Whales and a Long Drive
June 14, 2010
Our last morning in Sortland started early as we packed our bags and headed out to Andenes, a town of 3,500 on the tip of Sortland about two hours away. Andenes is a picturesque whaling village that until three years ago, survived largely due to the military base. Since the base has closed, Andenes is rethinking its survival strategy and has started tapping into the tourism industry by offering whale and puffin safaris. About ten minutes outside of Andenes is our first stop at ALOMAR, the Arctic Lidar Observatory. ALOMAR is located about 380 meters above elevation and home to six full-time employees and six partner countries housing or operating their machinery in the facility. ALOMAR is also responsible for the ground operations of the Andøya Rocket Range, where rockets are sent out into the atmosphere to collect particles and data to be analyzed by the scientists at ALOMAR. As a lidar optic center, ALOMAR has several lasers in place that send out different wavelengths of light into the atmosphere. The scientists then measure the time it takes for the light to return, the frequency, distance and other characteristics that the electromagnetic waves radiate when interacting with atoms. Currently, the staff at ALOMAR is working around the clock to study noctilucent clouds. These are thin clouds located at 83 km above ground (space is 100 km) that were first noticed in 1885 after a volcanic eruption in the Philippines. These clouds are only visible in the summertime and although located above ALOMAR, cannot be seen from the area due to the Midnight Sun but rather by video footage taken from Trondheim, a city further south. Scientists at ALOMAR first started studying these clouds, visible only from June through August, in the 1980s to learn their qualities and characteristics. Today, more monitoring work is being conducted to continue collecting data. Another type of cloud, the mother of pearl, is also being monitored and studied since they are actually damaging the ozone layer and cannot be reversed. Touring the facility, we saw several visiting scientists working on their individual machines including a scientist from Boulder, CO working on a machine that starts creating the laser beam that will then be processed through the larger machines and sent out into the atmosphere to collect data. While the scientific terms and knowledge were too detailed to understand, the idea of collecting vast amounts of data by sending out a laser was amazing. ALOMAR probably sends out lasers 120 days a year, weather permitting. Generally, the center is operational from 8 am to 8 pm except for special projects which are 24/7. It is a private company but works through collaborations with several nations or universities looking to house their equipment and for technicians to operate the machinery. Our guide, Sandra Blindheim, is the head of ALOMAR and five years into her first job, that is not a bad place to be! Blindheim said that most of the staff does have a physics background and understands the technical side, but there are several people that visit from other backgrounds such as programming. Today, the field is nearing the point of having too much data so Blindheim said that in the next decade or so, scientists need to decide whether to make this into a business and sell data sets or to make them available for general consumption.
After ALOMAR, our next visit was into the town of Andenes for a trip to the whaling museum. Andenes is famous for its whale safaris which are year-round but will kick into high season in the next three weeks. Unfortunately, the whale safari for the day was at 5 pm and since we had to be on the road by 2 pm, we were only able to visit the museum and understand a bit about the famous animals. Standing around the carcass of a sperm whale, we learned that an average male is about 11 to 17 meters long. This particular carcass was discovered by two German researchers in 1996, after the whale washed up on the coast. By looking at the skeleton, we learned the sperm whale first got its name because scientists believed the large head was filled with sperm but in fact, soon learned that it was filled with spermaceti which is a fluid that the whale changes depending on its need. When the whale is looking to fish and dive down to the bottom of the seabed, the spermaceti hardens and makes the head heavier. When the whale is ready to come back up, it loosens and allows for easier swimming. The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal, but it only makes up 0.2 percent of its body weight compared to 2.5 percent of the human brain to body ratio. The sperm whale makes three different types of clicking sounds: to communicate, as an echo to gauge prey and to paralyze the prey for easy eating. Typically the sperm whale feeds on squid, but also eats several other fish in the sea or up to 1 ton of food per day.
As we moved to the orca, we learned that the killer whale is in fact, not a whale, but a large dolphin. There are two types of killer whales in the waters around Andenes. The first are the residential orcas that mostly follow the schools of herring around the water. The second are the migrating killer whales and they are the most dangerous since they eat anything out in the water including other whales, humans and fish. The female humpback whales, for example, do not migrate into these waters because of fear that the baby humpback whales will be eaten by the migrating killer whales. Instead, the female humpback whales stay in the Caribbean waters year round. The females stay in groups with the families they were born into while the males travel several miles to reach the Norwegian waters where they feed throughout the winter to become bigger and then swim back to the Caribbean to impress the females who only mate with the larger animals. A female typically delivers seven calves a lifetime, starting at the age of seven. Whales typically live for 80 years, though the oldest whale discovered was 220 years. Humpback whales keep their young with them for several years, feeding milk to the whales until they are at least three before teaching them to fish for themselves. Humpback whales fish through a technique called a bubble net where they surround a school of fish with bubbles, confusing the fish who believe they are caught in a net, before coming from below and eating the entire school at once.
The museum visit was not enough to satisfy our curiosity about whales but unfortunately, it would have to do. Following a lunch with our new friends in Andenes, we hit the road once again for a two hour trip back to Sortland before continuing on for another half hour to a ferry and then an hour and half to our new hometown of Harstadt. Dinner tonight was a Norwegian specialty of rømmegrøt or sour cream porridge, topped with cinnamon and sugar to taste. The porridge is served with salted meats, flat bread and potato salad. Yum!
Our last morning in Sortland started early as we packed our bags and headed out to Andenes, a town of 3,500 on the tip of Sortland about two hours away. Andenes is a picturesque whaling village that until three years ago, survived largely due to the military base. Since the base has closed, Andenes is rethinking its survival strategy and has started tapping into the tourism industry by offering whale and puffin safaris. About ten minutes outside of Andenes is our first stop at ALOMAR, the Arctic Lidar Observatory. ALOMAR is located about 380 meters above elevation and home to six full-time employees and six partner countries housing or operating their machinery in the facility. ALOMAR is also responsible for the ground operations of the Andøya Rocket Range, where rockets are sent out into the atmosphere to collect particles and data to be analyzed by the scientists at ALOMAR. As a lidar optic center, ALOMAR has several lasers in place that send out different wavelengths of light into the atmosphere. The scientists then measure the time it takes for the light to return, the frequency, distance and other characteristics that the electromagnetic waves radiate when interacting with atoms. Currently, the staff at ALOMAR is working around the clock to study noctilucent clouds. These are thin clouds located at 83 km above ground (space is 100 km) that were first noticed in 1885 after a volcanic eruption in the Philippines. These clouds are only visible in the summertime and although located above ALOMAR, cannot be seen from the area due to the Midnight Sun but rather by video footage taken from Trondheim, a city further south. Scientists at ALOMAR first started studying these clouds, visible only from June through August, in the 1980s to learn their qualities and characteristics. Today, more monitoring work is being conducted to continue collecting data. Another type of cloud, the mother of pearl, is also being monitored and studied since they are actually damaging the ozone layer and cannot be reversed. Touring the facility, we saw several visiting scientists working on their individual machines including a scientist from Boulder, CO working on a machine that starts creating the laser beam that will then be processed through the larger machines and sent out into the atmosphere to collect data. While the scientific terms and knowledge were too detailed to understand, the idea of collecting vast amounts of data by sending out a laser was amazing. ALOMAR probably sends out lasers 120 days a year, weather permitting. Generally, the center is operational from 8 am to 8 pm except for special projects which are 24/7. It is a private company but works through collaborations with several nations or universities looking to house their equipment and for technicians to operate the machinery. Our guide, Sandra Blindheim, is the head of ALOMAR and five years into her first job, that is not a bad place to be! Blindheim said that most of the staff does have a physics background and understands the technical side, but there are several people that visit from other backgrounds such as programming. Today, the field is nearing the point of having too much data so Blindheim said that in the next decade or so, scientists need to decide whether to make this into a business and sell data sets or to make them available for general consumption.
After ALOMAR, our next visit was into the town of Andenes for a trip to the whaling museum. Andenes is famous for its whale safaris which are year-round but will kick into high season in the next three weeks. Unfortunately, the whale safari for the day was at 5 pm and since we had to be on the road by 2 pm, we were only able to visit the museum and understand a bit about the famous animals. Standing around the carcass of a sperm whale, we learned that an average male is about 11 to 17 meters long. This particular carcass was discovered by two German researchers in 1996, after the whale washed up on the coast. By looking at the skeleton, we learned the sperm whale first got its name because scientists believed the large head was filled with sperm but in fact, soon learned that it was filled with spermaceti which is a fluid that the whale changes depending on its need. When the whale is looking to fish and dive down to the bottom of the seabed, the spermaceti hardens and makes the head heavier. When the whale is ready to come back up, it loosens and allows for easier swimming. The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal, but it only makes up 0.2 percent of its body weight compared to 2.5 percent of the human brain to body ratio. The sperm whale makes three different types of clicking sounds: to communicate, as an echo to gauge prey and to paralyze the prey for easy eating. Typically the sperm whale feeds on squid, but also eats several other fish in the sea or up to 1 ton of food per day.
As we moved to the orca, we learned that the killer whale is in fact, not a whale, but a large dolphin. There are two types of killer whales in the waters around Andenes. The first are the residential orcas that mostly follow the schools of herring around the water. The second are the migrating killer whales and they are the most dangerous since they eat anything out in the water including other whales, humans and fish. The female humpback whales, for example, do not migrate into these waters because of fear that the baby humpback whales will be eaten by the migrating killer whales. Instead, the female humpback whales stay in the Caribbean waters year round. The females stay in groups with the families they were born into while the males travel several miles to reach the Norwegian waters where they feed throughout the winter to become bigger and then swim back to the Caribbean to impress the females who only mate with the larger animals. A female typically delivers seven calves a lifetime, starting at the age of seven. Whales typically live for 80 years, though the oldest whale discovered was 220 years. Humpback whales keep their young with them for several years, feeding milk to the whales until they are at least three before teaching them to fish for themselves. Humpback whales fish through a technique called a bubble net where they surround a school of fish with bubbles, confusing the fish who believe they are caught in a net, before coming from below and eating the entire school at once.
The museum visit was not enough to satisfy our curiosity about whales but unfortunately, it would have to do. Following a lunch with our new friends in Andenes, we hit the road once again for a two hour trip back to Sortland before continuing on for another half hour to a ferry and then an hour and half to our new hometown of Harstadt. Dinner tonight was a Norwegian specialty of rømmegrøt or sour cream porridge, topped with cinnamon and sugar to taste. The porridge is served with salted meats, flat bread and potato salad. Yum!
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