The Iowa State element of this year’s field campaign includes Dr. Al Wanamaker, Maddie Mette (PhD candidate), and Aubrey Foulk (undergraduate). Joining us are colleagues from akvaplan-niva in Norway (Dr. Michael Carroll), Bates College in Maine (Dr. William Ambrose, Dr. Michael Retelle, and Julie Retelle – volunteering as a field cook), NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (Dr. Rob Witbaard and Irene Ballesta Artero), a high school teacher from Maine (Dan Frost), and an independent journalist/photographer (Randall Hyman).
Al, Maddie, and Aubrey left home Friday morning. A long layover in Newark allowed us time to visit the World Trade Center Memorial and roam around NYC for most of the day – for only $8 round-trip! After a quick layover in Oslo, Norway, we arrived in Tromsø, Norway mid-afternoon on Saturday, giving us plenty of time to hang around before the Hurtigruten departed late afternoon on Sunday.
Much to our delight and at times, frustration, Tromsø was a very busy town this weekend. We arrived in the heat of “The Arctic Race of Norway” – A 4-stage, 708 km bike race taking place in several locations across northern Norway. The city center was difficult to navigate, the race ran across town and you could only cross the street in two places. With thirty-some bits of luggage and equipment between the eleven of us, this made getting everything from our hotels to the dock quite a challenge! Before we tackled that problem, however, we had plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful festivities and culture in Tromsø. For lunch, we unintentionally chose front row seats for a street BMX show. Aubrey was singled out to be part of the action, being directed (in Norwegian) to lay down in the middle of the street and keep still (presumably).
We all met back up at the Hurtigruten for departure at 6:30pm. In justification for taking a cruise-liner to a field site ☺ , our destination, Ingøy, is a very difficult place to reach. The Hurtigruten northbound out of Tromsø will drop us in Havoysund, and from there we’ll take a quick ferry to the neighboring island of Ingøy. The other option is to fly via Wideroe from Tromsø to Hammerfest, and take a long ferry ride from Hammerfest to Ingøy. We are very much looking forward to our arrival at Ingøy! Stay tuned for more talk about the science.
