Today the land crew and boat crew went separate ways. Mike, Julie, Sam, and Claire began at the 30m beach near Mafjorden spotted from Alan Klo’s areal videos of Ingøya (check them out, they’re on youtube!). They were searching for any datable material (e.g., shells) to pin down the age of the beach at this elevation, but they had no luck finding any. They scouted other sandy locations nearby, but still found no shells or datable material. The crew then moved on to Kuhelleran, a large area the size of ~2 football fields containing raised beaches. Priorities first, they ate lunch and took a group nap. Well fed and well rested, the group continued work from previous years of looking for rabbit holes as easy access to sediments below the peat cover. Sam (who was specifically chosen for this expedition due to the long length of his arms) was tasked with reaching in first. “Is that a sleeping rabbit? No. That’s a dead rabbit.” ← That actually happened! The team had much success at Kuhelleran, exploring many rabbit holes and obtaining plenty of datable material. They also dug a 2m deep into one of the rabbit holes to look for interesting stratigraphy. Once they reached the water table, they collected the deepest shell they could from the sandy wall of the hole.
30m terrace (no luck finding anything good for dating)
The rabbit hole – hole. The team grabbed a handful of the bottommost wet shelly sand that will be radiocarbon dated back in the lab.
The boat crew took the small dredge with the newly modified finer-mesh net to Sandenbai. They had much success in catching all size classes, but no really big Arctica. The three main bivalve species in this bay are Arctica islandica, Astarte arctica, and a Venus species. They also spotted a few Spisula and Macoma baltica (new this year!). The clams were brought back to the lab to sort through, but about 90% of them will be returned to the bay tomorrow. After clamming for about 4 hours, the crew headed out to the buoys stationed two places in the bay rigged with temperature and salinity sensors. “TS1” was successfully retrieved, then we headed out to pick up “TS2” stationed in deeper waters. Unfortunately, they could not spot the red float marking the mooring. They searched a ~100 m2 area without success and decided to return in glassier waters to try again. It is possible the buoy was dragged out of position from a passing boat as it was placed in a rather high traffic area. Hopefully we will be able to retrieve it!
An assortment of bivalves from Sandenbai.
The day ended with Michael, Al, and Maddie fishing for dinner in 30 meters waters out past Gøsoya. They brought in six keepers, all cod. Dinner will be fresh tonight!
Al reels in a big one!
Michael filets a big one!