This week we joined with the Norwegian friluftsliv class to complete a week of activities related to the sea and coastal environment.

We had 8 activities to complete:

Large Boats

Row Boating

Kayaking Technique

Kayaking half day trip

Shallow Water Biology

Deep Water biology

Net Fishing

Overnight Survival on an Island

Large Boats

This involved practicing our nautical navigation, knot tying and gave us a feel of what it’s like to control a bigger boat. The navigation was at times harder than on land. There are laws of the sea that don’t apply on land and markers such as red and green buoys when going into a harbour which show you the way to go/which side of the water you should be.

The port side of the boat (left) always has a red light and the starboard side (right) always has a green light. In Norway the main shipping lanes run South to North. So if you go east from Kristiansand harbour you should always drive with red to red and green to green in terms of you boat lights and markers in the water. If however you were coming from the East into Kristiansand this rule would not apply as you are going against the ‘flow’. In this case you should always drive with red to red and therefore you are driving on the right hand side of traffic moving in the opposite direction.

Another law to be noted is you must always give way to the right, however there are certain situations when you may not have the right of way. Any not motorised vessel such as a sailing ship or kayak will have right of way over a power boat, working boats such as passengers ferries or fishing boats also have right of way.

I found that these maps where very detailed, with a lot of symbols I hadn’t come across before such as different symbols for rocks that are visible all the time, never or only on certain tides. Other symbols include lighthouses and details of their flash pattern and light colour as well as suggested anchoring or swimming places.

Row Boating

This was a new activity for me and took a while to get used to facing backwards; it was useful to have a spare person sat at the back of the boat to tell us which direction to go. We had to work together in this activity to synchronise our paddle strokes, the Norwegians also played a large part in giving us pointers or advice on how to paddle as most had done rowing before. Similarly to kayaking or canoeing you can use the wind or current to ferry glide across the water.

Kayaking Technique

This activity was good fun and we had one of the best afternoon’s weather wise. Here we learnt to use the edges of the kayak to make turning more effective and quicker. For example if you want to turn to the left you can paddle in a straight line but lift your left leg and use your right edge to turn. Edging can also be used to counteract wind if it isn’t too strong or use the wind to turn your boat.

Kayaking Half Day Trip

This morning there was a very strong westerly wind so we met with Len before the session to discuss our plan and make some changes to our route. Bowen and Eva were leaders in the activity and they chose myself as a front marker and Martin as a back marker. As front marker I kept finding sheltered areas of water where we could stop and regroup or have a short break as it was hard work paddling against the wind. After we got through skippers alley the wind was even stronger, this part of the trip I didn’t find as enjoyable as the day before due to the wind. We ended up gathering in a sheltered bay to discuss what we should do. Katrina raised the point that it wasn’t enjoyable and she wasn’t comfortable continuing with our plan, I agreed with this.

As a leader or group member it is important that when one person is not comfortable doing something the plan should be changed. When in a group discussion and no one really shares their opinions or are quite as a leader you should think ‘what are they thinking’ as often they won’t be confident enough to share their thoughts if other people are keen to continue with the plan. In the end we decided to have a snack and break then return the way we had come, rather than face paddling further into the strong winds.

Shallow Water Biology

Here I learnt that when ants are attacked or feel threatened they urinate. If you disturb their nest with a stick they will pee on it, you can then lick this stick and it will have a sour taste!

Ants were not the main focus of this session though. Here we were given a pair of waterproof waders nets and plastic trays. We were to go and explore and search for anything we thought was of interest. We found many common sea creatures such as crabs, shrimps, common mussels, periwinkles etc. along with many empty cockle and razor fish shells. We learnt it is hard to find a cockle shell still with an animal inside as they live below the surface of the sand.

We also found many different types of seaweed and learnt that many are used to make cosmetics such as face creams or lipsticks, and also appear as an ingredient in ice cream!

Deep Water Biology

This was a fun session. We had to put on 2 wetsuits to go snorkelling in the sea; we also wore weight belts to allow us to easily dive down to pick up anything interesting we saw. I partnered with Bowen and he was really into it so was a good partner to have. By the end of the session it was getting very cold in the water especially my hands and lips. We again found a lot of different types of sea including one that originated from Japan! We also found a lot of jelly fish, star fish and a flounder fish.

Net Fishing

Before we set off in the row boats we had to make sure the nets were clean and then put them in the boxes in a way that would make it easy to put them into the water without making them tangled.

To clean the nets we had to lay them out and almost stretch them so they were full length. We then go along the net and inspect it and remove any seaweed or undo any knots or tangles. To pack it away into the boxes you need 3 people; 1 to carry the box and 2 to put the net into the box. You begin with the weight and float going in the box first, you must make sure the top and bottom of the net are kept at opposite ends of the box to avoid the net twisting. If the net becomes twisted in the water the chances are you catch many fish as it is easier for them to see it and it also can’t be stretched to its full length so the net has less surface area.

When in the boats one person feeds the net into the water it should almost pull its self out the box while the others row away from the float. When the net is in the water you should pull it so its tightens and stretches out.

Pulling in the nets is quite simple and it is not so important to keep the top and bottom of the net separated. Once you had remove the fish you again must lay the whole net out and clean it so it is ready for the next use.

In the nets we mainly caught flounders many of which were too small to get a decent sized fillet off of so if they were alive we put them back in the ocean. The largest fish we caught was a cat fish; you have to be careful when removing it from the net as they have very powerful teeth and can break bones in your fingers and hands.

 

Laws About Net Fishing

• If you catch lobster in the nets you must throw it back it is illegal to fish for lobster with nets.
• You must be a Norwegian citizen to fish using nets.
• All nets should be at least 3m below the surface
• You should not leave the nets in the water for extended periods of time; nets are usually placed in the afternoon/evening and collected the next morning.
• You cannot sell the fish you catch yourself; you must sell it to a company who can then sell it to the general public.

Overnight Survival

When rowing to the island we would stay on the wind was very strong and it took a while to get there. We had to take an indirect route using another island as shelter to have a rest and regroup the boats together, before tackling the final stretch across an open piece of water. We managed to find a sheltered bay where we could tie the boats up out of the wind.

When we got to the island as a group we looked for a clearing in the trees where we would all be able to lye and make a fire for the night. When we found this it was quite disorganised with some people leaving to go fishing while others collected fire wood. Eventually we decided as a group to meet back at the camp at 5pm to go out in the boats and set the nets. For the next hour everyone went their separate ways either fishing or collecting winkles and mussles, or whatever else needed doing. I think as a group we could’ve been more organised and assigned people specific tasks to avoid any social loafing and generally be more effective as a group.

When putting out the nets we didn’t need the whole group so we sent 3 boats out with the nets and the others who stayed behind put up the tarps and collected more fire wood. After this we filleted this fish for eating. We all had the chance to fillet one as we had so many which was really interesting. Everyone managed to successfully fillet the fish and took most of the meat off the fish. I think filleting is something that requires a high amount of skill to be able to do quickly; most of us took a while especially as it was our first time and we wanted as much meat as possible off the bone. It was also interesting to see what the fish had been eating by looking in their stomach; some fish had whole crabs or shrimp while others had eaten smaller fish. Seeing what a fish has been eating would be something good to do if you were fishing with children, I think they would find it very interesting. We kept 2 fish whole to cook on a stick over the fire and pass around as group food.

In the evening we spent time around the fire playing different games, this was good as we could share the games we knew with the Norwegians and they taught us one they all knew as well.

Most people slept with all their clothes on and near the fire which people managed to keep going all night whenever they woke up. It did get cold in early morning and we had a few spots of rain so the tarps came in useful

 

I really enjoyed this week and I think I learnt the most on this trip compared to all the previous ones. I think our group worked well together the whole week but kept improving as the week went on. The only time there was any disagreement was on the last day after our night on the island as everyone was sleep deprived and tired!