When? 28.5. – 1.6.18

Where? Area on and around Randøya

The main aim of the Coastal Course was to get an idea how to use the sea and coastline as an area of learning. Therefore we spent the whole week on the east side of Randøya, an offshore island in the south east of Kristiansand. The students from our class and the Norwegian’s class were mixed together in four groups. During the week we stayed in those four groups and had two lessons (at 10am and 2pm) every day. We were about to gain practical experience in the following topics:

• Life in tidal waters
• Deep water bioligy
• Netts and trap fishing
• Fishing tools
• Preparation and arrangement of a dinner using raw materials from the sea
• Boat and sea knowledge
• seamanship
• regulations at sea
• navigation at sea
• snorkling
• rowing and use of outboard engines
• kayaking in sea kayak

Day 1: At Kongshavn, we met at 10am and loaded all our gear and food for one week on a boat and we’re brought to Randøya. After a short march, we sorted out the accommodation (we stayed in buildings which were once used as barracks in the World War II) and got an short introduction about our schedule from our three lecturers. I was in group 1 and my schedule looked like this:

 

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
10am	arrival	net catch of the day	Deep water biology	kayak	departure
2pm	fishing techniques + “Island survival trip”	large boats	kayak	shallow water biology

 

 

My group (Jed, Marijn, Janna, Frankie, Zsófi, five of the Norwegians and me) met with Svein Rune at 2pm for our first lesson. Svein told us about how to fish with large (25m) 3-layer fishing nets, so called “Gillnets”. The three layers of those nets have different mesh sizes and the fish is caught by snagging on the gill covers. When trapped, the fish can neither advance through the net nor retreat. These nets use a system with floats and weights: The nets are anchored to the sea floor by bricks, whereas air pads make them float. In this way the nets are placed vertically in the water. It is necessary to attach the nets at least 3 meters under the surface.

Together we laid out 3 nets on the lawn, freed them from little knots and placed them neatly into big plastic tubs. Svein also told us, how to put the nets into the water once we are on a boat. This information was necessary for our “island survival trip”to which we started in the late afternoon. We were given a survival food-package with potatoes, carrots and spices and were allowed to take one kitchen stove, fishing rods, two tarps, water, knifes and warm cloths. In three rowing boats we headed off and laid out the fishing nets on three different spots (in the map: red triangles), which Svein had recommended. It is important that the end of the net which points away from the shore, is attached to a buoy, so that larger boats can recognise the nets and keep their distance. It was kind of difficult to steer the rowing boat properly, because I had never rowed a boat before. After some time Zsófi and me found a common rhythm and made good pace. We decided to go ashore at the east side of the island Ytre Kalvøy.

We pulled the boats ashore and attached them with a “bow line knot” to a ring.

This knot is really useful, because it does not slip or bind under load and is easy to undo, if there is no load on the standing end. We walked across the island in order to find a nice spot for the night.

 

 

 

 

In the end we decided to build a shelter with dead branches in the middle of bushes, which were standing in a circle. The advantage of this spot was, that there was a lot of soft moss, which would be perfect to sleep on. We attached the branches in a circle, placed one tarp on the bottom and tied the other tarp over the whole shelter with some ropes. After that we spent the evening with cooking and eating some vegetable soup and enjoying the evening mood on the island. Although I really did looking forward to the night in our shelter, I barely couldn’t sleep. There were far too many mosquitos, which bothered us a lot. Moreover, I was very cold, although we were cuddling together very tight and I was wearing a beanie, woollen underwear and a warm layer on top.

Day 2: At around 4am, we gathered together on a man-made structure where we had a little fire and warmed ourselves. We started paddling back to Randøya at around 6am. On this way back, we had to take in our nets, which we had bring on the evening before. While we pulled the net into the tub, we had to kill the fish with a knife. I had never killed a fish before and was struggling a lot with myself. In order to kill a fish fast, you should stab it with the knife between the eyes, directly into the brain. Back on Randøya we unloaded the tubs and were allowed to sleep another two more hours. All of us were worn out and fell asleep immediately.

At 10am we met with Kjetil, laid out our nets on the jetty and had a closer look on the catch of the day or rather catch of the night. Zsófi, Janna had caught about 6 fish (mainly flatfish and a cod) and 2 crabs. Our task was then to entangle the fish and bring the nets back into a neatly order. It was really difficult to get the fish out of the little meshes, but freeing the crabs was the hardest job.

 

 

 

Although fishing with gillnets is really promising, because animals cannot see the net and so they swim into it and are tangled, the main advantage is obvious: There is a high risk of bycatch like our two crabs, which we threw back into the water. After fixing the nets and putting them back into the tub, we gathered around a wooden table and talked about how to fillet a fish in order to cook them afterwards. We therefore sharpened the knifes Kjetil provided and were filleting as the description on the left shows.

 

 

In the afternoon Kjetil gave us a lecture about larger boats. After a short briefing concerning charts (sea maps), how to steer boats and general rules on the sea, we headed off in smaller groups. We took turns in navigating and steering and finally also did a little trip around the island. I never steered a boat before and was really excited about trying it by myself. In the evening we had a nice dinner: Our own caught fish, vegetable soup and a chocolate-porridge dessert. Afterwards, Kjetil took us on an interesting walk across the island. He introduced us to the underground world and the WW2 history of Randøya. I was really stunned by the well-maintained and vast tunnelsystem, radar and controlling stations.

Day 3: This day started with the deep water biology. We prepared ourselves with diving suits, fins, masks, snorkels, gloves, weight belts and bags which we attached to our suits and walked to a nice bay on the south east of Randøya. Then we entered the underwater world. As I already had experiences in diving in countries as Mexico, Tanzania and Thailand, I was really excited to experience the flora and fauna of the Skagerrak. There were a lot of jellyfish, different types of algae and we even saw a starfish.

The afternoon we spent with kayaking. Sitting in a kayak was also something new for me and I was really looking forward to it. As Len couldn’t teach us by himself, due to his injury, Jed and Frankie gave us an introduction. First we figured out what equipment is needed when kayaking: a sea kayak, a paddle (I as a right-handed person, my bottom blade points to me and the upper blade points to the right side), a life jacket ( = Sea Buoyancy Aid (SBA)) and a spray deck. We also talked about how to hold a paddle. The picture shows the recommended grip width, which is the distance between your elbows.

During the strokes, the grip of the control hand (right hand) is fixed and does not change, whereas the left hand should grasp the paddle shaft loosely. In this manner the right hand is able to twist the paddle to desired angles for turning, bracing and rolling. The “right hand fixed, left hand loose” technique is ideal for a wide variety of strokes, recoveries and manoeuvres. In order to control the kayak, the legs should press against the footpegs with every stroke. Therefore, the footpegs can be adjusted in the manner so that the knees are pressing against the kayak. This allows a better torso rotation and makes the paddling more efficient. We then did some stroke training: forward, reverse strokes, carving turns, and backward paddling. The next topic we talked about and also did some training, was safety. There are two techniques of rescuing a capsized kayak: The t-rescueand a-rescue. Whereas the paddler stays the kayak in a t-rescue and just catches the tip of another kayak in order to turn him / herself around independently, the x-rescue works differently. In case of capsizing, the paddler removes the spray deck under water and pushes its body out of the kayak. Once on the surface, the paddler swims to the front of the kayak and holds on to the tip. The closest person moves his / her kayak kayak in an 90° angle to the capsized one.

Another paddler stabilizes the rescuer’s kayak by holding to the back of the seat, while the rescuer catches the tip of the capsized kayak and slightly pulls it over his / her own kayak. In this way, the water can be removed. Once the kayak is in the water again, person in the water climbs on the (raft) back of the kayak, while the rescuers stabilize the kayak again. After training both rescue types, we did a little trip around the island.

Day 4: After our long kayak introduction on the previous day, we spent the morning lecture with a kayak trip around the whole island.

When kayaking near the coast and open sea, it is absolutely necessary to stay together as a group, in casesomebody capsizes and also not to get into the way of larger boats. It’s better to stay close to the coast in order to be sheltered from higher waves and streams, but at the same time be careful to not get smashed against the coastal rocks.

My last lecture “shallow water biology” was the most interesting one. Equipped with dip nets, loupes and buckets, we spent the afternoon with walking around in ankle deep water in a little bay. We searched for shells, shrimps, crabs and other maritime creatures. Svein even cooked oysters and mussels for us. I was really fascinated about how much animals live in the shallow water. Afterwards we walked to the nearby rocks, ate some sea cabbage and other plants which grow along the coast and finally jumped in the open sea from the rocks at the very south point of Randøya.

That was the perfect ending of a great week full of enriching lectures. This week really taught me a lot about the coastal environment, how to behave and move and how to use this kind of landscape form.

On the way back to the mainland I was allowed to steer the big boat and even park in the harbour. This was the icing on the cake for me.