Merry Solstice 2007!

The darkest days of the year, and the promise of light to come. Once again I am not at home in Ontario or frollicking in snow, but instead celebrating with the bounty of the red sea, a gorillia of dane dive buddy, a town of festive russian tourists, cordial egyptians and a santa on a camel. 

I've already 5 dives, and 2 more tomorrow. The peaceful chaos of mulling coral reef fish is quite different from jittery kelp forests of the pacific or kattegat; not better, just a different splendour. Otherwise, the whole scene is actually quite rediculously fun. In Canada, you might end a dive with a chummy "Nice dive, eh?" "Yes, quite nice", while here, the Egyptians bust out the vodka, dance and clap, and conclude with an immature game of tag ("you're it!")

Jacks, parrotfish, triggerfish, a giant 2m moray eel, a shark, flying eagle rays, an octopus, peaceful beaked sea turtle munching on encrusting algae... Wreck diving was also cool: following the slimy anchor line running into the blue abyss, until at 30m below, the ghostly mass of a sunken russian vessel slowly materializes, a derelict from the war when Israel stole the Sinai desert, now home to avaricious Jacks and many-tentacled lionfish. Night diving was also great... I panicked a bit, I must admit, when I was the first to entire, alone, and suddenly had to clear mask and maintain bouyancy in the dark, 2m underwater, the pressure building on my ears... Coral polyps actually come out at night, so you can really see how they've mostly died here.

Birding is poor, but I did see two Boobies (red sea species?), and lots of plovers of some sort.

Ahh. Awe. Jesus walked over the Red Sea; Moses parted the damn thing; now, at the end of the twenty-first century, we finally know where the divine of creation really resides.

Egypt Escape

I found a last minute week long cheap ticket to Hurdgada, Egypt, a bombed out resort town on the Red Sea, where I hope to do some diving. Yep, this will be my Jultid... I literally had 12 hours to pack from purchase to flight, lubricated with an unhealthy dose of corridor partying, a farewell to all the students as they go home for a couple weeks. Having not known if I'd have to scramble to find accomodations on the first of January, Hurdgada is a nice compromise, if a bit stress out.

Diving is grand! Though, I'm still thinking about the environmental and other ethics of such imperial-tourism... I'm not here to learn or "experience", just enjoy.

How to befriend the dark wet winter?

The darkness and my sprained arm is making me an anxious hopping ball of unspent energy. No nature, climbing, general exercise, ahhh! It happened last week during a head on collision with another cyclist. Yes, I was slightly inebriated. We were doing a "tura", ferrying back and forth several times between Helsingborg and nearby Danmark drinking, basically because the beer is cheaper than terrestrial bars, and who wouldn't prefer a bar that literally rocks back and forth (from wave action). I loved watching people trying both to look cool and maintain their balance. I imagine one could also "accidentally" bump into someone attractive and work it from there... Speaking of slimy, I'm a dancing machine in Sweden! Its neigh expected that guys go all out and be their own mock music video! Girls are more sedate and boring. So many opposites to Canada.

I can't stop whining about the darkness.... my plans for christmas consist of waiting for a last minute cheap ticket to egypt to do some diving. It might all get screwed if I actually lose my housing.

Banding Golden Plovers

Yet again, some observations about swedish culture: swedes absolutely never give "the look" ;-) to people they find attractive. They pretend they are not interested. Anything else is seen as being too desperate. The swedish word for desperate is "desperat", and may as well be synonymous with "kanadensisk".

Speaking of which, there are tons of canadians in Lund. Much more than Americans, which is significant, considering that there are 10 x as many yanks as canucks, so you'd expect a similar proportion of exchange students here. On the contrary, we outnumber them around 5 times. Why? Sweden is held in very high regards in Canada, a socialist beckon in a nightmarish capitalist world. Canada could be like Sweden, have its sort of economy and generous welfare state, if only the continent could split along the 49th parallel, and leave the USA Axis of Evil behind (and yes, screw you southern ontario).

Anyway, for the last couple of weekends, I've been going out banding European golden plovers just north of Lund. Its great to handle shorebirds again, reminds me of the similar species in Alaska that I worked with.

Tonight, I'm going indoor climbing.

First snow and electrofishing

And now, some observations about swedish culture: Swedes like to dress up and have theme party's. "Welcome to the eighties". Men like to touch each other.

Yesterday was the first snow fall.
But we'd be so lucky in Skåne to actually have a snowy winter. Usually it rains. I love snow: I love the sonic-texture of the wind blowing over a snowy forest flow; "crisp"; I love the trails of animals since passed, and bloody remains of predation in action; I love skiing.

Snow also helps to brighten the dark winter landscape. Speaking of which, its sundown at 4:00pm here in southern sweden. And it only gets worse. So, imagine how funny it is to get a call: "we set up mist nets tonight, just before sundown" and that means 3:30 pm.

Check this out: fish can be induced to have a electrical potential difference, and be "attracted" to an Anode. Its called electrofishing--highly efficient and highly illegal, aside from biological surveys of swedish waterways. Last week, I got to try my skills at it. Its non-lethal, so doesn't pique my vegatarian principles. This week, I also get to do some illegal trawling, and gill netting, which means messily dismembering dead fish to free them from nets. But at least I know where and how fish are caught. If most people knew how our oceans are being systematically raped...

Fisheries Ecology

2nd Course in my MSc of Marine Biology

Flounders experiments and singing swedes

A marathon run of flounder happenings: Fanny and I do an experiment on flounder cryptic colouration and patchiness to finish marine biology. It always fun to work with animals: trying to sight their freakish eyes peaking through the sand, catch them as they wiggle n' splash about, watch them change colour...and release them! Not publishable research, but always good to have experience designing and analyzing an experiment, as I hope this is what I'll do for the rest of my life. Not on flatfish of course.

To top off the conclusion of the course, there was a marine biologist "sättning". No equivalent in Canada, basically a bunch of dollied up swedes getting hammered in a heavily regimented manner consisting of a good meal and obligatory hymn list. The swedes like to sing and I like it!

Now, I'll begin Fisheries ecology. Not looking forward to it too much as I'm not too into teleosts (or cartilaginous creatures).