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Stripping Near the Arctic Circle: A chilling experience
The Arctic Circle is noted for the extreme: dark winters, frigid temperatures, dazzling scenery? and hard work! Thea Morken, a PhD student at APC, discovered all this last January. She also discovered that stripping fish reveals a lot about what they eat ? or don?t. In this trial 16 soybean diets, each processed differently, were investigated.
Thea worked at Norway's leading station for small-scale fish trials, Fjord Forsøksstasjon Helgeland. The private enterprise operates 64 sea cages year-round at Dønna in Nordland, testing diets on Atlantic salmon, cod and rainbow trout. Her research was part of a digestibility trial on Atlantic salmon, which included stripping fish of feces to analyze feed intake, palatability, and digestibility of nutrients.
Thea was assisted by the station's research assistants and site manager, Tor-Hugo Hestnes. The fish were caught, anesthetized, stripped, and then marked before releasing back into the cages. In total, 800 fish were stripped in just two days.
"The hands-on experience helped me understand the practical issues of a feeding trial planned 1000 kilometers away," Thea said. "I also learned;" she said with a smile, "that stripping in the Arctic can be a chilling experience."
A view from the research facility to "Dønnamannen", a mountain known for its silhouette of a man.
Site manager, Tor-Hugo Hestnes, prepares to catch the fish.
16 sea cages for 16 soybean diets.
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