Fortunately the water wasn’t too deep and the visibility is great here so we deemed it safe enough for me to venture down solo. The seabed was covered in fish bones and skeletons and as the sun was setting already, it created quite an eerie atmosphere. No time to let the imagination run wild! I found the bags but they were too big and bulky for me to lift them up using my own buoyancy and all attempts to wrap ropes around them failed. So this morning with fresh brains we decided to use a net to put them on to and an inflatable at surface pulling them up.

This worked perfect and soon the harbour workers had all their goodies back and I was off warming my fingers with a hot cup of coffee. All the fish is going to be good to sell still, they just need to be dried up again for a while - thanks to the clean water quality around here!

There are drilling plans around the Lofotens from big oil companies such as Shell. Oil exploration not only poses a threat to the environment from operational and incidental releases or blow outs, but the day to day operation of the platforms also result in chronic chemical pollution of a wide range of highly toxic chemicals. This is not acceptable, especially in an area ecologically as important as the Lofotens. The all-important breeding ground to the number one renewable resource of Norway – the cod.

- Sari Tolvanen, Marine biologist

Sari heading for the sauna after work well done.

Spot Sari!

Sari getting assistance from Donald