Life in a fishing camp

Hello guys!
I just got back to Helsinki from my summer adventure in Northern Norway on Senja island where I lived in a small fishing camp. I realized that something that turned into my everyday routine could seem pretty special to you and you'd like to know more about living in such an unusual environment. So take your pop-corn, sit back and read my story.

Location

The Mefjordvær village where I lived is located on the Northern side of Senja island (second biggest island in Norway). According to the last census population is 179 people of which I saw not more than 50. There used to be a fish factory that was turned into a hotel and a fishing camp. The camp is the only reason Mefjordvær is visited by the tourists. They come mostly from Germany, England and the countries of the former USSR. Those guys come to Mefjordvær catch big fish and there's plenty. But I will write about fish later, because it deserves own paragraph.

People

Population mostly consists of the locals who were living there for generations. Side by side with them live internationals coming to Mefjordvær for seasonal work: Polish, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Romanians, Finns etc. Everybody seemed to get along pretty well. I have even seen a couple of international marriages there. Considering the size of the place I can imagine how much of the news it was when it happened:)

Senjahoppen with its fishfarms and fish factory.

Many of the locals work on a fish factory located in Senjahoppen, or are somehow connected to fishing industry: boat crew, maintenance etc. Mostly the whole places spins around fishing, however tourism is rising all the time. Senja is called "Norway in miniature" after all, so no wonder people are coming to see it. Some live and work in Finnsness and Tromsø during the week and come to Senja for a weekend.

Seagulls

Living by the sea would have not been the same without these guys. My limited ornithology knowledge and personal observation told me that summer is the time when their little ones are born and raised. Most of the shoreline is one big kindergarten for seagulls. They have no idea what a private property is and put their nests wherever they see fit, which automatically turns you into intruder whenever you are passing by. Feeling extremely protective about their kids the adult seagulls soar above your head screaming curses "Iaaaayaaaiiiaaa-iaaayaaaiaaa" occasinally lunging down to have a better aim when dropping bombs on you. I think for the whole July I kept my hood on every time I was going home. When they hit you all you have to do is wonder how can they actually fly carrying so much shit. I got hit once and my whole back looked like modern art painting. After living side by side with seagulls for a while you might catch yourself answering to their "Iaaaayaaaiiiaaa-iaaayaaaiaaa". That's a sign you have to leave the camp before it's too late. When it's someone else telling you that you talk to seagulls it is a sign that it is too late for tears because damage has been done. You can stay.

Fish

I could not miss this part of the story for obvious reasons. Everything on Senja one way or another is connected with fishing. Most of the things smell like fish, including you. During summer we were mostly catching cod, pollock and red fish. Sometimes we caught haddock, ling wolf fish, mackerel, common ling and cusk. 

Damn cusk deserves a separate paragraph because it is the slimiest fish I have ever seen. It bites on anything and is very hard not to catch. Cusk is not very appreciated by the locals because of its bulletproof skin, which is also super slimy. They say you could make boots of it. I once tried to fillet it myself and regretted it immediately. However tenacious Germans like it.

My favorite fish were red fish, pollock and cod. Red fish of decent size lives around 150-200 metres below the surface under high pressure. That's why its eyes pop out once you reel it up. It has sharp needles in its back fin with venom in it that's why you should wear gloves when handling it. But if you get stung anyway, here is a tip for you: just cut open its eye and use a liquid from it- it neutralizes the venom. You can immediately feel that you caught red fish, because it fights like a little devil.

7 kg cod. It feels very rewarding to catch your own dinner.

13 kg pollock. The biggest fish I have caught so far.

The biggest cod I have seen was around 20 kg. It is considered a pretty good size for summer time. The problem with it though is that the bigger it gets the less tasty it becomes. Unlike pollock whose meat is tasty (in my opinion) regardless of the size. It is a very beautiful and athletic fish. Also the easiest to fillet (again, in my opinion). My biggest catch was about 13 kg. After filleting it I shared the meat with my neighbors and had enough food for the next two days myself. I ate so much fish during my stay in Norway that I doubt I will eat it again any time soon.

"Paltus" aka Halibut

65 kgs halibut

"Paltus" is the most used word in a fishing camp and is the only word that gets through the language barrier between the local captain and russian tourists. The holy grail for the most fishermen coming to fish on Senja. It is a very cautious fish which makes it pretty tricky to catch. Once on a hook it fights like a devil. The biggest one I saw was 65 kg, but they can grow all the way to 300 kg. A very beautiful creature. 

Bad weather

Sea is closed until further notice

When living in the Northern Norway you better be ready for bad weather, storms and a strong wind howling outside. I have seen strong rainfalls with floods and falling trees before, but I never had a feeling that my house is going to fly into the sea like an empty match box. Of course I am exaggerating a bit, but the environment did feel pretty hostile at times. I have never heard wind sound like that. "Fuuuuuooouuuuuuuuu" and you feel house shaking with every gust of the wind.

On days like that we made sure that all the boats were back from the sea and well secured and put "No fishing" sign. However it meant no fishing for smaller boats. We were still taking groups to fish with a big boat. And what a roller-coaster that was! At times it felt pretty rough when the boat was hitting a wave. 

Women

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Free time

A paragraph above might make you wonder what did I do in my free time? Though the whole story might sound like I had one big vacation I needed some time off to recharge my batteries. My co-worker was very nice to take me for a ride around the island and show me the coolest spots. Apart from that I went hiking, climbing, had a few nights out in a hut, went to the nearest beach through 2 km long tunnel by bicycle. Once all of that was done I watched series, ate cookies and took it easy. I also played about 500 games of chess online. One day were were tearing some shelves down in our garage and found water skis...No, in the end of the day I did not try it. Would have been very cool to go along the fjord on water skis... 

Cool things I got to do

As you might have realized by now the whole environment was pretty special, which in turn opened me a lot of opportunities to try things I always wanted to try or even never thought of. Sometimes I was helping a local guy to fillet a fish for the tourists when there was too much fish for one guy to handle.

Every now and then I'd get a call from tourists who were out in the sea fishing and their engine wouldn't start. I quickly jumped on a boat and went to tow them back to our pier.

-Hello, is this Michael?

-No, but how can I help you?

-Oh, I must have dialed a wrong number...

-No Sir, this is correct number. How can I help you?

-Our engine died and we are drifting towards the rocks...

-You don't need Michael. You need me. I will be there in 5. 

Another day in the office, you know:)

Once we were fishing with a bunch of tourists and went quite far from the shore. The weather was fantastic: sunny, no wind, no waves...and no fish. We went out during the tide and that is a time when fish doesn't feel hungry. Everybody was quiet and it started to feel pretty boring. I knew that there was at least one hour before the fish would start biting again, so I started contemplating on how to shake the crowd up a little and take the boredom away. I was sitting on a fly-bridge of our boat looking at water when I got an amazing idea of jumping in the sea from there. I quickly took my clothes off and jumped. All they saw was a white lightning hitting the water. In fact that was my bum falling in the Norwegian sea. Water was pretty warm for those latitudes: +12. Needless to say, they all got jelly fish about it and wanted to do the same. As they say, bad example is contagious.

I will never forget going to Tromsø airport with one group by a helicopter. They felt like 3 hour ride was too much for them, so they preferred 25 minutes of helicopter flight instead. A very interesting experience I have to say. We landed in Tromsø airport and waited for a ride inside a huge empty hanger. There was a bit of a spy-movie vibe in the air.

The other day I got a text from a local friend:

-Man, I need to go to the store, but I cannot drive. Can you please give me a ride there?

-Bro, I don't have a driver's licence...

-OK...

-But I can take you there on a motor-boat!

The whole idea of a motor-boat ride to a grocery store seemed very appealing to me. 

We went there at full steam of course. 

Once when we were moving between fishing spots on a nice sunny day. I was on the fly-bridge and the captain was at helm (like he is supposed to). There was another helm up there, so I decided to try if it was active. To my great joy I realized that I could actually steer the boat! When we stopped the captain said:

-Next time I will chop your arms off if you do that!

-Man, I had to try it. You got to understand!

-I understand. That's why I said "next time"... 

Pier

Pier was the center of our little universe. It was a place where trophy fish was put there for a show, fishing stories were told, tips about good fishing spots were shared etc. It is hard to describe it all in words, so I took a time-lapse video for you to feel its vibe.

Things I learned

Before arriving in Mefjordvær I had a very limited knowledge about fishing and sea life in general. Thanks to to my natural curiosity I learned a lot of interesting things:

• the most important thing is that my whole idea about sailing changed completely. I used to think that the only thing you should keep in mind when sailing is the direction you are going to. In fact there are so many tiny things that can make your journey a lot more pleasant: height of the waves and a distance between them, what side are they coming from. When waves are coming from behind in order to make your journey feel smoother you can catch one wave and surf it instead of hitting every single wave. It also feels pretty cool, you can see a bow of your boat going a little bit down and feel how the sea is carrying you.
• take as much fish as you truly need, not as much as you want.
• how to fillet a fish. I am happy that I learned it from a real fisherman, not Youtube.
• how to extend a line, hook knots etc.
• how to cure red fish stings
• don't attach your boat to a pier too tight because it will hang in the air during the low tide. It's a motorboat, not a space ship. And you are not Luke Skywalker. If by a funny coincidence you are, may the force be with you.
• when feeling sea-sick you have to keep your eyes on the horizon. Don't look at your toes. In the old days captains used to put young sailors feeling sea-sick at helm, so they were busy and looking at the horizon.
• if you feel like nothing helps and you are about to puke, puke from a deck instead of going down to head, because that is one-way ticket.You will stay there for hours.
• how to find North by looking at cod's liver. Just kidding. We used compass.
• last but not least I felt the power of the sea. 

It was a fantastic experience and I am happy that I was there. These memories will stay with me forever. Thank you very much for reading! Please share, maybe it will inspire someone to go on their wildest adventure!