Author Archives: RDoug

Back when I was in the United States Air Force, I had a control tower chief who would routinely admonish us controllers that, “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken guano.” Okay. I cleaned that up just a wee bit. He didn’t really use the word salad. (Got ya!) At any rate, as I mentioned in Monday’s article, red king crab is an invasive species in Norway that has the potential to devastate the fishing industry here. But at least some locals are trying to make Crab Louie Salad out of the situation, if you catch my drift.

We spent about fifteen minutes here observing red king crab. Here’s a she-crab up close:

And here’s what make this invasive species so prolific (note the sheer number of eggs she contained):

Red king crab is far from the only source of income here, however. Cod and other fish are also coveted. We are, after all, in the northernmost fishing village on the planet.

I’ll end today’s tour of Skarsvåg with a few more photos of the village:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

We got back on the tour bus and left Kamøyvær for another small village farther north, Skarsvåg. But before we would arrive there we would pass through a magical place called Tufjordhøyda. In English this is known as the Aurora Lights View Parking area, and the surrounding countryside makes this a worthy stop even in broad daylight with zero chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). I posted the picture below at higher-than-normal resolution so that you can read the legend:

And if you want to know where we were, here’s a repeat of last Monday’s map. The location is marked as “Aurora Lights Viewing Area.”

And the views here are impressive:

The elevation also grants the visitor a magnificent view of the inlet to the northwest:

Back on the bus and a mere twelve minutes later we were in Skarsvåg. Skarsvåg’s claim to fame is that it is the northmost fishing village on the entire planet! Now far north? How about 71° 6′ 47″ North Latitude. As reference, that’s barely over 5º north of the Arctic Circle, which is at 66° 34″ North Latitude.

Here, in Skarsvåg, red king crab is an invasive species first discovered in this region in 1977. According to the locals, it was brought in the Murmansk Fjord in the late 1960s by Russians, who were looking to expand into the king crab industry. The resulting blight of king crabs has spread throughout the region, devastating fish stocks. So, apparently Ukraine isn’t the only invasion for which the Russians are responsible. At any rate, we visited a king crab operation right here in Skarsvåg:

I’ll show you more on how Skarsvåg is trying to capitalize on what is otherwise an ecological disaster on Wednesday’s article.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)