Saturday 19 April 2014

Longin' for the Långan

We concluded our first summer in Sweden - yes, almost a year ago - with a visit from SS&S's very own Joe and Lani Stinthrup.

Earlier in the summer I had started to explore Swedish waters (citation: holarctic musings). I had gotten wind of two sister rivers, the Långan and Hårkan, situated in Jämtland (a county that borders Norway and is below Lappland), that promised trophy browns and grayling. You pay per river in Sweden, so you need to find outfitters like this (BEST CABIN EVER). 


The first 24 hours were slow, we had a few rises, a couple hits, but nothing landed. Good thing it was berry season and we had brought supplies. Of note to the SS&S readership:

 Chorizo Ost - don't ask, just do.

Unknown berry, maybe a current - you can cook off the toxins right?


Steak with haloumi 















Joe eventually kicked things off and it wasn't long before we all got in the action:



The majority of grayling were >30 cm (I landed one above 50), but the browns were tiny. There was however A MASSIVE brown that kept jumping right in front of our cabin. We have no photographic evidence but we all caught glimpses of the fish that became known as 'white juan'. I inquired about this behaviour with the outfitter and he said something about parasites and the fish trying to knock them off by repeatedly jumping out of the water - never heard of this before.





In typical SS&S fashion, we turned our locally procured provisions into humble meals that were accompanied by river water. I quite like the taste and texture of grayling as the meat reminded me of a heartier walleye.





We left with a rare sighting of a feral reindeer - apparently there is a healthy forest dwelling population of escapees in this area.


This winter was busy - I built an 8 wt fly rod, organized an international workshop on conservation genomics, and interviewed for a couple jobs - all of which I will post on in the very near future.



Wednesday 2 April 2014

Hydraulic fracturing

I am already failing at posting more regularly, but I thought I would share this article:  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/03/31/fracking_alternative_europe_russia_gas_unknown

Ignoring the foreign policy aspects of the article, what I like is that it does a very good job of highlighting how much uncertainty there is in the debate over fracking. While it is not really mentioned in the article, the same uncertainties exist around understanding the impacts of this type of development to wildlife. Also interesting to think about what to do when there is a massive economic driver for the development of a resource before you fully know the consequences of the development.