The grand opening of the the exhibition ‘Ocean Fishing — Six Trips on the North Atlantic’ was very successful with around sixty people showing up, including the Danish ambassador in Sweden, people from the Icelandic Embassy, and Faroese people living in Sweden. The managing director of the Sjöhistoriska Maritime Museum, Hans-Lennart Ohlsson, was enthusiastic and looking forward to host the exhibition for seven months – with the opportunity to reach out to schools and the general public during the fall.
SLIDE SHOW: Click here to view photos…
Congratulations to Hvalnes/Christian í Grótinum! Their new pelagic trawler Norðborg was launched at the Asmar shipyard in Chile in February and will be delivered later this year to replace the old Norðborg. The 84-meter ship will be the most sophisticated and versatile pelagic trawler in the world. And imagine a 2500m3 refrigerated fish room that can hold 1400 tonnes of frozen products of herring, blue whiting or mackerel. Read more about this amazing Faroese family company (see chapter Pelagic Pair Trawling with ‘Christian í Grótinum’ and ‘Norðborg’) in my book 
Nanna Hermansson and Sören Hallgren (representatives from the Swedish Faroese Society) visited me last week in the Faroes. For an intensive couple of days we prepared for the coming exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Stockholm and selected 30 photos from “Images” that will show some aspects of todays fishing in the North Atlantic. The exhibition will later on travel to Copenhagen, Esbjerg, Gothenburgh, Reykjavik, Tórshavn and Nuuk. The Nordic Culture Fund is one of the main sponsors and others are expected to join in. Also, there seems to be great interest for a conference to be held in Stockholm later this year and if it will be realized we will invite representatives from the fishing industry and the scientific community to work toward increased understanding of fishing and to highlight some challenges facing consumers, the seafood trade and fishing industry. Check out for more details later…
Remember the photo essay in ‘Images’ about Bakur FD 1201 and Stelkur FD 1202 (see also ‘Nasty Weather’ below)? With the December arrival of the pair trawlers Heykur FD 1203 and Falkur FD 1204, Runavík based vessel operator Beta (now part of Faroe Seafood) finalized its replacement program of the old ‘Cuba Trawlers’. The new, 38.60m long identical pair trawlers were built by M Cíes in Vigo, Spain, like Bakur and Stelkur were five years ago. A couple of months ago, another pair came, Rókur FD 1205 and Lerkur FD 1206, two trawlers of similar size and engine power as the others, however these were not newbuilds but were relatively new nonetheless and refitted to match in length (38.80m) after they had been bought from their Scottish and Irish owners.
When I was a little girl, me and my mother used to go to a fish market known as “Feskekörkan” (or “Fiskekyrkan” — “Fish Church”) on every Christmas to find the best lutfisk (lutefisk) in Gothenburgh. The lutfisk dish is a traditional Swedish dinner on Christmas Eve. But what is lutfisk? Well, “lut” means lye and you translate lutfisk to mean “lye fish”. So lutfisk was invented when someone discovered that dried fish became white and plump again when soaked in a bath of lye. Lutfisk is prepared by first soaking dried fish, usually ling (fairly mild in taste) or saithe (coarser consistency and a more typical lutfisk taste) in a lye bath, and then rinsing off the lye in subsequent baths of water. This process can take more than two weeks. Many still want their lutfisk with white sauce, salt, and pepper. If you want to see some modern recipes, you can check them out www.lutfisk.nu. Bon appetite and Merry Christmas!
Throughout the remainder of 2007, we offer a free, fantastic IMAGES OF FISHERMEN 2008 Calendar for those of you who purchase a copy of my book “IMAGES OF FISHERMEN: The North Atlantic” directly from the publisher through email.