(Part 1 of 2) “As you see, there is nothing here,” says Siggeir Stefánsson. “It is beautiful, but there is no special landscape you can’t see somewhere else.” In ten or twenty years time, this fjord in Iceland’s northeast corner could be transformed into an international container port with a wharf over six kilometers long….
(Post 2 of 2) Siggeir Stefánsson thinks about the future and the possibility of turning a nearby fjord into a deepwater container port when much of Iceland has turned toward tourism. Siggeir’s town was approached by a German engineering company with this large scale project in mind. “When this idea was starting, are you able…
(Post 1 of 3) Mission control at the Ísfélag fish processing plant in Þorshöfn, Iceland. The plant runs 24 hours a day during the fall to keep up with the mackerel and herring pouring in. We are here to meet this man, first to learn about his day job and then to witness his dreams…
(Post 2 of 3) We’ve donned robes, caps, and new shoes (that’s them, bottom right), and we’ve survived the hand washer and boot scrubber to experience the cold, wet, and clean world of the processing plant. I didn’t know that mackerel were so beautiful. Siggeir shows us the flesh and explains how the high quality…
(Post 3 of 3) Every box is full of fish. They come in off the trawlers, fresh from the sea, and they leave by ship too, boxed for market. 15,000-20,000 tonnes of fish per year roll through this warehouse: capelin, cod, pollock, mackerel, herring, lumpfish. Frozen in a world-class, carefully calibrated computer and off to…
(Post 1 of 3) We’ve made it to Þorshöfn in Iceland’s northeast corner, and we’ve left the tourist shops behind. This community survives on fish, and the first step is to take them out of the sea. Elsewhere, we’ve seen men hand-baiting their long lines, but not here. The Sigurður was brand new in July…
(Post 2 of 3) Petur Andersen is first mate of the Sigurður, and this is where he sits. The bridge of this trawler looks like the Starship Enterprise. “I went to sea at 17, and now I’m 43. I have never done anything else.” The crew spends about a week at a time out in…
(Post 3 of 3) Þorbjórn Víglundssen commandeers my notebook and pen to teach me exactly how a trawler works. It requires diagrams. The net behind him is a 500 metre long tube. Thick cables extend it behind the ship, and large steel “trawl doors” keep its mouth open. Crew members control its depth from the…
(Post 1 of 2) Late night, thick fog, and we are still on the road less traveled around northeastern Iceland. We have no place to stay, and now we can hardly see. The lights of Raufarhöfn draw us in, and we find ourselves here. This structure is the brain child of Erlingur B. Thoroddsen. It’s…
(Post 2 of 2) “Arctic Henge is my hobby,” says Erlingur. Several of the large arches in this model are already standing, but he’ll need 1.5 million dollars to complete the rest, including the Polar Star Pointer, Throne of the Sun, Water & Fire and the Beam Salon. The big idea also includes a stone…