We had a beautiful cloudscape heading out to the site this morning, portent of things to come. Moderate wind, chilly, scattered light showers. We had a few drops only in late afternoon. Mostly it was the wind being a pain, throwing dust in everyone's face during troweling and shoveling.

We quit an hour early to take a tour of the local school of aquaculture, here in town. Recently the fishery department from the local university moved into a renovated commercial fishery building and expanded their operation by a huge amount. They study the local species, concentrating on learning about speciation: how a limited number of species can become many, for any number of reasons, and what might help this happen from a genetic perspective.

Iceland has only six species of fish, and itself was created only 10,000 years ago as viable environment, so it's a perfect place to look at these issues. With cutbacks to fishing quotas, the country's very interested in shoring up replacement means of income, including education, and establishing and optimizing fish farms. This school expects to double in size in the next few years.



This morning's cloudscape.




Our mysterious unmarked vehicle fleet parked at the ready.




Mike with Thermos.