Wednesday 14 February 2018

Farewell our dear friend


It is with great sorrow that we report the passing of our dear friend Jón Gunnar Jóhannsson, the trap maker (centre in the photograph above). Jon was a key member of the Icelandic wing of the Brent goose research group and we all spent many hours with him talking about geese and hatching plans to catch them. When we visited Iceland he always greeted our arrival with warmth, hospitality, generosity and his big smiles, doing just about anything he could to make the team (of which he was an integral part) successful. In his day job, he ran an engineering company and his problem-solving was legendary, we still use many of the tools that he designed and built to aid catching and processing the birds. He also took great delight in trying to feed us hákarl (fermented shark) and Brennivin (Icelandic schnapps), which some of us managed to consume. No challenge was insurmountable for Gunni (demonstrating his very great skill as an engineer), our annual visits to Iceland will not be the same without him and he will be sadly missed by all of us. 

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