Initially the prospect of teaching students in the Fisheries Department was a somewhat daunting prospect; as an English student I had a naïve notion of some kind of fly fishery scholars bedecked in galoshes and Barbour jackets. How wrong I was…As we entered the faculty HQ (a sunny courtyard bordered with rectangular tanks of aquatic specimens) we were greeted by a very friendly lady in a lilac sari. She had been expecting us and was eager to show us all the sights and sounds of the department. Before we started our tour we learnt about the history of the degree programme which had been set up by top female professor Ruchira Cumaranatunge. A degree in Fisheries & Marine Science Technology is exclusive to the University of Ruhuna and is the one of the only courses offered by the university that is taught entirely in English.However, this didn’t allow me to understand very much of the technical language that was banded about the laboratory! With an assortment of Latin names inscribed in curly letters on neat little labels the place had an air of a witch doctor’s laboratory. This impression was strengthened as we entered the lab where the professors were busily taking samples, measurements and notations. Each smiled welcomingly and resumed their cautious studies. I tiptoed around the lacquered wooden benches whose tiny white gas taps took me back to school day science lessons. The bottle-lined walls displayed an array of potions and poisons in glass jars with yellowed tickets; Aladdin’s Cave meets Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The most impressive aspect was the astounding range of dissected fish, sea mammals and octopuses preserved in great tanks of formaldehyde. We saw great long eels, gigantic flat fish and sharks with icy eyes that seemed to follow you around the room. In one tank was a cross-section of a particularly large flatfish whose ripples of skin looked like the underside of a mushroom.There were also gleaming turtle shells hung proudly on the wall which displayed the unique speckles and patterns of different species. One of the professors even showed us a genuine whale vertebra that was the size of table and a gigantic sword-like rib bone. Comically he remarked that a whale’s rib cage would be large enough to live inside which sent my imagination drifting into the dark realms of impossibility…Unfortunately we couldn’t spend the entire morning staring at the fascinating fishes and awe-inspiring anemones as we had to make our way to the classroom to take our English lesson. So, taking a last, lingering gaze I reluctantly left the macabre but riveting sub-aquatic wonderland.Bronwen Jones