On Wednesday, we arrived in Lysekil in Sweden, just in time to enjoy an amazing sunset.

Today, on Thursday, we made a day trip to The Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences in Kristineberg, just across the Gullmarsfjord. Together with the partner station in Tjärnö, one hour north of Kristineberg, it is Sweden’s largest marine research facility. As soon-to-be marine scientists, we could not miss such a great opportunity!

At 8:00 am we were picked up by our ferry, the Sven Lovén Centre’s small research vessel “Oscar von Sydow”. After a 10 minute ride over the fjord, we were welcomed at the pier by Michael Klages, the head of the Sven Lovén Centre.When entering the first room, some

of us already got distracted since it was filled with lots of aquaria and water tubs, housing sea cucumbers, giant crabs and a variety of seastars!

Finally, everyone found the way to the lecture hall – which has a nice view over the small rocky islands within the fjord! – and we learned all the facts about the research station. It was founded in 1877 by Sven Lovén, a Swedish marine zoologist and was run by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for many years. Since about 10 years, it belongs to the University of Gothenburg. It provides facilities for guest scientists from all over the world, which can stay at the premises and use the laboratories and equipment for their projects.

Following the lecture, we got a guided tour through the buildings and got the chance to see the labs and climate rooms packed with seagrass, lobsters and many more. In one of the labs, we were lucky to solve the mystery of a reappearing species that we found in

previous plankton samples of the Kattegat region: Ophiotrix fragilis (brittlestar) larvae! A scientist working there was just looking at a screen with our unknown fellow.

The next stop was the library, which houses a great amount of beautiful old books. As Michael told us, just recently a guest scientist from the UK spent days and nights in the library and made a unique discovery in one of the archives: handwritten notes of Charles Darwin! How cool is that!?!

At 10:00 sharp it was time for Fika, an old Swedish habit. Everyone meets and sits together, enjoying a coffee or tea together with discussions on work or the outdoor activities at the weekend. This happens in Sweden twice a day, in the morning at 10 and again at 3 pm in the afternoon. A Swedish tradition that should definitely get establish in Germany as well!

Leaving the terrace with a great view over the beautiful landscape, we went back to the lecture hall and followed a talk on lobster aquaculture given by a guest scientist from Wales.

It was all about establishing a sustainable aquaculture of lobsters in Swedish waters. Now we are almost experts in lobster cultivation and how its procedures can be improved ;).

We finished our tour by looking at the summer-labs and outdoor facilities (including ships and sauna, who could miss this in a Swedish research institute :-). We then had our picknick-lunch right at the jetty, with a view through water that was “almost as

clear as if looking into an aquarium”, according to Philipp. So while some of us enjoyed the sun or the underwater scenery,

others used the time for some workout and explored the area by rowing boat. We wish we had this opportunity in Kiel as well!

At 3 pm, “Oscar” was waiting for us again, to bring us back to Lysekil where the Alkor crew was awaiting us.

 

Blogger: Diana Besel & Miriam Beck, MSc. students of Biological Oceanography at Geomar