Back in the Fjord

Henni and Micha check a herring egg incubator at a mesocosm. Photo: Maike Nicolai, GEOMAR

“Back in the Fjord”: We discussed the title of our press release at length. Admittedly, we had come up with more appealing titles for previous experiments. But it fits. Oh, yes, it fits! The KOSMOS gang is back at the fjord, this time accompanied by a group of highly motivated students. And how happy everyone is to go out at any kind of weather, bite the waves, tap samples on a rocking boat and spend hours in front of their binoculars counting critters too small to recognize with the naked eye!

It’s great to join them again. It’s great to see the mesocosms floating between rocks and islands again. It’s great to be back in the fjord.

KOSMOS 2015: Carbon dioxide addition with the "spider".

Carbon dioxide addition with the “spider”. Photo: Maike Nicolai, GEOMAR

This morning – after having been woken up by the first plane leaving Flesland airport – I felt the urge to go out to see, film and photograph the mesocosms (aka “most beautiful research facilities in the world”). And besides: It was sunny.

So – who was going? Henni, Micha, Paul and Fabrizio had to do another carbon dioxide addition without disturbing the fish eggs or the evo-cages. Solvin and I followed them in a smaller boat with our cameras and Solvin’s plankton net (he does not count the critters but spends countless hours to portrait them).

By the time we had reached the mesocosms, dark grey clouds had covered the sun and the wind had picked up a bit. But hey – it was still dry. And our faces were glowing anyway.