Even though eelgrass (Zostera marina) is reported to lose its leaves during the cold season, the team was able to document an extended eelgrass meadow. It is known that the seasonality of eelgrass is not as pronounced in the Baltic Sea as in other areas. Nevertheless, the extension and density of the meadow were a little surprise for the divers.
]]>Visibility at the second day of christmas was not very good. The direct wave exposure suspended a lot of sediment and that was the reason we could shoot only few pictures. Those who want to see stalked jellyfish in real life only need to go for a shallow dive between Bülk and Strande.
]]>The example presented here shows how precise the logger keeps the data. It also is a proof for the possibility to change directions during a dive and to adjust the course to the actual conditions. We actually check right the possibility to purchase a certain amount of loggers. We want to provide loan units for all participants who are willing to try this new and improved method.
Everybody who wants to try it should know that we will need the depth profile and the GPS track for the dive. Right now we already provide the possiblity to upload the depth profile from a dive computer and we will provide a similar solution for the GPS data.
]]>TaMOs fulfils all these conditions and was funded with 6500,- Euro. We are happy about the faith in TaMOs. We will keep working to inspire as many scuba divers as possible with the spirit of biodiversity by the best teaching material we can make.
]]>Lumpfish are domestic in wide parts of the northern Atlantic from Canada to New Jersey, from the Barents Sea to Greenland and down to Spain. The clumsy body is big and the eyes and the pectoral fin are quite big in comparison with the stocky head. Lumpsuckers do not have a swim bladder, but with a sucking plate originating from the pelvic fins they are adapted to living on the seafloor. They can't swim very well and their main food are comb jelly fish, small fish and other invertebrates.
Most time of the year Cyclopterus lumpus stays in deeper regions from 50 to 800 m. During the spawning period in late spring the adults migrate to shallow coastal areas. Here the mainly greenish females lay their eggs on the ground. The males become redish at the belly in this period and protect the clutch. It is common to see the males guarding their offspring at stony beaches.
In autumn you will find the 2-4 cm juvenile fishes at eal grass or macro algae. The colors reach from bright yellow via yellow-green and brownish to violett. Most individuals have dots or stripes. The body that is a little bit like a blowfish as well as the clumsy moving technique make these little ones a nice subject for a picture.
Lump fish are also caught by the commercial fishery. The eggs of lump fish will be colorued and salted and sold as cheap caviar. Sometimes it is sold as 'German caviar'. The smoked or roasted meat of the males is well known in the countries of northern europe.
Sometimes it is not necessary to go diving to see an interesting new species - snorkeling will do. In the shallow bay between Strande and Bülk in the Kiel fjord it is possible to see curious members of the cnidarians already in depths of 1.5 to 1.8 m. Stalked jellyfish have their tentakles on so called arms and these are arranged in a circle. The so called "beaker" is specific for this group.
The domestic species are Crateropholus convolvulus and Lucernaria quadricornis. The specimen on the image presented in this text is most likely C. convolvulus. According to the literature, this species is not dnecessarily omestic in the Baltic, but this itatus keeps changing for a lot of species right now.
Stauromedusae have characteristics of the free floating medusae and the sessile polyps. The "beaker" corresponds to the umbrella of the medusae, but its ring muscle is reduced. The most mebers of the approximately 50 known species are not completely and permanent attached to the substratum - they can move if neccessary. Some species nevertheless secret a hard substance (like Chitin) that glues them permanently to the groud. Thus, these species are not capable of leaving their "seat" anymore.
]]>The muddy ground changed quickly to a mixture with more sand and we logged all plants and animals we saw. As usual in Falckenstein we saw flat fish, sea beech, pipe fish, fields of blue mussels and a small eal gras meadow. We also met the comb jelly fish Mnemiopsis leidyi. This one is hard to distinguish at daylight from the domestic comb jelly (Bollinopsis leidyi), but the beginning twilight made it easy. Mnemiopsis reacts on careful touching with luminescence along the combs. This is similar to the marine luminescence we can see in late summer and autumn. The domestic species is not capable of luminescence. (more on this determiantion)
Since TaMOs has applied for funding from the Environmental Funding Organisation BINGO in Schleswig-Holstein, it is planned to purchase more of these 100 meter long measuring tapes. Who ever wants to try this can get in contact with the TaMOs team and can join one of the dives or borrow the tapes for a small deposit from Dirk. This method has the advantage of following the tape instead of coordinating camera, lamp, writing and compass direction. Just follow the tape in the given direction and you can focus on the species.
Authored by Marianne Musinszki
]]>In the Baltic Sea there was already an other lobate ctenophore the common northern comb jelly (Bolinopsis infundibulum) endemic. This species was never very common in the western Baltic. But it was possible to see it more or less frequently during dives in Schleswig-Holstein. The low abundance and the way of living was never a threat to the planktonic fish eggs and larval.
Meniopsis leidyi was discovered to be a threat to the cod eggs during 2008. Scientists expectetd the cold winter tempratures in the Baltic Sea to be a problem to the newcomer. Unfortunatly the winter 2006 to 2007 was not as cold as usually and Mnemiopsis leidy was reported by divers all over Schleswig-Holstein. In the begining of 2008 it became rare around Kiel and now in the late summer it starts to be more abundant again. More ...
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]]>In the last decades, the distribution of sugar kelp in the Baltic Sea has strongly decreased. This can be assigned to an increased cloudyness of the seawater due to eutrophication and thus deterioration of water transparency. This generally led to a deterioration of habitat extension and quality in the so called phytal - the ecosystem in shallow water dominated by makrophytes. That deterioration is reflected in a distinct shift in distribution depth of large algae away from greater depths towards shallow zones.
An increased appearance of sugar kelp, also in deeper water, thus could be a sign of an amelioration of water quality in the Baltic Sea.
Class: Phaeophyta (brown algae)
Order: Laminariales
Family: Laminariaceae
Genus: Saccharina
Netted dog whelks are scavengers and predators with a long, protractible siphon. They detect their food by chemosensors, i.e. the respiration water flow pumped in via the siphon is checked for chemical stimuli from prey objects. Distribution of the netted dog whelk in the Kiel Bight is, in contrary to adjacent regions in the Belt Sea, confined to the lower sublitoral below 5m depth. There, the animal predominantly inhabits sandy and muddy bottom. The compared to the aforementioned areas deeper occurrence in the Kiel bight (so called brackish-water submergence) is related to the minimum salinity of 15 required by the netted dog whelk. In the (western) Baltic, an according salinity is restricted to deeper areas. During winter, the whelk migrates into deeper water. In the Mecklenburg Bight, Nassarius reticulatus is rather rare and until a few years ago was regarded as extinct or missing respectively. A more frequent appearance in that area can at least partly be related to increased inflows of high saline through the Belt Sea into the western Baltic. In spite of their minimum salinity requirements, netted dog whelks are comparatively insensitive to oxygen depletion situations.
If you happen to discover one of the often buried and due to their coloration highly camouflaged animals, a closer look may be worth risked: Often netted dog whelks are associated with symbiontic hydrozoans (Podocoryne carnea) that settle on their shells (see picture in this report).
Further information on biology and distribution of netted dog whelks in the Baltic Sea (in German) can be found here.
Phylum: Mollusca
Subphylum: Conchifera
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Prosobranchia
Order: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Muricoidea
Family: Nassariidae
Genus: Nassarius (Hinia)
In the western Baltic pipefish species of the genus Syngnathus and “snake pipefish” species of the genus Nerophis and Entelurus are common. All have a distinctly elongated, snake like, straight body without conspicuous fins in common. A closer look nevertheless reveals features that facilitates assignment of the discovery to one of the genera mentioned above. The following table provides identification aids in order to enable the diver to fill in his dive-log and of course the TaMOs-protocol correctly.
| Caudal fin / pectoral fins present? | ||||
| YES | NO | |||
| Tubular snout not laterally compressed. Diameter not bigger than eye diameter | Tubular snout laterally compressed, clearly higher than eye diameter | Snout straight, anal porus below basis of dorsal fin, tail end often used to adhere to substrate | Conspicuously colored: yellowish to light brownish with distinct bluish rings. Brown band on both sides of head (on height of eyes) | |
Lesser Pipefish (Syngnathus rostellatus) Greater Pipefish (Syngnathus acus)* | Broad-nosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) | Straightnose pipefish (Nerophis ophidion) | Snake pipefish (Entelurus aequoreus) | |
| | | | ||
| Foto: R. Rathke | Foto: R. Rathke | Foto: R. Rathke | ||
*The Greater pipefish is rather uncommon and rare in the western Baltic and apart from maximum size impossible to distinguish from the Lesser pipiefish underwater. In the majority of all cases its the Lesser pipefish that´s encountered in the Baltic Sea.
Apart from fascinating looks pipefish have further suprising particularities! Curious? Then continue reading here ...more
]]>We got into the water and slowly uncoiled the measuring tapes straightly. After the second tape had been unrolled, we beared the direction and descended.
This method has some clear advantages for a profile-dive, but also some essential disadvantages (listed below).
Tha TaMOs team tested the feasibility of this method for the monitoring. Two 50m tapes had been used allowing a transect of 100m length from the shoreline in Strande to ca. 30m from the mole.
Right now, we consider providing interested scubadivers with the measuring equipment and thus record so called "standard-profiles" for each diving site. If you have questions or opinions on that method don´t hesitate to contact us.
Advantages and disadvantages of recording observations using a measuring tape:
| Advantages | Disadvantages | ||
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