TaMOs - How everything started

An idea unfolds

The idea of such a project is not completely new, since there are similar projects in other european countries that already have been running for several years. So from a certain time on we wondered why there is not a similar project in germany - But as always, an idea is notthe only thing you need for such a project.

In 2005 we met in colleagues from the Netherlands and England. These colleagues had been working in such projects already for several years by that time. In the Netherlands, the Anemoon-Project has been established since 1994. This project originated from scubadivers and meanwhile grew up to 300 members monitoring about 100 divingspots. This project already further expanded - now beach sightings like mussles, plantae and remains are included. There is another aspect of Anemoon that is dealing with colonization panels. These panels are supposed to be placed into the sea by volunteers at a protected spot and the person responsible regularly moniors colonization patterns.

In some similar way it started in England. The 'marine life information network' (MarLIN) came to life in 1995. MarLIN is using a combined approach, while scientists and  volunteers do actually use the same platform. This has already become one big community, which is now supporting each other in scientific investigations. The navy vessel 'HMS Scylla' of the british navy was used to create an artifical reef in Whitesand Bay in Cornwall in cooperation with the 'National Marine Aquarium'. Volunteers should download a monitoring form if they want to dive at this 113m long ship wreck. By using these forms the scientists are looking forward to learn more about colonization speed and community shifts.

These successful and long lasting projects encouraged us to start with TaMOs here in Germany. It took us two more years before we were able to present a complete concept. While we are working in that field, we received lots of queries on the environment from divers, who made dives and saw something special. Questions on the quality changes in the Baltic can not be answered very quickly, but we realised that some of the sightings were interesting to scientists too (e.g.  a sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) was seen in the area of Eckernförde, but this species has not been reported for several years from the whole Baltic Sea).

With these ideas we went to the national diving association and started with the preparations. We also received support by other agencies. From this stage the project developed - the first seminars will be announced during the next weeks. We expect the effort to be worth demonstrating the vast variability of the Baltic Sea environment.