Home run for the RV Maria S. Merian:
Research vessel sets off towards the Baltic Sea ice
for the "Deep Baltic" mission

09.03.2021 – Are we alone here?

Faced with a frozen rigid landscape that extends more or less unchanged to the horizon, the comparison with a desert comes to mind. Are we alone here? Of course not! On the horizon, icebreakers are making their rounds and grey seals with their offspring are visible as small dark dots on the ice floes. And if you have a good tele lens, you can also see them up close.

We won't disturb them further, because deep water formation is not their business. Although, of course, they benefit from it: Without the regular winter circulation, oxygen depletion could set in here at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, too. And that would have a direct impact on the seals' food base.

Text: Barbara Hentzsch (IOW)
Photos: Toralf Heene, Sascha Plewe (both IOW) | click photos to enlarge