Snorkeling in the freezing cold Baltic Sea, trying out underwater macro-photography
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| Bladder wrack |
I took my first dip of this year in the Baltic Sea a few days ago. Spring has arrived, and beginning new life is blooming underwater, too. I packed my underwater camera and wetsuit on the boat and headed out to the Finnish archipelago. The idea was to experiment with underwater macro-photography in shallow water.
I went snorkeling near an island in the
outer archipelago, and found the shallow water teeming with tiny baby
fish, baby saduria entomon, and budding bladder wrack. There
were also lots of nesting sea birds, such as eiders on dry land.
Visibility in the water was good, water was clear and very, very
cold. Blimey was it cold!
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| There were some tiny saduria entemon in the shallow water |
Saw some baby saduria entemon swimming about just below the water line. Saduria entemon are crustaceans that can grow up to nine centimetres, or four inches long. The ones I saw were small, about two centimetres or less than an inch. Big ones live in deeper waters where it is colder.
There
were loads of new bladder wrack growing around the island. The
bladder wrack is sensitive to pollution so I guess it is a good isgn
that there is now lots of it growing.
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| More bladder wrack |
The
Baltic Sea is an isolated sea. It has a much lower salinity level
than ocean water (you can just barely taste the salt in surface
water, it is slightly more salty deeper down). The sea is largely
covered by ice in the winter so it takes a long time for the water to
warm up to a tolerable level of temperature.
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| A common eider nesting |
Unfortunately, the Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted seas in the World. Luckily, though, there are several organizations working hard to save the Baltic Sea, and they are making some tangible progress, too.
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