NEWS • 1NEWS 1 • 2012

Baltic Sea in My Eyes - Photo Competition

The Unique Beauty of The Baltic Sea

Page 8

An Active Summer in Sweden

Page 3-4

Sandboxes and Secchi-disks

Greetings from the NorthMuraste, EstoniaJury’s Choice, 3rd PrizeRene Jakobson

NEWS • 2

BalticSeaNow.info - lessons learned

Many events have been car-ried out in 2012 as described in this Newsletter. Few highlights: “Baltic Sea in My Eyes” photo exhibition in Estonia and Finland presenting results from the photo contest, research vessel visits in Estonia bringing closer the marine science and the public, Pori Jazz Finland arena with wide publicity and Flash Mob perfor-mance “dancing our way to pub-lic attention” (see p 2). The portal - the core of the project - has been freshened with online informa-tion produced by the Swedish partner, SMHI, and with a new “seal camera” - to mention just a few examples of the latest activi-ties.

The power of networking has clearly been demonstrated in organizing the events. In Finland mass events have been organized by BSN.info together with the Baltic Sea communicators net-work comprising actors from uni-versities, research institutes, NGOs and authorities - to have more visibility and “boost” for the events. Ph

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(published in Feb, 2013) and the seminar “Towards Baltic Sea citi-zenship” where you all are warmly welcome (see further details www.balticseanow.info/final-seminar)!Martti KomulainenProject ManagerBalticSeaNow.info projectHave the dozens of events,

from intimate discussions in local pubs and field excursions to mass events, and gathering tens of thousands visitors, resulted in increased public awareness about the alarming state of the sea? To some extent surely, but wider effectiveness is hard to evaluate. Even harder is to assess whether this has led people to think their own choices and actions for the brighter future of the Baltic Sea.

What has been noted is that people are willing to participate concrete campaigns - such as the photo contest and Secchi-obser-vations. This confirms the view of the importance of action and true participation. Increasing aware-ness in not enough - we must introduce also meaningful ways for people to make a difference for the brighter future of the Bal-tic Sea!

Important part of the effec-tiveness of the BSN.info project is to disseminate our findings in awareness raising and public involvement. This is to be done e.g. through the final publication

BalticSeaNow.info - a joint venture between partners from Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia to promote active Baltic Sea citizenship and to develop methods for public involvement - is approaching its final stages. It is time to evaluate what has been achieved.

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NEWS • 3

The “season” started off with the Meri Kutsuu - boat fair in Turku. The fair is directed to boaters and people travelling in the Finnish Archipelago, reaching approximately 8000 visitors. This year an adverizing agency had been commissioned to design an exhibition stall for the upcoming events. The stall received a lot of praise and seemed genuinely inviting. It offered something for all the senses: the scent of tar rope, sea sounds, sea landscape on

BSN.info events - reaching the public in festivals and fairs

The spring and summer of 2012 was a busy one for project personnel at TUAS and KAT. Many events were planned for the summer together with KAT and the Baltic Sea communicators’ network.

the background, sand to walk on barefoot - a place to sit for a while and relax. In general the people at the event were “tough nuts to crack” - although so closely con-nected with the sea, a lot of peo-ple did not seem to be too con-cerned with environmental issues.

Positive spirits at the World Village festival

The World Village festival, organized in Helsinki each spring, is a free event organized by

tent. However, the real highlight of the event for the actors involved was the flash Mob per-formance arranged with the help of some school teachers and stu-dents from Turku.

A flash mob by definition is a group of people who assemble in a place suddenly and perform an unusual and seemingly point-less act for a brief time - dance, song, theatre etc. - and then dis-perse. The point of a flash mob can be to raise attention for an issue - in this case, the state of the Baltic Sea. The dance perfor-mance prepared by the group did not gather a huge audience at the event but managed to gain national TV coverage as the MTV3 TV company filmed the show together with staff inter-views on their broadcast of the Finland Arena. It was very inter-esting and a lot of fun to plan this sort of an unusual event, and def-initely something to consider in later projects.

Kotka Maritime Days

The Kotka Maritime days is a long-standing and traditional fair in the south-east of Finland organized each year. Some soci-etal actors are also involved, and the group of Baltic Sea commu-nicators shared a tent at this event

Little kids playing in the sandbox at the project -stand in Kotka Maritime Days

NGO’s and cultural actors. The event offers new perspectives on multiculturalism, development cooperation and a variety of global issues. The Baltic Sea Communicators network shared a tent in the event this year, Bal-ticSeaNow.info among them. The nature of the event is very open-minded, and it really offered a welcome diversion from the norm events for the project staff as well. The many visitors at the event were in general very positive and truly interested in environmental issues. This is certainly not the norm at public events, so this type of an event was quite refresh-ing - particularly after the more arduous events.

Pori Jazz Finland Arena - dancing our way to public attention

In July the Pori Jazz, a very popular music festival in the west of Finland offered a yet another possibility to engage the audience to Baltic Sea issues. The “Finland Arena”, a societal discussion event is arranged each year as a side-event of the festival. The Baltic Sea communicators participated in the arena with a combination of different actors. Being a popu-lar event, a rather good turnout of visitors was present also at our

Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association (KAT)

as well. Although a popular event, reaching up to 200 000 visitors, this year the event was not a very succesfull one for our group. The few visitors that did find the tent were however gener-ally quite positive and willing to discuss Baltic Sea issues.

“What could you do for the Baltic Sea?”

The main focus at all the event was to raise awareness, pro-mote discussion and even to get people to act for a healthier Baltic Sea. The voting wall was again used as a “throw-in” element at the spring’s and summer’s events. This year, however, the question on the wall depicted a more action-oriented approach - peo-ple were invited to vote the top three actions which they them-selves can do in their daily lives to improve the state of the Baltic Sea. The answer options for this question ranged from using phos-phate-free detergents to favour-ing public transport.

The voting wall is indeed a good way to get people to stop

and to entice them to discuss and ponder upon issues related to the Baltic Sea and the many concerns surrounding it. The total of votes in the wall also gives us some indication on the number of par-ticipants at each event.

Participating at these events holds a multi-fold mission. On one hand, the project is being promoted and different participa-tion methods tested. More importantly, a genuine will to incite discussion and action among the people visiting is of course a very much desired effect. Big events attract big crowds, and although it is hard to determine whether our activities generate actual action in people, at least some sort of an imprint is cer-tainly left on people’s minds on behalf of the Baltic Sea. Annika Kunnasvirta/TUAS

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Secchi-measuring in Helsinki

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Kids voting at Pori Jazz Festival

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NEWS • 4

Baltic Sea In My Eyes - Photo Competition - The Unique Beauty of the Baltic Sea

The photo competition “Baltic Sea In My Eyes” definitely turned out to be a great success. With over 750 photos sent to the competition form Estonia, Latvia and Finland, the project staff had a hard time choosing the Top-100 to be put to the portal for public voting. In the end, after hours of voting rounds and pondering the Top-100 was finally made. Win-ners to the competition were cho-sen by both the jury and by the public through voting in the por-tal.

The photos represented the Baltic Sea as seen through the eyes of the photographers. Topics of the photos ranged from beauti-ful nature shots to grim and sometimes sad depictions of some of the harsher aspects of the sea. The changing nature of the sea had clearly left an imprint on many, which was reflected in the stories sent by the contestants as well as the photos themselves.

Exhibitions in Finland and in Estonia

In Finland and Estonia the

Initiated in summer 2011, the popularity of the photo competition “Baltic Sea In My Eyes” was a pleasant surprise for the BSNI staff. Abound in participants and atmosphere, the photos truly demonstrated the diverse the nature of the Baltic Sea.

Stories relating to the photos were requested from the competition participants. TUAS AD-student Kuisma Väänänen was hired for the task. The book is now availa-

photos were also printed out for exhibition. In Finland, some 30 photos were chosen. Exhibitions were held in Turku at the Forum Marinum Maritime Centre, River Aurajoki Information Centre and Tammenterho Centre in Ruissalo. In Estonia, the photos were on display at Tallink Silja Superstar.

With the many beautiful photos arriving to the contest, the thought arose of making a photo book of the competition photos.

ble for order at balticseanow.info@turkuamk.fiAnnika Kunnasvirta, TUAS

Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS)

Vidzeme Beach, Tuja, Latvia. Jury’s Choice,1st Prize.

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Breaking the Ice. Jury’s Choice, 2nd Prize.

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Sorve, Estonia. Public’s favourite, 2nd Prize.

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Alone in the Beach. Public’s favourite, 1stPrize.

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The Fisherman. Kustavi, Finland. Public’s favourite, 4th Prize.

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Order your copy:

balticseanow.info

@turkuamk.fi

NEWS • 5

well. In addition to Secchi depth observations, observers provided information about the water and air temperature and weather con-ditions.

Secchi Depth Indicates Water Quality

Secchi depth refers to the depth, measured from the surface of the water, at which the white disk is no longer visible to the observer. Despite its simplicity, Secchi depth measurement is an

important indicator of water quality, particularly if observa-tions are made on a regular basis.

Secchi depth may vary sig-nificantly due to, for example, weather conditions (temperature, clouds, rain, wind), the physical properties of the measurement location and the level of eutroph-ication. The value reflects the amount of phytoplankton and solids in the water, which has an effect on, for example, where veg-etation grows.

Quick and Accurate

To make observations con-sistent, Secchi depth is usually measured using a white disk with a diameter of 30 cm. Secchi depth measurement is a quick and fairly accurate way of determining the

Committed Secchi-Observers Providing Information on Visibility Depth

Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS)

The BalticSeaNow.info project offers the public the opportunity to become involved in observing the state of the sea using the Secchi disk, a standard tool in marine research. Observations made by the public will yield valuable information for researchers and make available real-time observation data to everyone interested in the Baltic Sea.

In 2011, Secchi observations were made in more than 50 loca-tions. A total of 85 Secchi disks were handed out to enthusiastic and committed observers in Fin-land, Estonia, Latvia and Sweden. In Finland, 29 observers submit-ted a total of 183 observations. All countries combined, 42 peo-ple sent in a total of 222 observa-tions. May and August were the most active months of observa-tion, but observations were actively made in June and July as

lower bounds of the euphotic layer which 1% of the light from the surface reaches. The strengths of this measuring device are its simplicity, ease of use and afford-ability.

In the long term, Secchi depth measurement yields valua-ble information on variation in water quality and the factors influencing this. Even if measure-ment results by individual observ-ers differ slightly, extensive series of observations may be used for scientific purposes by looking at average values. Therefore, Secchi depth should be measured persis-tently and frequently.Annukka Österlund, TUAS

Studying in the laboratory

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Number of observers and observations per countryG

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BalticSeaNow.info’s Secchi Disk

Seili Field Course- Take Two

Practical field and laboratory work in Seili gave the students an intro-duction of the flora and fauna in the northern Baltic littoral zone and how they indicate the environmental status in different biotopes. The practical ship-based training in Tallinn is designed to enable students to acquire the basic practical skills necessary to conduct offshore multidisciplinary marine research. Disciplines covered are physical oceanography, pelagic ecology and marine geology.Testing Different Practical Methods

Both parts of the course were very informative and successful. The students got a lot of information straight from the teachers, professors and researchers the in the field. The course contained some lectures beside the field and laboratory work. Methods like beach seining, bottom animal sampling and taking water samples with the Rosette sampler were tested. The course was a great introduction into the world of marine science.

BalticSeaNow.info organized the “Practical training in marine science”-course for bachelor level students in the summer of 2012. Eleven students with very diverse study backgrounds participated in the course. The course was divided in two parts; the first part was organized in Tallinn by MSI and the other part by TUAS in the island of Seili.

Annukka Österlun, TUAS

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Students testing different methods used in Marine Science

TUAS & MSI

NEWS • 6

Sustainable boating is one of the key goals in everything what we do here at Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association. The association wants to encourage every boater to start making a difference to the state of the Baltic Sea.

Difference making starts by making the little choices when for example cleaning boats, or when doing maintenance work at spring or at fall. It starts from every-day choices. With this and the modern communications tools in mind it was decided here in KAT that it is time to produce a guide for sustainable boating, and not just any guide, but a vir-tual guide – a series of videos.

In spring 2012 Dirt Film Studios, a production company based in Turku, was hired to make a short film series about sustainable boating and about the

A Virtual Guide for Sustainable BoatingKeep the Archipelago Tidy Association (KAT)

association in itself. The themes chosen for the

guide videos were:-Responsible boating-Waste management-Boat maintenance-Septic tanks-Cleaning and washing

YouTube and WebpagesThe videos were uploaded to

YouTube and also links to the vid-eos were updated to KAT’s web-pages in mid-July. To the Baltic-SeaNow.info- portal the videos were uploaded a bit later. The instant feedback from boaters in

July was extremely positive. Espe-cially the visual guidance on how to empty a septic tank from a boat to a septic pump was wel-comed with open arms. Also the video on waste handling in boats got good feedback.

Positive Feedback on the Vitual Guide

Only quick conclusions can be made from the feedback KAT has received on the videos, but

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The Film Crew Filming the Floating Septic Tank

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The Film Crew and the Roope-boat

A Virtual Guide for Sustainable Boating?

www.balticseanow.info

� e book at hand presents the Baltic Sea as seen by its inhabitants in di� erent surrounding countries. � e photos accentuate the beauty and importance of this body of brackish water instead or despite of its environmental problems. � e book has been compiled out of altogether 750 photos sent for the photo contest organised by the BalticSeaNow.info project. � e project, including actors from Finland, Estonia, Sweden and Latvia, aims to promote environmental consciousness and to encourage citizens to discuss the state and the future of the Baltic Sea.

9 789522 163141

BALTIC SEAIn My Eyes

Baltic Sea In My Eyes

BALTIC SEAIn My Eyes

now it seems that the videos were worth making. Maybe it some-times just is more efficient to watch a guide video on some-thing, as oppose to reading a complicated guide. After all, get-ting the tips on how to help our Baltic Sea should be easy.

The videos can be found at www.balticseanow.info and at Keep the Archipelago Tidy’s web-site at www.pidasaaristosiistina.fi. Hanna Haaksi KATHeini Kaasalainen KAT

Order your copy now:balticseanow.info@turkuamk.fi

NEWS • 7

surface to photosynthesise. These migration patterns can only be registered using high-resolution measurements. Also new genera-tion analysing tools are necessary for getting quickly the informa-tion about the organisms per-forming such migrations. On the photo next to the chlorophyll graph a flow-cytometer Flow-CAM (Fluid Imaging Technolo-gies) and an output of collected data are shown. This time the deep maxima were formed by the dinoflagellate Heterocapsa tri-quetra.

Marine Systems Insitute (MSI)

Autonomous Measurements in the Gulf of Finland

events of interest registered by the buoy station, scientists go to the sea and take water samples, e.g to perform additional analysis for determining phytoplankton spe-cies composition. In July 2009 the deep maxima of phytoplank-ton biomass were observed at depths below 20 m. Phytoplank-

The Uusmadala buoy has been operating since summer 2009 and the measurements have been mainly conducted during summer period. The sensor pack-age includes sensors to register water temperature, salinity and chlorophyll a fluorescence values

after every 3 hours with a 10 cm resolution from depth 2 to 50 meters. Data are automatically transmitted to the onshore com-puter after every profiling. Addi-tionally, water samples for sensor calibration and phytoplankton analysis are collected regularly

near the buoy station during research vessel cruises.

This year the buoy was installed already on 26th April when phytoplankton spring bloom had reached its peak. On the graph the second half of the spring bloom is visible as yellow and red colours. On the other panels, vertical dynamics of salin-ity and temperature measured by the buoy system can be observed, respectively.

New information obtainedAutonomous high-resolu-

tion measurements and real-time data transmission are providing a growing body of evidence that episodic phenomena are simpler to notice and explore. During

Marine Systems Institute at Tallinn University of Technology successfully conducts autonomous measurements of environmental parameters in the Gulf of Finland. High-resolution time-series are essential for characterizing the natural variability and dynamics of water masses, and help to understand the processes in the Gulf of Finland environment. Also modelers get advantage of high-resolution input for environmental predictions.

ton are the photosynthetic organ-isms who are mainly staying at the illuminated upper 10 m layer. In summer, when inorganic nutrients are limiting phyto-plankton growth in the upper layer, some species are adapted to migrate deeper to assimilate nutrients and migrate back to the

Phytoplankton bloom

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Surface buoy and profiling sensor package (bottom right) graphical view of the whole system.

Chlorophyll a deep maxima and FlowCAM images of dinoflagellates collected from the deep maxima.

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Graphs of chlorophyll a, salinity and temperature dynamics.

Karin Ojamäe, MSI

NEWS • 8Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI)

Skärgårdsmässan (The Archipelago Fair) is mainly directed towards people living by the archipelago and boat people. Most years it would probably be very rewarding to participate at Skärgårdsmässan with a project like BSNI. The focus of the event (life in the archipelago) was right. Stockholm as location can poten-tially attract many people. How-

An active in Summer in Sweden

ever, this year the weather condi-tions were the worst imaginable with temperatures vary ing between four and seven degrees, heavy wind and constant rain. This resulted in a low number of visitors.

The number of visitors (that visited our tent) was estimated to 50 persons each day, six Secchi disks were handed out. It could

have been a huge success with better weather. The organizers told us that the fair usually is overcrowded, but this year was the far worst in history. Outdoor events always imply a risk of bad weather.

Havets Dag in FalsterboHavets dag is an event that

is directed towards the Baltic Sea, boating, diving and environmen-tal issues. It is a very popular

SMHI participated actively to several events during Summer 2012. Stockholm’s traditional Skärgårdsmässan, Västerivik’s Visfestivalen and Havet’s dag in Falsterbo were all a success. Outdoor events are very dependant on the weather, but a positive attitude helps, even if the weather isn’t as summery as it could be.

NEW!Filip’s Blog:

www.balticseanow.info

The chilly summer weather didin’t discourage SMHI’s Filip Hvitlock Thuvesson.

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IThe succes of outdoor events depends on the weather.

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SMHI’s Amund Lindberg at Havets Dag

event that attracts many people. This event was real ly good arranged and lots of people with interest in maritime and environ-mental issues visited the fair. Pos-sibilities to speak in microphone he lped us to a t t rac t more visitors.A quiz helped us to attract more visitors.Approximately 200 visitors talked with us and we handed out 25 Secchi disks. More eye appealing requisites e.g. a jar with algae, would have engaged even more visitors.

Visfestivalen i VästervikVisfestivalen in Västervik is

a music festival that attracts peo-ple from all over Sweden. Väster-vik is located in the archipelago,

which makes boaters represent a large percentage of the visitors.

The mixture of people was full of potential. Many did not have an interest in the Baltic Sea, some may have been turned from “not interested” to “a little inter-ested”.The location was excellent, a fairly large town in the Swedish archipelago.

The number of visitors (that visited our tent) was estimated to 100 persons each day, and twelve Secchi disks were handed out. More active communication, like speaking in loudspeakers, could have helped us to reach even more people.Filip Hvitlock Thuvesson, SMHI

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Västervik’s Visfestivalen attracted a lot of People

NEWS • 9

All passengers were welcomed to participate in the Baltic Sea quiz organized by the BalticSeaNow.info team and Tallink shipping company but out prizes for par-ticipants.

Results of the Marine Environment Inventory

Among other things, was during event introduced results of ELF`s project “Inventory Man-agement of Marine Environment “. The project was carried out in the sea around the island of Hii-umaa, near Kõpu peninsula and included marine benthic habitats surveys, fish surveys, and bat sur-veys in the region, and supple-mented the data on migration of birds.

ELF and TallinkSilja Continue Cooperation

ELF and AS Tallink Grupp are long-term cooperation part-ners, and the common goal was to inform people about opportu-nities in the Baltic Sea as well as the related problems. The Baltic Sea Information Day was carried out for the first time and was a great example how private and non-governmental organizations can join forces in informing peo-ple about the Baltic Sea. Ivar Tamm, ELF

Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF)

Environmentalists and sci-entists from ELF, Estonian Marine Systems Institute (MSI) and Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) introduced dif-ferent aspects of sea protection. Passengers were introduced to oil spill combating in the Baltic Sea ecosystems and also many aspects of marine research.

Games and photosInstead of lengthy lectures

various games were held for adults and children (for example one with the task to collect organ-

isms living in the Baltic Sea and to construct food chains), Baltic-themed photo exhibition “Baltic Sea in My Eyes” was opened. Eve-rybody had also a chance to par-ticipate in the creation of big Bal-tic Sea photo mosaic which will be put together from photos with people showing their favorite places on the Baltic Sea. This playful way helped to share infor-mation about the world of nature and give easier understanding about facts introduced by science experts. The event was held in Estonian, Finnish and English.

BalticSeaNow.info team offered maritime entertainment to all passengers sailing between Tallinn and Helsinki.Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) in collaboration with partners from BalticSeaNow project and SiljaTallink shipping company organized the Baltic Sea information day on board of the passenger ship Superstar sailing between Helsinki and Tallinn.

ELF involved passengers on SiljaTallink’s MS Superstar

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TOWARDS BALTIC SEA CITIZENSHIP

BalticSeaNow.info Final Seminar 15.1.2013 Tallinn

More information and registrations: www.balticseanow.info/final-seminar

Games Voluntary Work

Algae Observations Science Meets the Public

Experiences in Public Involvement

“My Favourite place in the Baltic Sea!”

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I N V E S T I N G I N Y O U R F U T U R E

EUROPEAN UNIONEUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND

Contact

Martti Komulainen Project Manager martti.komulainen@turkuamk.fiTel. +358-44-9072076

Katariina KiviluotoProject Coordinatorkatariina.kiviluoto@turkuamk.fiTel. +358-40-3550907

Annika KunnasvirtaProject Coordinatorannika.kunnasvirta@turkuamk.fiTel. +358-40-3550907

The newsletter reflects the authors´ views and the Managing Authority of the Central Baltic Interreg IV A Programme 2007-2013 cannot be held liable for the information published by the authors of the newsletter.

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Through the Storm. Pöösaspea, Estonia. Jury’s Choice, 4th Prize.