In the Deep

After the brief stop in my hometown we continue our journey southward in the Baltic proper. Our first sampling site was the Landsort deep, the very deepest part of the Baltic Sea (459 meters!)  and a long-term monitoring and sampling site for various Swedish and international scientists and environmental agencies. We arrived late in the evening but were all curious about what out CTD cast would reveal about this key sampling station in the Baltic. We all took our positions for sampling, which by now has become a well-known routine: Captain Charlie at the helm, John holding the CTD , Jeremy dropping the CTD in the water and keeping the water pumping through our 100 m hose, Jeff at the CTD computer monitoring the data and of course me, the Swede, feeding the CTD cord.

Here, at Landsort deep, we did not have to worry about hitting the bottom with the CTD but rather wanted to go as deep as possible to try and find the oxygen minimum and get a sample from there. Just below 70 meters, oxygen levels were down to almost 0 and we decided to collect water for our deep sample right there.

Tomorrow we will hopefully run into some nice cyano blooms on our way to Kalmar, where we will meet up with our collaborator, Professor Åke Hagström.