Without delay – 2nd blog entry
By morning the waves have completely subsided and we can finally get to work. Lena takes the researchers and their equipment to the shore on inflatable rubber boat. Together we move the boat over the spit of land that separates Eidembukta Bay from the lagoon – the shore is steep and the coarse gravel under our feet does not allow us to walk properly. We launch the boat into the Seal Bay on the western side of the Eidembukta lagoon. The name justifies the reality, as several dozen pairs of seals observe all our actions from a greater or lesser distance, the bravest ones even swim up to a few meters away.
We divide into two groups – land group and boat group. While the Taiwanese and two Lithuanian colleagues collect samples on the shore to determine the extent of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) found on microplastics, researchers from the Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology and one Lithuanian colleague get in a boat and go to collect microplastic samples. The first task of the day is to find the sediment catcher that was deployed in Port Bay last year. Before we even enter the coordinates into the navigation, we see something white in the water in the distance. Could it be our sediment catcher buoy? Indeed it is! Exactly where we left it a year ago. We collect the sample and rearrange our belongings to continue collecting microplastic samples from the surface of the water. Everything goes very quickly and without delay.
Photo: Christian Clauwers
We are getting ready to collect samples from the sediment core when we hear Dima’s (researcher from Lithuania who is monitoring us from the shore) on the radio, saying that he has come across huge bear footprints! All of us sitting in the boat look at each other and shrug our shoulders – there are footprints, but no bear, so we just have to keep working. The samples are collected and we return to the shore to meet Dima and have lunch.
Tomorrow we will continue our work in the central part of the lagoon, so today we have one last task – we need to get the boat and equipment there from Port Bay. The boat is full of samples and equipment, and therefore heavy. Dima and Barbara walk along the shore, while Marta and Andrius row and pull the boat through Seal Bay and the channel, which is the connection to the central part of the lagoon. In the central part of the lagoon we meet the other group of researchers. Today the work went surprisingly smoothly and without any hiccups, we head together to the shore of Eidembukta Bay to return to the ship. We are very tired, and after a hearty dinner we hide in cabins to catch up on the sleep we missed the night before and gain strength for the next day.
Project “MP-ARCTIC” is implemented with the support of Latvian Council of Science.
