The Oceanographic Museum is part of the German Maritime Museum in Stralsund and specialises on the Baltic and North Sea. The underwater world of both seas is presented in a series of themed tanks, together with additional information about themes like biodiversity, climate or the hydrologic cycle. I was surprised that some photos turned out nice, considering the darkish blue or green light and the moving fish. So here is a glimpse into an alien world.
The first tank presents the hidden life of the harbour in Stralsund. The salinity is 0.8% and the temperature 12°C. With 126,000 litres, the tank is one of the larger examples. With fishlife like that, no wonder there were fishermen casting their rods and lines at the quay.
The Bodden is a form of lagoon or bay found in several places along the Baltic Sea coast, usually between the mainland and islands. The water depth is often less than 5 metres and sandbanks can prove dangerous for ships. Other fish living in the brackish water of the Bodden are plaice and flounder who camouflage by imitating the sand of the ground.
The simulated river outfall is colder (9°C) and with lower salinity. Most of the fishes swimming around are members of the salmonid family (and very yummy when served fried or boiled). To give you an impression of the technology involved to create such tanks; the windowpane (7 x 2.3 metres) alone weighs 1.6 tons; some of the other panes are even heavier.
This guy, a Russian sturgeon or Waxdick, had been living in the other Marine Museum in Stralsund until his move to the Oceaongraphic Museum in 2008. He is more than 40 years old; caught by a fisherman back in 1968, and something like the mascot of the museum.
Pipefish play hide and seek by looking pretty much like seagrass. Can you spot them? Pipefish can cope with different conditions from the sea around northern Norway to the Mediterranean and live anywhere with enough seagrass to hide in.
This funny looking guy is a lumpfish, a mostly ground-living fish that attaches itself to surfaces - usually stones, but the glass of the tank pane works as well - by a suction disc in its pelvis. The German name means sea-hare (Seehase). Other inhabitants of that habitat are whitefish and eelpout.
The Kattegat, together with the Skagerrak, both between Sweden and Jutland / Denmark, are the connection between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The salinity of the water slightly higher than the Baltic Sea so that fish of both seas live there. The area is difficult to navigate due to a number of stone reefs as th one represented in the tank.
We think of corals as creatures thriving in warm water where they build impressive reefs like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. But there are species who can live well in colder water provided it is very clean. They grow more slowly, but they are very pretty, too. These orange ones are typical for the Baltic Sea.
Those fragile beauties reflect the blue light of the tank illumination. Jellyfish are difficult to keep under tank conditions, but if those are right, they live longer than outside. When we were on holiday at the Baltic Sea coast as kids, we used to gather dead jellyfish and plop the cold, glibbery mess on the beer belly of that nasty old guy who kept complaining about kids having fun. Hehe.
Crabs are one of the largest subspecies group of the crustaceans, and it's pretty hopeless to try and figure out who exactly the cutie above is. Possibly a variant of the spider crabs. They attach algae to their exoskeleton for camouflage.
The next part about the North Sea is below.