Dance of marine lights.

Between submarine and shipwrecks floating glowing jellyfish ribs and fish, their eyes on the top of the body bear dives in the Baltic Sea are spectacular, as many believe. And while a trip into the past.

 

A three-aisled hall church from the 13th Century, small towns surrounded by extensive dune landscapes which later became white sand beaches in the sea will lose the edge on the Kiel Bay Island of Fehmarn is water on a holiday paradise. For the biologist Jan Langmaack However, the true charm of Germany's third largest island at the water's surface, between boulders, and mussel.

"Who the Baltic Sea as uninteresting devalues water immersion, they do not know. There are turbot, cod and Lumpsucker, beautiful seagrass beds, sea stars and nudibranchs. This relatively small area probably more wrecks from various time periods, than in any other sea in the world .

And full of adrenaline dives: "When is the proper flow through the drift Fehmarnsund a wild thing. Fluid And there is almost always in the narrow and narrow island between the mainland."

Equally exciting is a dive in the Fehmarn Belt, which connects Denmark with Germany. There should be a companion boat to the safety of the divers always be there. "And by that I mean not a dinghy," adds Langmaack laughing, "to give no radar echo, since driving the big pots in the street simply drüber shipping."

Langmaack is not only biologists, but also instructors and trainee at a school. Above all, however, is a 27-year-old blond child of the coast, through and through "nordic by nature". In the spring, when the wind is still cold stress on the Baltic Sea and the water depth of ten meters in any ten degrees temperature, Langmaack is in his element.

A sight like "Das Boot"

Equipped with a dry suit and two working separately from each other respiratory controllers - a prerequisite for diving in cold waters - it goes with the boat out into the bay of Kiel, to the wreck of the "Sten Trans. The 1976 in a storm and sunk 65 meters long vessel is one of the most popular destinations for recreational divers in the western Baltic Sea.

The bow of the starboard side in 21 meters deep wreck is lying covered with mussels and anemones trees and soars out into the Baltic Sea. From the "Sten Trans" has become a habitat has become what many young fish serves as a refuge. Langmaack emerges slowly along the railings along the two open mouths looking like cargo, out in the direction of the wheelhouse. Luminescent jellyfish ribs and cods cross his path, inside eels lurk on prey. The "Sten Trans" is an easy dive, even the less experienced divers can be overcome.

Significantly more demanding and more interesting historically is a wreck, which is 1945 in the Kattegat, near the Danish island of Anholt shelling the British aviator fell victim to U-251. A German U-boat of the type VII, with some 700 pieces meistgebaute the class of all time - and the actual main characters in Wolfgang Petersons film "Das Boot".

The 35 meter deep down to U-251 is liable to something mystical. If the wreck slowly from the shimmering green water peels, it is believed in mind the well-known film music can be heard. As in the initial scene of the film condense diffuse contours to a long hull, give free characteristics, the mouth flaps of the torpedoes, the open Turmluk, the depth rudder. Much can be bullet holes in the saddle tanks recognize. There is a dark, eerie atmosphere of the submarine, whose sinking in only four of the 43 seamen were rescued. U-251 is a war grave.

Luminaires in marine habitats threatened

The Baltic Sea is filled with wrecks. And Peter Klink, the main professional engineer in the rescue cruiser "Berlin", she knows almost everyone: He runs along the dive boat "Bubble Watcher", which he prefers trips to wrecks in the western Baltic Sea offers. Divers appreciate the friendly atmosphere on board and six people on a limited number of participants. Rudel diving as in Egypt or Asia, where often more than 50 divers on a wreck while einfinden, there is not: the cold temperatures and poor visibility often discourage the typical vacation from diving too much.

In only 24 meters in depth at the mouth of the Flensburg Firth about 40 meters long "Inger Klit" on the seabed, the bow already buried in the mud. For Jan Langmaack it is nonetheless "one of my favorite wrecks." For good reason: The former cargo ship is covered with sea anemones curtain, what the contours of the wreck barely recognize - and even biologically very interesting. Often schools prefer cod over. The biologist may contact you hardly see enough of, when discovered new details every dive.

For the most beautiful dives Langmaack but requires neither a wreck still a big fish. Only it must be dark. When the night is over the Baltic Sea sets, it rises into the waves and turns his divers under water lamp. Alone by the smooth movements of his hands he then solves the marine lights from which his body with a cocoon of blue-green light wraps.

One can thus generated in the mood to lose, it's like dancing with another world. Triggered is mostly observed in winter phenomenon by unicellular algae called dinoflagellates. It does not matter how exactly the chemical reaction would describe - you would be unable to make the uniqueness of their vision so that way.

But Langmaack fears for his paradise on the doorstep: The Baltic Sea is threatening to collapse, due to lack of oxygen resulting dead zones in the sea doubled approximately every ten years and now cover an area which is one fifth of the surface corresponds to the Federal Republic. The reasons are manifold: first exhaust from car and boat transport, discharges from sewage treatment plants and a massive over-fertilization in agriculture.

According to the latest findings of the Meteorological Institute in Sweden every year 1.4 million tons of nitrogen and 60,000 tons of phosphorus into the Baltic Sea led - too much of a stretch of water, which is geologically considered almost an inland sea: though a shining.