Scuba diving and the Seals

Spending parts of my life in the golden state of California, I’ve come across lots of surfers, swimmers, and divers. The Monterey Bay Aquarium was always one of my favorite places to visit as a kid. Even now, as an adult, it fascinates me to see all the different types of career paths you can take as a biologist–especially when working at the aquarium. From a researcher to a SCUBA diver, there’s something for every type of biologist. I’ve become very attached to the ocean, but never would have imagined to get the chance to go SCUBA diving in the Baltic Sea while I was here for the internship. Yesterday was the day! Every Sunday we have the divers from the Dive Center, Hohe Düne, come to the MSC for an afternoon dive with the seals. While talking to one of the diving instructors, I asked if they had plans to go diving that afternoon. Although all dives had been canceled on Saturday due to the weather, everything was back on track on Sunday. The instructor asked if I’d be interested in joining them in two hours, and although this was really spontaneous, I couldn’t say ‘no’.

We went diving by a wreck, about 15 minutes away from our harbor. It was a fantastic experience. The water was a nice 18 degrees Celcius, it was sunny, and all the other divers (we consisted of a group of 8 divers) were just as happy as I was to get in the water. I even found a mysterious jaw bone with a couple teeth still attached–I’ll hit the books later to figure out what exactly I found on my dive! Isn’t it great that as a diver you’re not just splashing around in the sea, you’re actually diving into the mysterious biological wonders of the world!? There’s just as much (if not even more) biology to explore in the depths of the ocean as on land.
Today (Monday), was another fun day in the water. Alyssa Marsh (the other intern at the MSC) and I went for a swim in our enclosure with Henry, the harbor seal. From wet seal kisses to almost throwing our intern advisor into the water, there isn’t a better way to spend your early morning aboard the Lichtenberg!