We continue our feature of submissions from the SeaHer photo competition. Today we feature the voice of someone who is not native to the area, but feels at home with the Baltic Sea. Here we see the Baltic Sea as inviting newcomers to experience its many sides as they experience a life that is perhaps different to what they are most familiar with. Enjoy!
The Baltic Sea as seen from the beach at Nagu, Finland
I have been in various countries in Europe, Asia and even Africa. I saw different sea lands around the world, but I never thought I would go up to the extreme north and live near to the Baltic Sea, which was completely unknown to me before I moved to Turku more than two years ago. To be honest, I did not expect it to be that special and charming. I thought it is just a freezing sea where Nordic people do fishing in summer with no life in other seasons.
A day after day I realized it is full of life, not only because it is a source of many activities, but because it is a big source for environmental research and economic development in the Nordic region more than I ever thought. I believe working on the environmental research related to this sea is very essential and prestigious, especially in this part of the world, which always puts the environment first and do what it takes to reduce the wastes and pollution.
Group trips along the Baltic Sea with family and friends are also something I enjoyed a lot in the past 2 years. I also had some cruise trips along this Sea. Going up the ship and watching the view from the top in sunny days was a great experience that I want to repeat many times. I cannot wait to see more views of this sea as I only saw it from the Finnish, Danish, Germen and Swedish sides. I hope to visit Latvia, Lithuania and Poland soon and see it from there as it honestly looks different from each side. I still do not know the reason of this but maybe that is what makes it special. We all need to do our best to protect it from the effects of environmental and climate changes and one thing we can do is to gain more knowledge about it.
