To unveil the ecological niche of pelagic top predator megafauna such as beaked whales, sperm whales and dolphins (but also seabirds, sharks, tuna and billfish), it is vital to know more about the prey they feed on, such as mid-water fish and cephalopods. These often lilliputian oceanic micronekton (with jellyfish and shrimp) migrate to the ..read more

Um die ökologische Nische von pelagischen Raubtieren wie Schnabelwale, Pottwale und Delfine (aber auch Seevögel, Haie, Thunfische und Schwertfische) zu entschlüsseln, muss man mehr über die Beute wissen, von der sie sich ernähren, wie z. B. pelagische Fische und Tintenfische. Dieses oft winzige ozeanische Mikronekton (mit Quallen und Garnelen) wandert nachts in die Oberflächenschichten des ..read more

After a month at sea, we finished our last set of observations along a transect that took us back to the shelf-break. It’s been quite the journey, and the final leg marked a special turning point as the last 2 days of the cruise were heading towards Iceland and the way home. It’s been quite ..read more

I walk through the forest and see a few old and sturdy trees, that are dominating their surroundings. I look up and see how they sway in the wind, but they bend and hold and aren’t bothered in the slightest. Down here in their shadow, I am surrounded by an army of saplings. Most of ..read more

This week we have been busy surveying the waters of Sermilik, a large glacier fjord on the east coastline and one of the few sites hereabouts that has been surveyed before. Why are we re-visiting this fjord when our other fieldsites were previously un-surveyed? Well, visiting new areas is exciting and we can perhaps find ..read more

Oi tud drt? – To read this Kriol words here, to say “Hi, everything fine?”, means GAME is back in Cabo Verde. This year, Melanie (Universidade Técnica do Atlântico, Cabo Verde) and Lotte (University of Freiburg, Germany) have the chance to experiment together as a binational team on a still largely unexplored topic: the influence ..read more

Das Kamerateam NAUTILUS (Shannon und Julia) ist mit insgesamt vier Kamera Systemen angereist, die in verschiedenen Tiefen vorwiegend die Beutetiere der hier vor der Insel Terceira vorkommenden Wale, aufzeichen sollen. Unser Ziel ist es mehr über die Lebensweise, das Vorkommen und auch das Verhalten der in der Tiefsee lebenden Tiere zu erfahren, um unser Verständnis ..read more

by Marie Guilpin To understand predator-prey interactions, it is essential to characterize and quantify the preyscape available to predators. One way to do so is to use hydroacoustic data. Essentially echosounders are active acoustic devices pinging at different frequencies, the echoes back from whichever is in the water column is then recorded. We used dual ..read more

von Marie Guilpin Um die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Räubern und Beutetieren zu verstehen, muss die Beutelandschaft, die den Räubern zur Verfügung steht, charakterisiert und quantifiziert werden. Eine Möglichkeit, dies zu tun, ist die Verwendung hydroakustischer Daten. Echolote sind im Wesentlichen aktive akustische Geräte, die auf verschiedenen Frequenzen schwingen und deren Echos in der Wassersäule aufgezeichnet werden ..read more

There are many creatures suspended in the ocean that build elaborative feeding houses that have a special mission in carbon pump. One spectacular example are Appendicularians – pelagic tunicates known also as Larvaceans. As mucus net feeders, they build huge and really beautiful ‘houses’ around their bodies that comprise two layers of filters. By beating ..read more