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Show your #IHMEmeriteko action for the sea
Doing something for the good of the Baltic Sea can be very easy. Actions are especially inspiring when they get others to join in, too. IHME Helsinki wants to encourage all sorts of Baltic Sea Actions and observations.
Posts shared on Instagram with the hashtag #IHMEmeriteko will be entered into a competition, with prizes awarded for the best actions on behalf of the Baltic. You can take part in the campaign by August 17 at the latest. The best action will be chosen by Seppo Knuuttila, a researcher who has actively promoted variety of actions aimed at protecting ecosystems in the Baltic Sea. IHME will award the prizes on August 22 at Rowing Stadium. Read the rules for the competition >>
Baltic Sea info is for sharing
As part of the background work for her IHME Helsinki Commission artist Jana Winderen and IHME Executive Director and Curator Paula Toppila have interviewed experts (limnologist Seppo Knuuttila, fisherman Kai Ilves) who each have their own perspective on our local sea. (linkki) Sharing this background work on IHME’s channels means that IHME’s followers can also add to their own Baltic knowledge.
Winderen also wants to emphasize that sea data can be shared in the opposite direction, too; when you are travelling on the Sea or along its shores, you can make observations that tell researchers a lot about the state of the Baltic.
A wide variety of actions for the sea
It is clear that the Baltic Sea needs actions both large and small. The good news is that every one of us can do something. Everyday actions we can take for the sea include thinking about what we eat (vegetarian food and cyprinid fish!), how the wastewater from a shoreside summer-cottage is treated, what transport we use, or how we make sure picnic packaging gets safely into a waste bin. The Baltic Sea calculator can help you assess your own Baltic Sea load. Lists compiled of actions taken for the good of the Baltic Sea can be found, for instance, on the websites of foundations specializing in protecting the Baltic.
Report your Baltic Sea observations
The Itämeri.fi website contains combined details of where to report your own observations on the wellbeing of the Sea or its inhabitants. Citizens’ observations complement researchers’ data on places where researchers do not have time to go, or where there is no research centre.
Researchers are interested in numbers of both seabirds and fish, but also in finds of hazardous substances or non-native species. Sightings of rare species are often left to citizens’ observations, one example might be a porpoise that has strayed into the Baltic Sea.
Researchers are interested in how clear the water is, the state of the ice, and the various weather phenomena, but also in archaeological objects found in the Sea. On the Siisti Biitsi (Clean Beach) website you can advertise voluntary rubbish-clearing events and invite others to join in. The website also lets you report on the various kinds of rubbish found on the seashore or seabed.
The core of IHME Helsinki’s operations is the annual commissioned artwork, with events throughout the year constructed around it. The artwork and the artist determine not only the theme to be addressed during the year, but also the ways in which that theme is approached. Jana Winderen, the artist of IHME Helsinki Commission 2020, wants us to focus our attention on the Baltic Sea. IHME Helsinki’s activities combine art, science and climate.
Baltic Sea conservation tips from John Nurminen Foundation
Baltic Sea info collected at one website
Citizens’ observations (in Finnish).
iNaturalist.fi – share your observations
Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility collects observation knowledge
