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When doves cry

Posted on 12 June 2013 1 Comment

After many months of finishing the PhD, I finally get to go outside again.

I’ve been spending time at sea and around the coasts. Here are some recent snapshots taken during or after work at sea…

Oystercatcher

Greylag goose Rude Boyz

Lesser black-backed gull with broken leg

Grey seal

Garfish portret

Sprat with two Lernaeenicus sprattae parasites. These parasitic copepods (red) carry two egg sacs each (blue) and survive on sprat tissue and fluids.

This pigeon hit the side of the ship (probably exhausted) and stumbled into the water.

Moments after, gulls noticed this, and moved in for the kill.

Macho macho men, dropping by.

As a marine biologist, the sea is a non-stop source of wonder and marvel. All those complex relationships to study, important also knowing it is the biggest habitat in Belgium (and on a broader scale the biggest habitat in the world). Without the sea we would simply not be here.

As a photographer it is a narly place to work but it can also be very rewarding.

I love photography at sea because you never know what is going to fly past, what will be in the fish trawls or how the sunlight will reflect on the waves.

Also the long working days and sometimes harsh conditions turns people who work at sea into who they really are. So when photographing people at sea, the pictures are often true to type. I like this…

The past weeks I spent some evenings portraying underwater life that we had caught in ILVO fish trawls.

Mnemiopsis leidyi ctenophore

Sole Solea solea

Thornback ray Raja clavata

Grey gurnard Eutrigla gurnardus

Common prawn Palaemon serratus

Lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula

Hooknose Agonus cataphractus

Lumpfish Cyclopterus lumpus

Striped sea snail Liparis liparis

Short-snouted seahorse Hippocampus hippocampus