How my son and I became coastal explorers
It’s fine weather, almost spring-like, but quite windy, and we’re on vacation. We’re going for a little hike Langward Groden. A Gröden is probably, as I learn in this context, something like a Koog: a new area or foreland washed up by the sea, often overgrown with grass. The son is somewhat impressed by the slightly dystopian-looking landscape and, like me, happily takes photos with his mobile phone.
At a bridge, however, taking photos turns from a happy holiday activity into a very serious matter: We have the opportunity to become real coastal researchers, and of course we accept this job immediately!
For this we put our smartphones in an aluminum frame:
And take a photo from the given perspective:
More such aluminum frames will come later, and of course we, reliable coastal researchers like we are now, take the desired photos there too.
Based on these photos, which will hopefully be taken and published by many people over the years, the change in the coastal landscape should then be understandable: The Citizen Science project CoastSnap Langwarder Groden in the Wadden Sea National Park: #CoastSnapLangwarderGroden
With this post and the pictures published on Instagram under the corresponding hashtag, we are now taking the final step so that my son and I become real coastal explorers.
Being a researcher doesn’t seem all that complicated. Perhaps the most difficult thing about our contribution to coastal research was to correctly write the given hashtag “#CoastSnapLangwarderGroden”, which was a bit confusing. Thanks to the scientists who made this so easy for us!
(Molinarius)