Winter At Sea

How long do eggs last in the Antarctic? And what’s so special about deluxe ice fishing? We visit five spots around the globe and report on cold season curiosities on and by the sea. Canada: On the mighty St. Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal it is high season for ice fishing. This is because hundreds of thousands of cod swim hidden beneath the ice, but only in the winter months. Finland: The Baltic Sea is full of shallows and is more dangerous in winter than in summer. We accompany ice pilots who drive the large freighters through the Bay of Kemi. Germany: Every three to four years, the Greifswalder Bodden on the western Baltic Sea freezes up. Between the islands of Rügen and Usedom the ice sheet is closed. Only icebreakers like the “Arkona” can get through here. Antarctic: 25 years ago, a new research station was inaugurated here. Seven men, meteorologists, geophysicists and atmospheric chemists over-winter here at temperatures of up to minus 50° Celsius, being curiously eyed up by penguins and seals. Sweden: 30,000 islands lie under snow and ice directly off Stockholm. In winter, life in the Stockholm skerries on which part of the city is built appears completely frozen. Cut off from the outside world, only a handful of hardened types can hold out here.

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