3CW: three conversations on the ecology of dutch waters Inti Suarez for DTN Foreword Along the years

that I practice sports in direct contact with nature, it never ceases to astonish me the eagerness of my fellow sporters, at the time of having a break and chat about that nature that surrounds us all. As a biologist, I always underestimate the fascination that my own profession holds on many, many people. I believe that for most of our evolutionary history, we humans have been completely dependent on the vagaries of that nature, and it is only recently that we are relatively free from her command. It could be something beyond our consciousness, something rooted in our genes, that something what makes us hear again and again the tales of the yeti, of an edelweis spotted in a frosty morning walking out of the base camp, or of the rst time we experienced the curiosity of a barracuda. An interesting thing here is that we do not only like to hear others. It is not only about hearing what somebody has to tell us, our appreciation of nature is not a religion, where few illuminated persons bring the truth to us. I have seen the most arrogant director of a prestigious ecology department bow to understand yet another anecdote from a sherman, and then tell an anecdote of his own back, trading knowledge and experience on equal terms. Our perception of nature, still today, is a dialogue. A dialogue not only with the source of the fascination, with nature self, but with ourselves. So this is the foremost goal of the three sessions that this text introduces. Knowing that we humans are story tellers and knowing that we passionately talk about that what surrounds and connect us, I aim to create yet another space for the dialogue to occur, that dialogue between us, divers, and the medium where we dive. Structure 3CW is conceived then to be a core of three sessions, dynamic and highly interactive. The structure of the material to be talked upon is organized in three conceptual unities. The rst aims at encompassing the physical aspects of water ecology, the second will tackle the different relations that exist between the plants and animals that live underwater, and the third will occupy itself with the relation in between the sea and us humans. By preference they will take between 60 to 90 minutes, and if possible this time will be right before or right after diving. Accompanying each core conversation one (or more) dives are then planned accordingly, to illustrate and enrich the conversation. To participate in the conversations, participation in the dives is not mandatory, neither vice versa. But the conversation and the dive(s) are planned to reinforce each other. In what follows I will briey describe the three units mentioned, with the associated dives. After I will suggest ways to implement, evaluate and expand my proposal. First unit, physic aspects of ecology We will begin reviewing the clear distinction between salt and fresh water, to move on the "intermediate" ecosystem of brackish waters. Having talked about the water in itself, we will also talk about the substrate, where the distinctions between sandy and rocky shore are crucial, with again an "intermediate" zone, the intertidal region. Conversation that will open the chance to talk about water displacements, whether gravitational or rotational. The big currents of the ocean, unifying very diverse waters, ecologies and peoples, will be the last topic of this session.

For this talk, two dive moments would be excellent. The rst one occurring in Oostvornsemeer would allow to observe what a real transitional ecosystem is. Heavily intervened by humans and brackish, we can extensively observe the inuence of the water salinity in the communities present, as much as the effect of a sand versus a rocky bottom. Crucial animals that we will use -in this rst dive- to bring on the concepts discussed are at-shes and trouts. Their edibility makes them always an interesting issue, and their replacement in Oostvornse is an excellent example of species displaced by changes in the environment. Diving rst in the stormvogel we can observe an ecosystem based on a sandy bottom, and diving afterwards in Baardmannetje we can observe the community that begins to grow in the articial reef placed there. Few days later, or ideally the next day (thinking in having a full weekend to disposition) the next dives would occur in de Grevelingenmeer. Several of the Grevelingenmeer locations have a well developed intertidal zone, actually accessible with snorkel. Begin diving there, at about 60/100 cmts deep, reveals a mostly ignored community. Moving on slowly to deeper waters shows the ecosystems that different exposure to dryness and light produce. In this dive crucial animals are shrimps, lobsters and crabs. These three types are apparently similar animals, but actually their different species occupy very many different places in the areas observed. The second dive from the day would be a tidal dive, preferably in Plompe Toren. The effects of the current in that location are extremely visible, and the peculiar composition of the macro-community, heavily dominated by ouroidea and medusae, offers the perfect bridge to the next conceptual unity, the one of marine communities. Second unit, animal and plant communities The second conceptual unit or rather the second dialogue, will be concerned with animals and plants, not to mention bacteria and other alive entities. On a rst moment we will talk about their relations and how these relations affect patterns that we can see. The relations in between groups of different plants and animal remains a fascinating aspect of ecology. Who eats who, who competes or collaborates with whom... Those are questions where endless anecdotes are exchanged between divers and shers. Formally we will be covering trophic, competitive and collaborative relationships. On a second moment we will introduce the concept of "life history". This is the description of the changes that a single individual goes across its full life. The transformations of species like medusa, or the travels that heels and salmon do form excellent examples of interesting marine life histories, but are not the only ones. The diversity of life histories in the sea will be motivated with the anecdotes of the life cycles of sepias, heels and coral/zooxantcella associations. Finally, the marvelous travels that sea mammals do, across their life and across the sea will close this chapter, reminding us again that for many of their inhabitants, the whole sea is just one place. Trophic and competitive relations describe many of the patterns that we are accustomed to see meanwhile diving in NL, such as the dominance of ouroidea in Plompe Toren, or the difference of mass of fresh water oysters between vinkeveen's eiland 4 en 1. That is why a rst diving moment corresponding to this second conversation will be in Vinkeveen. After a rst dive in eiland 1 or 4, the second dive should be a night one, in order to maximize the chance to see night animals, like heels. So we will not only be comparing the biomass of sesile communities as the one of the fresh water oysters, but also the diversity of feeding strategies, as hunting versus scavenger. We will here consider the relation between Homarus, Gadus and ophiuroidea (the rst two being predators of the third) and competitive relations involving Dreissena polymorpha (whose predators are perca Fluviatilis, Astacus and Anas)

Third unit, humans and the sea. The third conversation will direct itself to the relation between humans and the sea. I will begin covering the rich sea mythology that is still remembered. The point to be made here is the way in which we have been perceiving the vast sea for most of our history, giving a perception of how recent is our current relation with the sea. I will illustrate the origin of several of the well known, and few of the not so well known traditional ghosts and monster histories. Having described the "ancient" way of understanding the sea, I would introduce our modern model, with the issues that sheries and management has introduce in the last fty to forty years. The ideas of sustainable sh catch, the elimination of spear shing as a standard activity of the diver, and sheries depletion will play here a dominant role. To round up this session I would like to talk about the efforts that other dive organizations have done and are making to clean the sea and educate us better. I hope to be able to get somebody from the Noordzee stichting to give a brief closing talk. A dive that will close this unit should ideally be a wreck dive in the Noordzee. There is one location that allows this without a boat. The point to illustrate here will be the way that the ocean as entity interact with our derelicts, wrecks among others. All the same, previous to this dive, the coast of the Noordzee is excellent to illustrate how most of the see-myths have been originated. It is thinkable to organize a visit to the natural history museum of Middenburgh, which appears to have an excellent collection of mermaids and other monsters preserved in glass jars. An early visit to a visafslag is also an excellent exercise in marine ecology. Closing words When I started to study biology, most of my friends thought that I was crazy or stupid. After all, what biology was about, according to them, was to remember endless names of animals in latin. Actually, I was also quite afraid of such future. Luckily enough, once a student of biology, I discovered that the most relevant part of biology is not about naming alive entities, but about understanding their patterns, their behavior, their life, and if needed be, their extinction. I believe that we divers need a glimpse of this "other" biology, and not only a glimpse of the biology that tells us how to name things that we actually... already know. But it might very well be that our public is or not interested in the misse en scene of the sketch presented above, preferring other lling, or other distribution. So I intend to closely evaluate formally and informally the results of these three sessions. If positively received, we might think in creating even an NOB specialty, onderwater ecologie. If not positively received, we will improve it... Or we might even cancel it as a failed attempt. In any case, I think the time is ripe to give it a try...