This year, children participating in the WDR-Maus-Türöffner-Tag went in search of a particularly valuable treasure, and they found it with us! The treasure hunt began with the question: "We are looking for Christina! You must find her!" And indeed, the children succeeded.
Christina is a dugong (Dugong dugon) and lives in Mozambique. She is probably the most famous dugong there and a true ambassador for her species, one of the few surviving sirenians in the Indian Ocean, making her extremely important for the marine ecosystem. Christina and her conspecifics graze on seagrass, promoting its robust regrowth, which represents an important contribution against climate change.
The children found Christina during our VR dive in Mozambique, filmed by Lukas Müller (thank you!). Following this dive and a wealth of information on ecosystems, fisheries, marine plastic pollution, shark dentition, and anatomy, they took to the water live to meet our Haidemarie: an introductory dive with a three-metre Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) — not a living specimen, of course, but highly impressive nonetheless.
WDR was on-site live this time, conducting interviews and featuring us on Lokalzeit (from minute 14:06). Thank you, Maus, click, click!
And thanks to the wonderful team of presenters! Eight ElasmOcean members and two swimming coaches from Sharkys Sportsclub made the day a great success. Thanks also to Martin Becker, who repeatedly provides his Sharky Sportsclub as an excellent venue.
The link to WDR-Lokalzeit: Lokalzeit-Geschichten : Türen auf mit der Maus! | ARD Mediathek (starting at minute 14:06, brief but very pleasant!)
