What would you like to share with the sea? A moment with the Sea invites individuals and communities to spend a moment thinking about and with the sea. In celebration of Itämeripäivä – Baltic Sea Day – on Thursday 26th August, 2021, the Department of Seaweed’s Baltic Sea Lab is calling for messages of love, concern, gratitude, confession and/or fear for the sea to be sent and written with chalk onto rocks along the Baltic shoreline. The collective act of writing messages in chalk facilitates the voicing of climate-related emotions while positively contributing to the health of the sea – chalk, calcium carbonate, helping to buffer the acidification of the sea caused by climate change. 

We are inviting people to participate in one/more of three ways:

1. SEND US A MESSAGE, WE WILL WRITE IT FOR YOU: In the lead up to Itämeripäivä and on the day itself, we are inviting people to submit messages which will then be transcribed onto rocks along the Baltic shoreline at one of four venues, then photographed and shared online: Hanaholmen, Helsinki; Tvärminne Research Station, Hanko; NN, Sweden, and NN Estonia. Submit your messages to: departmentofseaweed@gmail.com

2. COME TO SEND A MESSAGES WITH US: On Itämeripäivä, the Baltic Sea Lab will transcribe these messages onto the rocks in Hanaholmen, Espoo, between 2pm-6pm (register here). Come down to the shore and engage in a moment with the sea by writing your own message onto one of the rocks. We will be on-hand with pieces of chalk and open ears.

3. SEND A MESSAGE FROM YOUR LOCAL WATERFRONT: Pick up some chalk sticks (calcium carbonate) from your local store and spend a moment with your local sea. Write a message and share it with us by adding the hashtag #amomentwiththesea and handle @thedepartmentofseaweed to your Instagram posts, or by sending your photographs to departmentofseaweed@gmail.com. 

Join us in fostering a stream of solidarity for this body of water with the Instagram hashtag #amomentwiththesea and handle @thedepartmentofseaweed. We’ll see you by the shore!

A moment with the Sea is inspired by the Ocean Confessions by Pete Fung and Samein Shamshar and adapted by Jaanika Blomster, Gary Markle, Aman Asif, Selina Oakes, Tuuli Mattelmäki and Julia Lohmann during a visit to  Tvärminne Zoological Station as part of the Baltic Sea Lab experiment.

Baltic SeaLab is an experimental production of Creatures Project. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.