Northern Europe

Finland: 17th to 19th-Century Wrecks at Hanko

Diver at port side of the figurehead wreck Osborn & Elisabeth in Hanko, Finland
Diver at port side of the wooden figurehead wreck Osborn & Elisabeth in Hanko, Finland

To help promote dive tourism in the Baltic Sea, the European Union’s Project Baltacar, a collaboration between Sweden, Finland and Estonia, has developed underwater heritage trails for visiting a selection of unique wreck sites in the three countries. In Finland, the project has established buoys and created dive site maps for a group of five wrecks from the 17th to the 19th centuries, located just outside Hanko. Susanne Lundvall reports.

Scapa Flow Wrecks: Multibeam Sonar Survey & 3D Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry of the mast of the Kronprinz Wilhelm wreck in Scapa Flow by 3DVisLab at the University of Dundee
The mast of the Kronprinz Wilhelm wreck, rendered in 3D photogrammetry by professors Chris Rowland and Kari Hyttinen of 3DVisLab at the University of Dundee in Scotland, United Kingdom

Scapa Flow, located in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, is the site of the scuttling of the High Seas Fleet of the Imperial German Navy in June 1919 at the end of World War I. While many of the wrecks were salvaged following the war, the remaining wrecks have become popular dive sites. In recent times, efforts to learn more about these wrecks through multibeam sonar surveys and 3D photogrammetry have taken place. Rosemary E.

Smögen Photo Week in Sweden in July

Grand Prize, Dive Environment category: Rikard Godlund
Grand Prize, Dive Environment category: Rikard Godlund

A new photo competition has taken root on the western coast of Sweden, where local and international participants enjoy an exciting week of shooting underwater in Smögen, competing for attractive prizes. One of the contest’s organisers, Annika Malmberg, shares the story of the event, from the initial idea to the final result, as well as plans for its future.

Denmark's Øresund & Isefjord

Anemone, Øresund, Denmark. Photo by Morten Bjørn Larsen
Anemone on Anemone Wreck, Øresund, Denmark. Photo by Morten Bjørn Larsen

Diving in Denmark, how does it really measure up? Since Morten Bjørn Larsen lives in Copenhagen, he talks about his favorite dives in and around the island of Zealand, where the capital city is located. Several wrecks in Øresund and a bridge in Isefjord top the list.

Denmark: M/F Ærøsund

Ærøsund wreck. Photo by Lars Stenholt Kirkegaard
Diver on Ærøsund on the day it was sunk. Photo by Lars Stenholt Kirkegaard

M/F Ærøsund is a former ferry that served the islands in the South Funen archipelago. It was scuttled in 2014 in a sheltered bay just 550m off Funen’s southern coastline where it now rests at a depth of only 19m. It is easily visible from the surface.

Denmark: Diving & Dining

Beer and bridge, Little Belt, Denmark. Photo Peter Symes
Danish Carlsberg beer and the Old Little Belt Bridge where porpoises were spotted playing in the bay, Middelfart, Denmark. Photo Peter Symes

From the capital city of Copenhagen, across the Great Belt to Funen and the Little Belt to Jutland, travelling through the green fields of the Danish countryside, Scott Bennett describes his diving and dining adventure through Denmark, stopping along the way for a five-course meal at one of the 25 Micheline star restaurants found across the country.