15. April 2016 The Ocean on Tour by Ship

Visitors to the MS Science exhibition will go on a research expedition this year: They will dive into the impressive world of seas and oceans, explore habitats such as the coast, the high sea, the deep sea or the polar sea and will get an impression of the multifaceted work of marine researchers. The exhibition “Seas and oceans” emphasizes the importance of the world’s oceans for the climate, which role they play as a resource and how we can protect the oceans and use them in a reasonable way without exploiting them. The interactive exhibits encourage visitors to discover and experiment.

The GEOMAR is presenting an interactive exhibit for earthquake research. Visitors can trigger a small earth tremor which will then be recorded by a seismic sensor. A sediment core demonstrates what researchers can discover about the history of the ocean through such samples. Kiel’s Cluster of Excellence contributed the fish length game. In this game, visitors learn how large popular types of edible fish such as plaice, herring or cod should be, before they end up on the plate. If they are too small when caught, they will not have been able to reproduce and, as a result, the stock will be endangered. You can slip into the role of fisher yourself and fish sustainably at the game table of the Cluster, the ecoOcean, and the exhibit “Waste in the Ocean” shows how long it takes for everyday items to decompose in the ocean.

The exhibition is a key component of the Science Year 2016*17 proclaimed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Science in Dialogue (WiD). It addresses, in particular, schools, young people and families and is recommended for young people age 12 and up. The entrance is free of charge.

Apart from the exhibition there will also be a “meet the scientist” event to which scientists who were involved in the development of the exhibits will be invited. They will explain the scientific background of their exhibits and answer questions. The fish length game and the fisheries game ecoOcean will be presented by Dr. Jörn Schmidt and Dr. Rüdiger Voss, two scientists from the working group “Sustainable Fisheries” of the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean”. Scientists from GEOMAR will explain more about their research on earthquakes in the ocean.

The exhibition ship MS science is an inland barge which has been converted into an exhibition area of 600 square meters. Since 2002, it tours every summer through Germany as swimming science center as part of the Science Year program. On May 3rd, the MS Science will start its new tour in Kiel and will visit up to 35 towns in Northern Germany. In the year 2017, the MS Science will be on its way through waterways in Southern Germany.

Opening hours of the exhibition:
The exhibition will be open daily May 3rd to May 8th  from 10 am -7 pm (on May 3rd starting at 2 pm). School classes can visit the ship after registering in the online booking system after 9am. Registration for groups at www.ms-wissenschaft.de/tour under the respective city.
Location: MS Science, Kiel, Hörn at the Willy-Brandt-Ufer

Information:
- Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” www.futureocean.org
- GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel www.geomar.de
- Information on the Science Year www.wissenschaftsjahr.de
- Information on the MS Science www.ms-wissenschaft.de

Contact:

Andreas Villwock, GEOMAR Helmholz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Public Outreach, telephone: +49-431-600-2802
presse@geomar.de

Friederike Balzereit, Cluster of Excellence „The Future Ocean“, Public Outreach, telephone: +49-431-880-3032
fbalzereit@uv.uni-kiel.de