It was a late start from Vienna this morning, but well worth it. A flood of journalists and special guests joined the team today on-board including BBC and 3SAT, film cameras in hand. Czech TV and Austria’s ORF joined later en route, with sights and sounds from the Danube reaching audiences nation-wide LIVE. Additional coordination was needed for the expedition’s smaller boats, sharing their use among the biologists and journalists. It also meant interviews, posing for cameras and sampling demonstrations.
The BBC documented crossing the former Iron Curtain border from Austria to Slovakia, near a monument under the Devin Castle in honour of people killed by the former regime when trying to escape to Austria. Now a problem-free passage with excellent bilateral cooperation, the border police wished the JDS2 team and crew all the best for the rest of the journey.
Journalists noted how impressive it was to see how synchronised and fast the team was at sampling, and the multi-nationality of the expedition. “I would never believe this without seeing it with my own eyes,” said one.
The boats were followed from the shore by a delegation from the Austrian Ministry of Environment including Richard Stadler, Head of the Austrian Delegation for the ICPDR.
Both the Slovak and Czech national scientific teams also joined up this morning to test their river stretches – the Slovaks boarding the Argus, while the Czechs began independently sampling two sites upstream on the Morava River. The Czech team later joined the JDS2 Core Team for sampling at the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers under the Devin Castle. The ships reached Bratislava after 20:00. As for Fish Team Leader Christian Wiesner, he got back to the Piscius boat by midnight after some night fishing with the Austrian national team.
For an excellent review of the experiences of the JDS2 in Austria, see the diary website of the Austrian Ministry of Environment.
