As of: March 29, 2024, 1:40 p.m
By: Marcus Giebel
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A look into the mouth of a lamprey: In front of Großenbrode, an animal attacked the ice swimmer. © IMAGO / Zoonar, blickwinkel
Almost every day a teacher goes swimming in the Baltic Sea. She meets various animals. She doesn't get to see one, but is injured by him.
Großenbrode – Swimming in the Baltic Sea is almost part of Gabriella Szücs’ daily routine. Regardless of the outside temperature. The teacher from Großenbrode doesn't miss her time in the water, no matter how cold it is.
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She usually swims out in daylight. Enjoy the waves, the wind, the atmosphere. Maybe the ice swimmer would have skipped the routine this time if it wasn't for this special date. Because it was already late, 7 p.m. Twilight had set in.
But Szücs simply had to go into the Baltic Sea, where thousands of dead animals had washed up on another beach, as she reveals to the
Lübecker Nachrichten
(article behind a paywall): “It was the anniversary of my father's death, I really wanted to swim out that day to commemorate him with flowers.”
She spent 20 minutes in the ice-cold water, which is a danger to certain people because of deadly germs. Unlike other visits to the Baltic Sea, she didn't feel any waves, grass or algae. Nor the bites that were taught to her during the swim.
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Swimmer was bitten four times by an animal in the Baltic Sea: “Blood literally ran into my neoprene shoes”
Only when the East Holsteiner was back on the bank did she realize that she had suffered a bleeding wound. “The blood literally ran into my neoprene shoe below my right knee. When I looked closer, I saw the second and third wounds and all the blood,” she reports. At home she even discovered a fourth one.
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At first she couldn't explain the injuries. Szücs simply concluded that she had not noticed when these injuries had occurred because of the cold. But the experience left her no peace, which is why she wanted to research the cause.
She is now certain: “I was bitten several times by a lamprey.” She explains this by saying that the heavily bleeding bite wounds on both lower legs were “arranged in a punctual and circular manner.”
Lamprey attacks teacher in the Baltic Sea: grate out pieces of flesh and suck out blood
According to Nabu Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, lampreys have a rounded sucking mouth with a large number of horny teeth instead of a jaw. They use this to attach themselves to their prey in order to grate out pieces of flesh and suck out blood. Lampreys actually hunt fish, but in summer there are also attacks on swimmers. The bites are neither poisonous nor dangerous.
In the article, biologist Karl Deutschmann from the Laboe Marine Biological Station emphasizes: “Humans are not one of the lamprey's targets, that was more of an oversight.” The animals that even won the “Fish of the Year in Germany 2012” award , are therefore considered endangered and are under protection.
Doesn't usually target people: A river lamprey moves close to the seabed. © IMAGO / blickwinkel
Swimmer bitten by lamprey in the Baltic Sea: “Sometimes seals keep me company”
Szücs could have been attacked by a river lamprey, which measures up to 50 centimeters, or a sea lamprey, which can grow up to a meter long. Deutschmann explains: “The Baltic Sea is a brackish body of water and depending on the salinity or the proximity to river mouths it could have been both.”
For the passionate Baltic Sea swimmer, the experience was definitely a lesson. In the future, she will “no longer go into the water at dusk without a wetsuit.”
Although she has absolutely no objection to animal companionship: “I swam with various jellyfish, crabs and flatfish. Seals even kept me company twice, and swans, seagulls, cormorants, ducks and other bird species accompany me every day.”
Researchers come across a stone wall in the Baltic Sea that appears to have been built by humans. Because the Baltic Sea is warming up particularly quickly, there are some dangers. In Denmark, Baltic Sea seagulls are being shot down because anger towards the birds is getting out of hand.
(mg)