Duration: 2 to 13 February 2026

Area: Baltic Sea

Purpose: Multi-Purpose Education Survey

The 859th voyage of the Solea serves to train students from the University of Rostock and takes place exclusively in German waters of the Baltic Sea.

The following activities are planned:

• Fishing experiments with a bottom trawl net
• Catching herring larvae along the German coast with various plankton nets, together with sampling for eDNA analysis (= examination of environmental DNA)
• Acoustic surveying of a new bead net
• Conducting a CTD transect (= recording of oceanographic parameters) on the southern edge of the Bay of Mecklenburg ("Boltenhagen measuring field") and, if circumstances permit, also in the Bay of Lübeck and Eckernförde
• Marking of fish, if necessary