The Rotary’s Rowing for Baltic Herring event was organized on Sunday, October 6, i.e. the first Sunday of Stad’s Herring Market. The event raised funds for clean local waters and the Baltic Sea.
This year, a record number of friends of the Baltic Sea other than Rotarians participated in the event. The event gathered around 270 people to go outside. In this year’s event, we rowed in 11 church boats from Töölönlahti to the market square and 7 groups hiked the same route along the shores of Helsinki.
The proceeds will be donated to the work of the Baltic Sea Action Group
This year, the proceeds from the event will be donated to the work of the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) to protect the underwater diversity of the Baltic Sea. Funds are collected through support fees and the participation fees of sudu and Pathika. Herring rowing has been organized since 2013 and with its help more than 80,000 euros have been collected for work in the Baltic Sea. In previous years, funds have been diverted, for example, to the equipment of the research vessel Aranda and to the automatic measurement of water quality in the Vantaanjoki catchment area.
BSAG’s goal is that all the most valuable underwater areas of the Baltic Sea (in Finland’s territorial waters) are protected by 2030. BSAG helps landowners protect important sites. It acts as a coordinator between landowners, ELY centers and Metsähallitus, so that the protection process proceeds as easily and quickly as possible.
Get to know BSAG’s activities ( https://www.bsag.fi/meista/)
Watch the video about the 2024 Rowing for Baltic Herring and trail from district 1420’s YouTube channel https://youtu.be/P3IxCv8rfto
The event started with a gathering at the Opera House
The participants gathered at the Opera House for morning coffee and the event’s opening seminar.
The event was opened by last year’s rotary district governor Ritva Semi and we got to hear tips and instructions for the rowers from the patron of the event, Jari Saario.
The rowers and hiking groups took turns setting off from Opera. Group photos were taken in the opera park and after that the teams walked along the shore of Töölönlahti towards the shore of Little Finlandia. There we transferred to the church boats or went hiking towards the first cross in Linnulaulu.
See group pictures on the website: https://www.silakkasoutu.fi/kuvia-images/
From Töölönlahti we rowed to Kauppatori
The boats practiced rowing in Töölönlahti and performed the first visual depth measurement. After Pitkäsilta, the safety boats of our sponsor the Marine Rescue Society ensured the safety of the weld. During the journey, the boat crews perform another visual depth measurement.
From Töölönlahti, we hiked along the shores of Helsinki city centre to Kauppatori
The hiking groups set off in groups of about 10 people. On the way, we stopped at three checkpoints:
- rasti in Linnunlaulu on the terrace of Sininen talo Café (BSAG, bsag.fi)
- tick at Halkolaituri in Kruununhaka (Velmu, underwater marine biodiversity inventory program, syke.fi).
- tick and end point Katajanokanlaituri Kauppatori. Vesireppu (https://www.vesireppu.com/) was presented at the Rotary tent,
The total length of the hiking trail was about 4 kilometers.
The day of rowing and hiking culminated in the Baltic Sea seminar
At the end of the outdoor day, we gathered for a joint herring lunch and the “Life below the surface” seminar, where experts from the Baltic Sea talked about the state of marine life:
- Åbo Akademi’s assistant professor Christoffer Boström talked about the impoverishment of marine life and how it manifests itself.
- Katja Mäkinen, a specialist researcher at the University of Turku, told Silakka’s news and
- Docent Kari-Matti Vuori from the Finnish Environmental Center told about the water protection project of the Rotarians from Lappeenranta, where Christmas trees were sunk into the Saimaa
With the cooperation of the clubs, we can organize the event
The event was made possible by the cooperation of several clubs. The organizing rotary clubs were Finlandia Hall, Helsinki Baltic Sea, Helsinki International, Herttoniemi-Hertonäs, Meri-Espoo, Pasila-Fredriksberg, Riihimäki-Hausjärvi and Vantaa Myyrmäki. Rotary district 1420 of Southern Finland and Estonia was also involved.
In addition, we would like to thank our sponsors and partners: Oopera-Baletti, Viking Line, K-Supermarket Hertta, Ventoniemi, Stadin Silakkamarkkinat, Itämerihaaste/City of Helsinki, Eckes-Granini, LähiTapiola, Helsinki Suomalainen Klubi, Sea Rescue Society, Patrol, Finnish Environmental Center Syke, Velmu, Rosgis and Rotaract Helsinki.
Read more about the event
Event website: https://www.silakkasoutu.fi
Images: https://www.silakkasoutu.fi/kuvia-images/ (can be used freely mentioning the photographer)
