MaMa Course 2026 - Marine Master Summer Course
MaMa course 2026 - Group photo
NIOZ works closely together with Dutch universities to strengthen marine science in the Netherlands. The Marine Masters Summer Course contributes to this by giving students the opportunity to familiarise themselves with marine research, including the opportunity to experience working on research vessels. This introductory, multidisciplinary course is hosted at NIOZ Texel, with the western Wadden Sea as hands-on research area. Welcome to the blog!
9 July - Mudflats in the morning, sediment samples in the afternoon
Written by Susanne Triedwindt
Today was the first day we worked on our projects. In our case, this meant going to the mudflats in the morning, placing sensors in the sediment, taking sediment core samples, and identifying benthos on site. The sensors will be picked up next week again and are measuring temperatures in the sediment within the next 4 days.
In the lab, we continued working with the sediment samples by splitting them up into different layers, and determining the grain size and density of the sediment - though getting it out of the sediment core can require quite a lot of muscle work, as we experienced first-hand!
Nonetheless, we managed to retrieve and use all samples, and these measurements will help us to research how climate change will affect the ecosystem and its inhabitants of the Wadden Sea.
Our group working in the Wadden Sea, taking location data and measurements. Photo by Tamas Szecseni
Processing the sediment samples
8 July – The first days of “island life”
Written by Jack Silke - Climate Physics, UU
Mudflats, crabs and seaweed labs – it feels like we’ve seen it all since landing on the island just a couple of days ago. As much as I hate getting up before 7am, the early morning starts have definitely been worth it. I managed to fulfil my childhood dream of being Jack Sparrow, when we went out on the Wadden Sea aboard the research vessel HA1 Wantij. “Island life” has been super varied so far, with time at sea, visits to the tidal mudflats, as well tours of the NIOZ facilities.
Anne giving us a morning tour of the tidal mudflats.
Coming from a physics background myself, it has been super interesting to spend time with people from other disciplines, such as marine science and ecology. Whilst I was completely out of my depth trying to pick up a crab to examine it for parasites, my more-experienced groupmates were able to guide me on how best to do it. It seemed much more straightforward in my head …
Examining crabs for parasites aboard the RV-HA1 Wantij
The cherry on top (so far) has been the free ice cream in celebration of 150 years of NIOZ. A well-deserved treat after exploring the tidal flats that morning!
Our group sneaking in a quick ice-cream break, in between tours of the NIOZ facilities.