Diary entryDiary entry
Nutrients in the Sio tributary - no pollution - no colours.jpg
Sio River tests – colour means nutrient pollution
Rainbow over the outlet water from the nuclear power plant in Paks 2.jpg
Rainbow over the water outfall from the Paks nuclear power plant
Béla Csányi collecting mussels for further investigations in the laboratory.jpg
Béla Csányi collecting mussels near Paks for further lab investigations
Rest between the two sampling sites.jpg
A valuable rest between sampling sites for Austrian biologist Patrick Leitner
Danube is full of life.jpg
Life from the Danube
Hungarian_National_Team_mussels.jpg
Hungarian National Team evaluating the mussels catch
Hungarian_fish_soup.jpg
Sampling Hungary’s most famous fish soup
Location map

Rainbows and fish soupRainbows and fish soup

Location: Baja, Hungary
On August 31, three stations were sampled including #36 on the Danube at Paks, #37 on the Sio River and #38 on the Danube at Baja.

Sampling by the large nuclear power plant at Paks witnessed an amazing multi-coloured rainbow indicating that warm water from the plant's cooling towers is entering the Danube. An abundance of mussels in the neighbourhood was also detected.

On the Sio River, sampling found this Danube tributary to be significantly polluted by nutrients, as evidenced by the strong colours that resulted during testing of the water using spectrophotometric analysis.

Later that evening, the whole Core Team and crew of the Széchenyi seized on the opportunity to dine at one of Baja's typical fish restaurants, eating Hungary's most prized fish soup (halászlé) and other fish delicacies, many from the Danube.

However, just before at 18:00, the team realized that the only two sieves (one a backup) used for sampling sediments for chemical analyses had broken. This was a big problem given that this particular form of testing comprised a significant component of the overall JDS2. Furthermore, a special mesh size for the sieve was required to meet EU sampling standards. In response, the team phoned the Water Research Institute in Bratislava which reacted immediately. They promised to meet a JDS2 car at the Institute early the next morning with sieves, so that the car could get back to the JDS2 ships near the Hungarian-Croatian border by early afternoon, and continue the valuable sampling.

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  • The morning after the big event in Budapest, the JDS2 team was relaxed and expecting that things would settle down a bit. Then it came.
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  • On August 24, sampling meant officially crossing the border between Slovakia and Hungary at Komarno/Komarom. During the day, Stations 20, 21 and 22 were sampled.

  • With early results in from the Upper Danube in Germany and Austria, the ‘JDS2 Fish Team' found plenty of species native to Danube waters such as bl