Greenpeace plants red flags in Vejle Fjord

In April 2024, Vejle Fjord was declared dead and therefore buried in a symbolic act carried out jointly by Greenpeace and the Danish Anglers Association.

The headstone read: "Here rests Vejle Fjord. May you rise again."

Yesterday, the two organisations visited Vejle Fjord once more to examine the fjord's condition and see whether there were signs of resurrection.

Greenpeace had brought red flags with a white fish on them, which Greenpeace would plant in the fjord if the environmental condition was poor. The flag is inspired by the red flag that lifeguards raise when it is too dangerous to swim, explains Emil Bejer-Pedersen, campaign director at Greenpeace.

The red flags are meant to make visible that beneath the fjord's calm surface there are environmental challenges, says Emil Bejer-Pedersen, who is campaign director at Greenpeace. (Photo: © Magnus Rosendal Damborg, DR)

- A bathing flag for fish, which is simply meant to signal that this is not a place where there are fish, or at least a place that fish should stay far away from, says Emil Bejer-Pedersen.

To document the condition, Greenpeace had brought an oxygen meter and other equipment in a fast-moving rubber boat, and before the rubber boat set out, Emil Bejer-Pedersen was convinced that the red flags would be placed on the water as a visible reminder of poor marine environment.

- It would be wonderful if our measurements simply showed that there is no danger at all, but unfortunately my expectation is that we will end up planting these flags, says Emil Bejer-Pedersen.

Also read: Death notice: 'Vejle Fjord is dead' and will be buried in two weeks with a priest present ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/doedsannonce-vejle-fjord-er-doed-og-bliver-begravet-om-uger-med-en-praest-til-stede )

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Restoration works

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But in fact, Greenpeace does not need to measure the fjord's condition at all.

Because in Vejle Fjord there are already eight measuring stations that measure the environmental condition every ten minutes all year round.

>

> - There are quite a few fjords where the environmental condition is far more impoverished.

> Haderslev Fjord and Flensborg Fjord and Limfjorden. Vejle is not harder

> hit than those fjords. Quite the opposite.

> Professor of biology at the University of Southern Denmark, Mogens Flindt

Those data are accessible to Mogens Flindt, professor of biology at the University of Southern Denmark, and they show a somewhat more nuanced picture of the fjord's environmental condition.

In the inner fjord between Vejlefjord Bridge and the city of Vejle, there are frequent oxygen depletions, but at the measuring stations beyond Vejlefjord Bridge, the picture is different, says Mogens Flindt.

- As soon as we get a little further out in Vejle Fjord, and when we are talking about depths from zero to four-five metres, there are very few situations where we measure oxygen depletion, says Mogens Flindt.

It is precisely at those depths that a large restoration effort is underway with eelgrass, mussel banks, and stone reefs, and in those areas the condition of the fjord is better than its reputation suggests.

- As soon as we are away from the innermost part of the fjord, our nature restoration succeeds very well. We have planted eelgrass over a number of years, and we can follow how biodiversity increases over time, says Mogens Flindt.

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Many fjords are worse off than Vejle

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He describes the restoration of Vejle Fjord as Denmark's largest marine restoration project, but also says that the areas with nature restoration are limited, because it makes no sense to plant eelgrass at depths where light cannot penetrate, and that at depths from 10 metres there is oxygen depletion – also in the outer fjord.

>

> - It is of course just really great if there are some pockets of life in Vejle

> Fjord, but that being said, we should also be able to demand that there are not

> only pockets of life in the fjord, but that there is actually the possibility

> of life in the entire fjord.

> Emil Bejer-Pedersen, campaign director at Greenpeace

Can you be worried that Greenpeace's demonstration or happening with planting flags could create a wrong picture of the fjord's condition?

- Well, on the one hand these events are fine, but it would not hurt if they were also knowledge-based at the same time. If they are not based on data from reality, it ends up with people who are interested in keeping focus on the sea feeling a bit cheated, and then that is negative, says Mogens Flindt.

Greenpeace ended up placing the red flags in two places in Vejle Fjord. Those places had moderate oxygen depletion bordering on severe oxygen depletion, and the bottom was like a desert, says Greenpeace. But the measurements did not take place where work is being done to restore the fjord. (Photo: © Magnus Rosendal Damborg, DR)

He adds that Greenpeace could easily find fjords that are worse off than Vejle Fjord.

- There are quite a few fjords where the environmental condition is far more impoverished. Haderslev Fjord and Flensborg Fjord and Limfjorden. Vejle is not harder hit than those fjords. Quite the opposite, says Mogens Flindt.

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Pockets of life

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At Greenpeace, campaign director Emil Bejer-Pedersen acknowledges that a major effort is being made to restore Vejle Fjord.

- It is of course just really great if there are some pockets of life in Vejle Fjord, but that being said, we should also be able to demand that there are not only pockets of life in the fjord, but that there is actually the possibility of life in the entire fjord, says Emil Bejer-Pedersen.

He also acknowledges that there are other fjords that are worse off than Vejle Fjord.

- But that really says more about the water quality in many other places, and we need to address the root of the problem, which is the enormous discharge of nitrogen from industrial agriculture, says Emil Bejer-Pedersen.

Greenpeace's measurements in Vejle Fjord did, incidentally, show moderate oxygen depletion bordering on severe oxygen depletion at the places where measurements were taken, and therefore two symbolic flags were planted on the bottom of Vejle Fjord.

They only stood there for the roughly five hours Greenpeace was on the fjord, because the red flags with white fish on them are to continue on to Skive, where Greenpeace today repeats the action.

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