People behind the scenes – project coordinator Essi Keskinen

I am a marine biologist, Essi. I have been working in Metsähallitus since 2006 and done field work every summer since then. Now I’m the project coordinator for SEAmBOTH and it’s a very new challenge for me.

Essi Keskinen with a sampler, standing in shallow water in full diving gear.

I started diving when I was in senior high school and I did an advanced European scientific diving course while I studied biology at the University of Oulu, Finland. When I was little, I used to watch The silent world by Jacques Yves Cousteau from TV with my Grandmother, and I thought that when I grow up, I want to be like Cousteau.

Right now I’m working in my dream job. I have a feeling that I can make a difference in the conservation of the Baltic Sea and that the information that I collect every summer is valuable and helps us better understand, how to manage our joined home sea.

Essi Keskinen after a dive in full diving gear.

In SEAmBOTH, I’m working both in the field during the summer and in the office during the winter. My job is to try to coordinate all six partners in Finland and Sweden, try to tell the public why we are doing what we are doing and in the end, try to make the project end products so good that we can all be proud of them and that they would be useful in future management of the Bothnian Bay.