The moment I first saw bladderwrack

I first saw a bladderwrack in Norway in 2022. It was the Norwegian Sea – northern Norway, near the Arctic Circle. The coastal bladderwrack meadows breathed with the tide. They were multi-species meadows; I saw Fucus vesiculosus, Fucus serratus, Palmaria palmata and many other organisms. The water height differences were significant, so at low tide, the bladderwrack lay in slowly drying, water-heavy meadows. At high tide, it suddenly began to dance underwater, rising lightly and quickly thanks to its buoyant gas-filled swim bladders. The abundance of bladderwrack meadows was intoxicating, completely different from the sea I know best – a sea that is species-poor, much emptier, and much less transparent.