Biologist and photographer with a passion for nature

Photographer and biologist Christian B. Hvidt is likely to be the only person who has moved more or less freely between the many environmental investigations being conducted prior to the fixed Fehmarnbelt link. For the past several months, he has been gathering video material for eight films on fish and bird life, flora and much else in the area surrounding the future fixed link between Denmark and Germany.

For Christian B. Hvidt, this has been a fascinating professional challenge – both in his capacity as a biologist as well as a video producer and a unique experience for him to meet so many professional experts in their "natural element," i.e. fieldwork.

"Chatting to colleagues involved in the project, I can see an enormous commitment that is very infectious,” he says. "There is no doubting that this project means a lot to many people.”

Nature as the connecting link
Christian B. Hvidt first became acquainted with the Fehmarnbelt project back in the late 1990s when as a biologist, he was involved in the EIA for the offshore wind turbines at Rødsand. Nature, and portraying nature, has been a lifelong interest since going fishing in the scenic surroundings of Aabenraa Fjord as a boy.

Over the past few years, he has mainly been involved with documentaries, including several for TV, using both still as well as moving images. His main focus, however, has been on marine and freshwater environments.

Back to Fehmarn
In 2008, Christian B. Hvidt returned to the Fehmarnbelt project as part of the team that carried out the environmental investigations into fish and fishing. The work involved the production of a number of documentaries about fish and other topics of relevance to the Fehmarnbelt project's environmental studies – films that can be viewed on this site.

"The greatest challenge was to compact a relatively long and technically complex story into one minute films - and in a way that is one and the same time audience-friendly and professionally correct," explains Christian B. Hvidt. "Each EIA area is incredibly wide-ranging and there is no time or space to tell all the stories."

"Because the number of images is huge, we chose to use a series of short rather than a few longer sequences," he says. "This gives the viewer an insight into the many different aspects of the EIA investigations."

The weather
His work is often hampered by delays and interruptions. "That's the way it is when you shoot in nature," Christian B. Hvidt admits. Underwater footage, for instance, is virtually impossible when visibility is poor. In one situation it was so difficult to get the right footage of seals that the two scheduled days of filming turned into two weeks.

"So I sat there in a holiday cottage on Falster surrounded by Danes, Germans and a few Scots - all professionals in their different areas. The interesting thing is everything is linked together so that if there are no seals, it's probably because there are no fish and so on. But the situation gave us an opportunity to discuss how to exploit the synergies between the various environmental elements in the best possible way. I have, for instance, learned to interpret information from the hydrographic surveys and, therefore, to assess when it's the best time to go out.  And then, of course, there were the times when we got to enjoy each other’s company – along with a glass of whiskey."