Khrami River at the sampling site with the restaurant where we had our lunch to the left
Bird of the day: Cormorant
Bird of the day 2: Kingfisher
Kick sampling of macroinvertebrates
The result of the sampling
Dragonfly (på dansk guldsmed) larvae
Very delicious crane fly larvae (på dansk stankelben), also called leatherjackets
The river was rather polluted, no more than moderate status according the WFD, stones were covered with algae and fine organic sediment and the groups of macroinvertebrates most vulnerable to organic pollution: Stoneflies and Mayflies were totally absent
Some bottom living fishes had also gone into the net during the kick sampling
Keeping control of the samples from the different locations
Group photo of all the participants
During the lunch out team leader handed certificates to the three laboratories acknowledging their participation in the joint monitoring activities
One of the main activities of our EU Kura project is the so-called Joint monitoring where monitoring teams from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan collect water samples from a number of cross boundary rivers after a pre-agreed plan, partly by the individual teams and partly together. After the water samples are analysed independently by the three national laboratories, the results are compared and differences discussed at our workshops. The results are also used in our dialogue with the three laboratories on how they can improve their sampling and analytical procedures.
The three national teams jointly take samples from two sampling locations in Georgia: from the Khrami River and from the Kura River both near the border to Azerbaijan.
The national teams meet at the Khrami River to exchange samples and depart to their countries after a brief joint lunch at a restaurant at the Khrami River.
At this last sampling event I was invited to join, and to support my colleague biologist, Irakli, from the Georgian team in demonstrating biological sampling for the participants from the three teams.
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