Issue: The bottom of the sea
Values: 1.00, 6.00, 8.00 and 12.00 DKK
Issue: 22-II-2010
Author: Ingi Sørensen
Perforation:
Technique: Offset + Metal Silver
Printer:Southern Colour Print, New Zealand
A fabulous submarine world seen through Ingi Sørensen’s camera lens
The Faroe Islands have many unique and beautiful submarine landscapes. Absolutely fantastic places where nobody has ever been. And many, many years will pass before even half of this exceptional, uncharted world at the bottom of the sea has been explored.
For my part, I take photographs in an attempt to make people aware of this unknown area of the Faroes that is simply waiting for divers to explore it.
There are also many hidden and forgotten shipwrecks from previous centuries here that conceal numerous exciting, thought-provoking secrets.
What makes diving in the Faroes so unique is the ever-varying submarine landscape, extensive thickets of seaweed alternating with attractive “sand eyes” (patches of sand on the bottom called sandeyga in Faroese), vertical walls that disappear into the depths and a host of submarine chasms and grottoes in shapes of all kinds that are really exciting to explore. The water is crystal clear in many places and allows the sun’s rays to throw shadows on the sea floor. Plaice, flounder, dab, small halibut and angler fish lie immobile in the sand while they observe the diver gliding soundlessly through the water like a bird floating across the firmament.
The Faroes are truly a diver’s paradise that compares favourably with any other place on earth. Expressing the experience of sailing beneath the bird cliffs in fine weather before diving is no easy matter. The sun, the towering cliffs, the birds, the sea, the fish, the thickets of seaweed, the play of colours and incredible rock formations on the bottom where everything forms a synthesis are quite indescribable.
The four photos reproduced on the postage stamps were taken at Kvívík. Diving at Kvívík is like taking a walk in an enchanted grove, with the difference that you can see beautiful, multicoloured thickets of seaweed and the sandy bottom, or “sand eyes”. You can either swim on the surface or negotiate a tangled thicket of seaweed to reach the sand and it was here, at a depth of about five metres, that the photos for the postage stamps were taken. Many different life forms can be seen such as the big starfish that lives on horse mussels, which are also found here – very well camouflaged.
It’s often possible to take the makings of a good dinner home with you: plaice, flounder or angler fish.
Another reason why I often dive at Kvívík is that it is fast and easy to get there from Tórshavn. Sailing is unnecessary as a 15-minute drive is all it takes. So it’s easy to get out into the water and up again, and equipment can be rinsed with fresh water on the jetty.
My interest in diving was aroused when I worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in Tórshavn. I took the Padi Open Water course seven years ago and will never forget the absolutely fantastic feeling of diving at Hoyvík for the first time. It was an experience that made a deep impression on my soul. Since then, I have dived more or less every day and I have received many certificates for something that has given me countless unique experiences. I now work as a commercial diver, but also dive on a recreational basis, which has also made taking photographs a passion. Diving is living! It is a world of its own that most people can experience if they have the will and make an effort. We have two diving schools in the Faroes where people can learn recreational diving. So put your name down – and the gateway to our beautiful submarine world will open for you!
Over the years I have dived on many occasions with tourists in the Faroes and seen the pleasure they take in our beautiful submarine landscapes. Many of them have told me that it was the best diving experience they have ever had – in spite of the fact that they have dived in many other places in the world. So this is something that the Faroese tourist industry could take up to advantage.
I hope that my photos will help to promote the development of the Faroes as a North Atlantic diver’s paradise.
Ingi Sørensen
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