Nana Petzet

The major cruise ship event Hamburg Cruise Days takes place annually, whereas the supplementary event Blue Port Hamburg is staged biannually. However, in 2015 the cycle was altered and two Blue Ports exceptionally took place in consecutive years. Blue Port No. 5 was thus already staged in September 2015. Lichtfalle Hamburg reacted to this with a call to participate in Blue Port Monitoring, requesting visitors of the light spectacle to focus on the insects attracted by all the illuminants. On 13 September we organized a guided tour in the port area with specialists and undertook an inspection of the grounds around the Oberhafen. What stood out were the high number of spiderwebs under the blue fluorescent tubes, leading us to conclude that such light happenings are conducive to a thriving population of bridge spiders, while, accordingly, flight insects increasingly become prey. Compared to our simulation in August, the exact same conditions prevailed during this action from 5 to 10 September 2015, at least concerning the moon phase. The weather, however, was colder with more rain and wind. It soon was evident that also Blue Port 2015 functioned as a huge trap for night-active insects, though scheduling it for September was a better choice than at the height of summer, since the insect flight becomes less following the season.