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The bottom of the sea at low tide

The bottom of the sea at low tide

Lutjewad, sandbank near the village Lauwersoog. Lutjewad lies in the Wadden Sea between the mainland of the Province Groningen in northern Netherlands and the wadden island Schiermonnikoog.

The Wadden Sea (Dutch: Waddenzee, German: Wattenmeer, Danish: Vadehavet) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands.

It is rich in biological diversity. In 2009, the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The Wadden Sea stretches from Den Helder in the Netherlands in the southwest, past the great river estuaries of Germany to its northern boundary at Skallingen north of Esbjerg in Denmark along a total length of some 500 km and a total area of about 10,000 km².

The islands in the Wadden Sea are called the Wadden Sea Islands or Frisian Islands.

The word wad is Dutch for "mud flat". The area is typified by extensive tidal mud flats, deeper tidal trenches (tidal creeks) and the islands that are contained within this, a region continually contested by land and sea. The landscape has been formed for a great part by storm tides in the 10th to 14th centuries, overflowing and carrying away former peat land behind the coastal dunes. The present islands are a remnant of the former coastal dunes.

The Wadden Sea is famous for its rich flora and fauna, especially birds. Hundred of thousands of waders (shorebirds), ducks, and geese use the area as a migration stopover or wintering site, and it is also rich habitat for gulls and terns.

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All rights reserved. Copyright © Martien Uiterweerd. All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written explicit permission.

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Uploaded on July 31, 2012
Taken on July 28, 2012