Friday 1 June 2012

Walking&discovering the Wadden sea/ Wattführung mit Heino auf Insel Juist

Das Wattenmeer, known in English as the "Wadden Sea", is an intertidal sea, part of the North sea. I had the big pleasure to be last weekend on the car free island Juist (the second German Eastfrisian islands after the Dutch islands)... And one of the thing to do and really not to miss here is a walk on during low tide in the Wadden Sea with the local guide Heino...Heino transfers to you not only only his tons of enormous knowledge about the life under the sand, but also his love to this unique ecosystem on Earth!
Very witty he compares during the whole guided tour (from 2 till 3 hours) the sea with human organs cleaning the entire system. The shell common cockle (de. "Herzmuschel") are the kidneys, the worms (de. "Sandpierwurm") are the lungs....each of the water inhabitants has an unique cleaning function: the cockles filter the water and keep all dirt and toxins in them See for confirmation the quick test Heino did  for us by putting cockles in one jar with muddy sea water next to jar without those cleaners. After 2 hours the jar with the shell contained some crystal clear water...Another very important local is the rock worm (de. "Sandpierwurm"). He is the one leaving some spaghetti-looking sand mountains behind. This is actually the cleaned sand once after it had passed through his body. A very visual way to see the difference between the cleaned and still-to-cleaned sand is the colour of it. The top layer of the sand held by Heino is the one already filtered by the efficient worms!
We have also met the famous "Seeklaffmuschel" (see picture below). A sand inhabitant who hides some 40 cm under the surface. Heino took it with big care outside for us so we could look closer and learn that this specie is also endangered. In the last 10 years their number has decreased really quick due to the human influence by enlarging harbours and changing working ecosystems...
At the end we could even hold some sea crabs to convince ourselves that they are not dangerous at all...

19 comments:

Salitype said...

really good information the tour guide shared with everybody, who would have thought that those inhabitants have a unique cleaning function, wow !

Aligaga

AVCr8teur said...

What an interesting learning experience! Did you get to hold a sea crab? I don't think I would want to hold a worm. :D

To answer your question from my previous post, shaved ice is a dessert made from blocks of ice shaven to make it look like snow. Then you add different flavored syrups to give it taste. Do you have a similar dessert in your country?

Anonymous said...

I love reading blogs and find a wealth of knowledge about things I never heard of!

A~M~A~Z~I~N~G ~

Barb said...

What a marvel - the guide was a gold mine of information.

Erika said...

Nice shots and experience.
Wish you a good w.e.
Kisses from Italy
Erika

papillon said...

Wow, so very beautiful. We have never been there. Viel Spaß am Wochenende.
Greetings
J+C

Dietmut said...

prachtige serie Jana. Ik hou van waddenlopen. Ik ben vroeger eens van Cuxhaven naar het eiland Neuwerk gelopen en terug dan met paard en wagen. Fijn weekend wens ik je, Dietmut

Murasaki Shikibu said...

I used to love going to the beach when I was little. There was so much life on the beaches in the Philippines, unlike here.

Lies said...

Héérlijk, Jana...
Lie(f)s.

betchai said...

very interesting information, love tours like this, and yes, love low tide because of what we could learn and explore from observing them.

Carmine said...

nice idea for a trip

Portland Veterinarian said...

awesome stuff! More power to your blog!

Mirthe Duindam said...

Nice series!
Greetings, Mirthe

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

What a wonderful experience. An interested and informative guide makes all the difference too.

Anonymous said...

Ей, коте,
ама това е било много интересно!!
Мидички, червейчета и рачета-осмокрачета действащи като чистачи наводата в моретата!!
Чудесно !! :))

stardust said...

We live benefited thanks to the ecosystem created by the cooperation of each tiny creatures, and it’s sad that we humans have been destroying that ecosystem which takes years to be recovered or never, once destroyed. Thanks for this info, Jana.

Yoko

Ginny Hartzler said...

I have never heard of this sea, but I sure have learned a lot about it here!!! I love the cute little crabs!!!

Ginny Hartzler said...

The seal hospital is amazing! And I love the birds, we are birdwatchers! You post about the neatest things! I have known two Janas in my life.

Claus said...

Hi Jana, what a wonderful report about yout tour with Heino! There are a lot of people, who do not remember so many facts ;-) I hope, you will visit our little island again one day. Thank you :-)