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47-468: The name was first recorded in a 12th-century document. At the time, the islands differed considerably from the mainland regarding both their social constitution and political status. Today parts of the former Uthlande are submerged in the Wadden Sea — especially large parts of the island Strand — or have themselves become a part of the mainland by the construction of dikes or land reclamation . On

94-809: A Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea was agreed upon to co-ordinate activities and measures for the protection of the Wadden Sea. In 1997, a Trilateral Wadden Sea Plan was adopted. In 1986, the Wadden Sea Area was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO . In June 2009, the Wadden Sea (comprising the Dutch Wadden Sea Conservation Area and the German Wadden Sea National Parks of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein)

141-627: A large-scale autonomy in the Middle Ages. They were exempt from the Code of Jutland of 1241 and were allowed to judge according to Frisian law (see also Lex Frisionum ). When Eric IV of Denmark tried to collect the plogpennig , a tax of one penny on every plow , in the Uthlande as well, he was forced to leave the area after having lost a number of knights due to resistance against the new tax law. His brother, killer and successor Abel even lost

188-520: A result, about 90% of all the species that historically inhabited that part of the Wadden Sea are at risk. The Wadden Sea is an important habitat for both harbour and grey seals . Harbour porpoises and white-beaked dolphins are the sea's only resident cetaceans . They were once extinct in the southern part of the sea but have also re-colonized that area again. Many other cetaceans only visit seasonally, or occasionally. In early history, North Atlantic right whales and gray whales (now extinct in

235-635: A scribe who tried to translate the names of DeStrand , Eydaerstath and Hewerschop into Latin language. In 2002 the association Regionale Partnerschaft Uthlande e.V. was established which aims to promote the "Region Uthlande" that comprises the islands and halligen of Nordfriesland. Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( Dutch : Waddenzee [ˈʋɑdə(n)zeː] ; German : Wattenmeer [ˈvatn̩ˌmeːɐ̯] ; Low German : Wattensee or Waddenzee ; Danish : Vadehavet ; [Waadsee] Error: {{Langx}}: invalid parameter: |longname= ( help ) ; North Frisian : di Heef )

282-590: A small and increasing breeding population of white-tailed eagles . However, the biodiversity of Wadden Sea is smaller today than it once was; for birds, greater flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans used to be common as well, at least during the Holocene climatic optimum when the climate was warmer. Due to human activity and a changing environment, species have gone extinct, while others are expected to migrate in. Larger fish including rays , Atlantic salmon and brown trout are still present in several sections of

329-616: A treaty with Bremen in the name of the Frisians. During the Middle Ages, the following Hundreds ( Harden ) were part of the Uthlande: This list of areas varies according to sources and years and the shape of the coastline has changed considerably during the last centuries. Important sources include the Danish Census Book of king Valdemar II of Denmark , and historicising maps by Johannes Mejer (printed in 1652). In

376-562: 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 low-lying Frisian Islands , forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands . It has a high biological diversity and is an important area for both breeding and migrating birds. In 2009, the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on UNESCO 's World Heritage List and

423-508: Is being coordinated between the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Natural gas and oil drilling continue, however, and in the vicinity of the Ems , Weser and Elbe estuaries , and ship traffic causes tension between wildlife protection and economic values. During the last ice age , which ended approximately 12,000 years ago, sea level was about 60 metres (200 ft) lower than it

470-501: Is even reachable without a dam by means of tidal road. The Wadden Islands are in continuous apparent movement. The most important movement is the 'migration': the islands themselves are slowly but certainly moving from West to East. On the West side most of the islands disappear slowly into the sea and on the East side even larger sand-banks arise. This movement is also the reason that most of

517-486: Is generally understood to include all coastal regions around the Wadden Sea that participate in the trilateral cooperation between Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The entire area is known for its rich cultural heritage, dating back to the Roman Iron Age and the Middle Ages, and largely coincides with the area internationally referred to as Frisia . Between 2002 and 2023 stakeholder organizations and NGOs from

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564-538: Is now, and part of what is now the North Sea was dry land. With the melting of the ice caps, the sea level rose, reaching the current coast line around the beginning of the Holocene era, approximately 7,000 years ago. Tidal action transported large quantities of sand to form a line of dunes extending over 500 kilometres (310 mi) from the Netherlands to the mouth of the river Elbe in Germany. The sea broke through

611-415: Is particularly evident on Sylt , where the south of the island threatens to be broken away and the harbour at List in the north silts up. The Danish Islands, the next in the chain to the north, arose from sandbanks. Into the 20th century, silt on the islands was a serious problem. To protect them, small woods were planted. Long before the beginning of the modern era, there were already humans inhabiting

658-673: Is used for the islands where Frisian is spoken and the population is ethnically Frisian. In contrast, the term Wadden Islands applies to the entire archipelago, including the Dutch -speaking westernmost islands of Texel and Vlieland , Danish -speaking Danish Wadden Sea Islands further north off the west coast of Jutland and the Islands of Trischen and Neuwerk . Most of the Wadden Sea Islands are environmentally protected areas, and an international wildlife nature reserve

705-647: The Afsluitdijk . Historically, the coastal regions were often subjected to large floods, resulting in thousands of deaths, including the Saint Marcellus' floods of 1219 and 1362, Burchardi flood of 1634 and Christmas Flood of 1717 . Some of these also significantly changed the coastline. Numerous dikes and several causeways have been built, and as a result recent floods have resulted in few or no fatalities (even if some dikes rarely and locally have been overrun in recent history). This makes it among

752-614: The Frisian islands and the mainland coastal marshes , is also called the Wadden Coast. In Germany the area is referred to as North Sea Coast ( Nordseeküste ). The embanked polderlands and saltmarshes in the Wadden Sea area – including the Elbe Marshes – are referred to in Germany as North Sea coastal marshes ( Nordseemarschen ). More recent are terms such as Waddenland, Wadden Sea area and Wadden Sea Region. The latter term

799-556: The Fugger family and wooden beams with a sleek hull about 30 metres long. In Friesland and Groningen plans were made to embank and drain the Wadden Sea. As a result, the islands would have become part of the mainland. As of today, nature and environmental movements have been able to prevent this. The only plan ever to be carried out was the construction of a causeway from the Frisian Holwerd to Ameland , in 1872, which

846-519: The Netherlands through Germany to the west of Denmark . The islands shield the mudflat region of the Wadden Sea (large parts of which fall dry during low tide) from the North Sea . The Frisian Islands, along with the mainland coast in the German Bight , form the region of Frisia (German and Dutch: Friesland ), homeland of the Frisian people . Generally, the term Frisian Islands

893-571: The Noorderhaaks and Zuiderhaaks . Sometimes such a shoal grows, originating where an island has been 'walking', and the island regains area. (from West to East) The Dutch islands have a surface of 405.2 km² and a total of 23,872 inhabitants. The names of all these places suggest this is the transition area between island and shoal ( plaat in Dutch). Noorderhaaks, Griend, Rottumerplaat and Rottumeroog are generally considered to be islands,

940-418: 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. Towards the North Sea the islands are marked by dunes and wide sandy beaches, and towards the Wadden Sea a low, tidal coast. The impact of waves and currents carrying away sediments is slowly changing both land masses and coastlines. For example,

987-430: The 19th and 20th centuries. The dunes south of the Wadden Sea were also liable to this process, but human intervention prevented the many storm surges from changing the coast of the provinces North Holland and South Holland into separate islands with Wadden mudflats behind them. However, around 1200AD, storm surges did break up the northern coast of Western Friesland into five islands. Around 1600AD, four of these along

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1034-521: The 19th century. Mudflat hiking , i.e., walking on the sandy flats at low tide, has become popular in the Wadden Sea. It is also a popular region for pleasure boating. The German part of the Wadden Sea was the setting for the 1903 Erskine Childers novel The Riddle of the Sands and Else Ury 's 1915 novel Nesthäkchen in the Children's Sanitorium . The area bordering the Wadden Sea, including

1081-460: The Census Book there is a separate list of all inhabited islands of the west coast. The three placenames Gaestaenacka , Hwaelae major and Hwaelae minor that are mentioned there cannot be found and confirmed today. The common assumption that these islands lay west off Strand and were destroyed in 14th century storm surges is contested. The names may have resulted from faulty transcriptions by

1128-617: The Danish mainland the Hundreds later became the largest administrative subdivisions. They were composed of several parishes . In mainland Jutland there were also the syssels which used to comprise a number of Hundreds, but were completely unknown in the Uthlande. The local North Frisians became direct subjects of the Danish king and fought for him against the Holy Roman Empire and Holstein . However they succeeded in gaining

1175-577: The Danish part was added in June 2014. The Wadden Sea stretches from Den Helder , in the northwest of the Netherlands , past the great river estuaries of Germany to its northern boundary at Skallingen in Denmark along a total coastline of some 500 km (310 mi) and a total area of about 10,000 km (3,900 sq mi). Within the Netherlands, it is bounded from the IJsselmeer by

1222-669: The North Atlantic) were present in the region, perhaps using the shallow, calm waters for feeding and breeding. It has been theorized that they were hunted to extinction in this region by shore-based whalers in medieval times. They are generally considered long-extinct in the region, but in the Netherlands, a possible right whale was observed close to beaches on Texel in the West Frisian Islands and off Steenbanken, Schouwen-Duiveland in July 2005. Recent increases in

1269-668: The Wadden Sea Region cooperated in a platform or association called the Wadden Sea Forum (WSF). Shared locally with other region/s and with Germany and Denmark Frisian Islands The Frisian Islands , also known as the Wadden Islands or the Wadden Sea Islands , form an archipelago at the eastern edge of the North Sea in northwestern Europe , stretching from the northwest of

1316-598: The Wadden Sea). European oyster once formed large beds in the region and was still present until a few decades ago, when extirpated due to a combination of disease and the continued spread of the invasive Pacific oyster , which now forms large beds in the Wadden Sea. Especially the southwestern part of the Wadden Sea has been greatly reduced. Historically, the Rhine was by far the most important river flowing into this section, but it has been greatly reduced due to dams. As

1363-423: The Wadden Sea, but others like European sea sturgeon only survive in the region through a reintroduction project. The world's only remaining natural population of houting survives in the Danish part of the Wadden Sea and it has been used as a basis for reintroductions further south, but considerable taxonomic confusion remains over its status (whether it is the same as the houting that once lived further south in

1410-471: The Wadden area. Up to 800 AD, most inhabitants lived on terpen (artificial mounds). Living conditions were difficult. The Roman naturalist Pliny , writing in the first century AD, described the Frisians as ... ... people who live without trees or shrubs. ... in the east, to the coasts of the ocean, a number of races in such needy conditions exist; but this also applies to the races of peoples which are called

1457-452: The West coast had been again recovered, but Wieringen , to the south-east of Texel , remained an island up to the 20th century. In 2019, Dutch maritime investigators unearthed a 16th century shipwreck during a search for containers from MSC Zoe . According to Holland’s National Office for Cultural Heritage, the ship was built circa 1540 in the Netherlands during the reign of Charles V . Researchers also found copper plates with emblem of

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1504-622: The dunes in many places to form the Wadden Islands, with the low-lying country behind becoming the tidal Wadden mudflats . The Dutch West Frisian and the German East Frisian Islands are barrier islands . They arose along the breakers' edge where the water surge piled up sediment, and behind which sediment was carried away by the breaking waves. Over time, shoals arose, which ultimately were only covered by infrequent storm floods. Once plants began to colonize

1551-466: The greatest part of his army and his life when he tried to again enforce the plogpennig in Frisia in 1252. In 1261 the city of Hamburg signed a peace treaty with Utlandia but it is unclear whether this meant only the three Hundreds of Eiderstedt or the entire Uthlande. Until 1284, central administrative powers had become established in a way that Valdemar IV, Duke of Schleswig was able to contract

1598-476: The islands of Vlieland and Ameland have moved eastwards through the centuries, having lost land on one side and added it on the other. The Wadden Sea is famous for its rich flora and fauna , especially birds. Hundreds of thousands of waders , ducks , and geese use the area as a migration stopover or wintering site. It is also a rich habitat for gulls and terns , as well as a few species of herons , Eurasian spoonbills and birds-of-prey , including

1645-460: The large and small Chaucen, which we have seen in the north. There, two times in each period of a day and a night, the ocean with a fast tide submerges an immense plain, thereby the hiding ... whether the area is sea or land. There this miserable race inhabits raised pieces ground or platforms, which they have moored by hand above the level of the highest known tide. Living in huts built on the chosen spots, they seem like sailors in ships if water covers

1692-494: The monastery of Aduard . But earlier attempts had been undertaken to dam the sea. At the Frisian Peins (near Franeker ), a 40-meter section of dike has been discovered that is thought to date from the 1st or 2nd century BC. In the late Middle Ages , the dike system was gradually strengthened and flooding diminished. Beginning in the 17th century, dikes were built further out to reclaim more land. This activity peaked in

1739-417: The most human-altered habitats on the planet. The word wad is Frisian and Dutch for "mud flat" ( Low German and German : Watt , Danish : Vade ). 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

1786-428: The number of North Atlantic humpback whales and minke whales might have resulted in more visits and possible re-colonization by the species to the areas especially around Marsdiep . Future recovery of once-extinct local bottlenose dolphins is also expected. A number of human-introduced invasive species , including algae , plants, and smaller organisms, are causing negative effects on native species. Each of

1833-404: The others are considered to be sandbars and disappear from time to time into the waves. The former island of Wieringen can be found at the top of North Holland , against the Afsluitdijk . (from West to East and South to North) The German islands have a surface of 448.52 km² (173 sq. mi.) and 53,296 inhabitants. It is possible to make a boat excursion from several German Wadden Islands to

1880-488: The sandbanks, the land began to stabilize. In contrast, the North Frisian Islands arose from the remains of old Geestland islands, where the land was partially removed by storm floods and water action and then separated from the mainland. They are, therefore, often higher and their cores are less exposed to changes than the islands to the south. Beyond the core, however, the same processes are at work, as

1927-531: The small rock island of Helgoland which is situated 70 km (43 mi) off the German coast. Although Heligoland (German: Helgoland) is not a Wadden Island, there are strong cultural links with the Wadden area; for example a dialect of North Frisian is spoken there. Not all these islands are officially considered to be Wadden Islands. For the definition of an island, a minimum of 160 hectares (0.6 sq. mi.) must no longer be submerged during average high water by

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1974-514: The sun, and with soil as fuel they heat their food and their own bodies, frozen in northern wind. Their only drink comes from storing rain water in tanks front of their houses. And these are the races which, if they were now conquered by the Roman nation, say that they will fall into slavery! It is only too true: Destiny saves people as a punishment. Around 1000AD, dike construction began. Monks were instrumental in this activity, among others those of

2021-527: The surrounding country, but like shipwrecked people when the tide has withdrawn itself, and around their huts they catch fish which try to escape with the expiring tide. It is for them not possible to keep herds and live on milk such as the surrounding tribes. They cannot even fight with wild animals, because all the bush country lies too far away. They braid ropes of sedges and rushes from the marshes with which they make nets to be able to catch fish, and they dig up mud with their hands and dry it more in wind than in

2068-514: The three countries has designated Ramsar sites in the region (see Wadden Sea National Parks ). Although the Wadden Sea is not yet listed as a transboundary Ramsar site, a great part of the Wadden Sea is protected in cooperation of all three countries. The governments of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have been working together since 1978 on the protection and conservation of the Wadden Sea. Co-operation covers management, monitoring and research, as well as political matters. Furthermore, in 1982,

2115-436: The villages themselves are on the West side of their island. When they were founded they were situated in the center. Over the course of the last few centuries, many houses and even entire villages disappeared into the sea. The second movement is the development of a hook shape. Along the sea breaches hook-shaped sand ridges arise, which change form with the moving of the sea arm. By growth of these hooks new shoals arise such as

2162-506: Was not very successful. Shortly after construction, the causeway had already suffered so much storm damage that the dam was abandoned in 1882. The dam has been almost entirely eroded since then. In the northern Wadden Sea building dams proved to be considerably simpler. Nordstrand is now so much linked to the rampart by dikes that it is difficult to define it as an island, and also Langeness , Oland , Nordstrandischmoor , Hamburger Hallig , Sylt , and Rømø are all reachable by dams. Mandø

2209-802: Was placed on the World Heritage list by UNESCO . A minor boundary modification in 2011 added the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park to the site, and the Danish part was added to in 2014. The state of Bremen , covering part of the Weser River estuary, is not participating. Conservation efforts are coordinated by the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, seated in Wilhelmshaven . Many of the islands have been popular seaside resorts since

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