UNESCO-World Natural Heritage Wadden Sea

The mudflats, or the seabed, which is dry when the water is low, have been under protection as a worldwide unique landscape in the Niedersachsen Wattenmeer National Park since 1986. In 2009 the region was made a UNESCO World Natural Heritage. This is the home of up to 4000 types of animals and plants. The Wadden Sea with its offshore islands and the salt water marsh offers them a very special habitat. Due to the change of the tides the mudflats are covered by high tide twice a day, and when the water washes back, a huge selection of nourishment is left behind for the countless types of birds. Circling seagulls and speedy mudflat hikers dash around the exposed seabed while seals play on the sandbanks.

Glowing seas – incredibly beautiful

A few hot and sticky nights a year, mostly in July and August, the sea and the beach in the surf zone suddenly start to display a blue-green shimmer. Contrary to the term, however, it is not the sea that glows here, but microscopic little unicellular organisms. These micro-organisms have the ability to produce, their own phosphorescent materials, very similar to the more well-known little glow worms.

• http://www.nationalpark-wattenmeer.niedersachsen.de
• http://www.wattenmeer-weltnaturerbe.de

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