The Wadden Sea - The tidal wetlands along the North Sea

The Wadden Sea and the Ribe Marshes are established as National Park from 2010

 

An amazing nature ready to reward your visit with surprising adventures.

 

The Wadden Sea is situated along the North Sea coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It has global significance as one of the world’s 10 most important wetlands. Tidal wetlands, like the Wadden Sea, are some of the most productive ecosystems known. Plant materials, myriads of animals and micro-organisms in the sediments of the Wadden Sea make the area to one of the largest feeding grounds for migratory birds.

 

At present the Danish portion of the Wadden Sea is classified as a wildlife and nature preserve, but from 2010 it will be classified as a National Park called the Wadden Sea National Park.
The total Wadden Sea area in Denmark, Germany and the Nederlands covers an area of 13,500 square kilometers. The Danish’s portion of the Wadden Sea is 1,200 square kilometers.

 

See more photos from the Wadden Sea: Wadden Sea Gallery

  Storm surges are a threat to Ribe, read here: Storm Surges

 

To see and do along the Wadden Sea year round

A trip to the Danish Wadden Sea just outside Ribe is a unique nature experience year round. Here the horizon is wide and the sky goes on forever, while the colours shift in subtle hues between all the colours of the rainbow, depending on the seasons and the weather.
From the Ribe Dike by Vester Vedsted (10 km) or from Kammerslusen, Ribe Waterway Lock (7 km), the view reaches out to both Ribe and to Esbjerg as well as all the Danish Wadden Sea islands, Fanoe, Mandoe and Roemoe. Don’t go to far out in the Wadden Sea unless you are very familiar with the tides. Ask about guided tours into the Wadden Sea.

  

Bicycle Excursions

Bike from Ribe, through the marsh, to Ribe Waterway Lock (Kammerslusen), along the Ribe Dike and the Wadden Sea, to the Wadden Sea Centre in Vester Vedsted and back to Ribe. Ca. 25km.
This is a unique nature experience at any time of year. If you don’t have your own bicycle you can rent one at our Hostel: Rent a bicycle

Birdwatching

Birdwatching is a popular activity with some of the best conditions in spring and autumn.  The Wadden Sea is one of the world’s most important feeding grounds for migratory birds. Here birds congregate by the thousands to feed, before continuing North or South. There are geese, swans, ducks and many other large and small birds. Experience the starling migration during spring and autumn. In Denmark we call it “Black Sun” because thousands of starlings cover the sun, so that it cannot be seen. Read more: Black Sun. Ask about guided tours. 
A number of bird species also spend the winter at the Wadden Sea.

Kammerslusen (Ribe Waterway Lock), Ribe (7km). 

The Ribe River flows though town and has its outflow at the Waterway Lock "Kammersluse" at the Wadden Sea. Here Ribe citizens often enjoy a Sunday picnic.

 

Visit the Wadden Sea Center

Remember to visit the Wadden Sea Centre with displays about the Wadden Sea and a multimedia show about storm floods. The displays are exciting and informative for all age groups. Understand the consequences for those of us, who live by the Wadden Sea, if the water level rises due to global warming.
Daily Activities:
Multimedia-show about storm surges - from the Middle Ages to the future.
Build your own dike.
"Wrestling" with the crabs of the Wadden Sea.
Rent a handcart and go on expedition to the tidal flats (from May-October)

Learn more about the Wadden Sea Centre and its outstanding nature guides, who arrange both public tours and group tours: The Wadden Sea Centre.

Walk barefoot through the mud flats during low tide.

It is a pleasure to walk barefoot and look for shrimps, worms, mussels, birds, seals and much more. At the Wadden Sea Centre you can rent a Wadden Sea handcart with fishing equipment, binoculars and an activity map for children. The children can play in and learn about the Wadden Sea at the same time. Be careful. You should only be there 2 hours either side of the low tide.

Take a tour over the bottom of the sea to the small Wadden Sea island Mandø

It is a fantastic nature experience to drive across the bottom of the sea and study nature and animal life. The tour takes approximately 3/4 of an hour with the Mandø bus or with the Vadehavssafari - tractors that draw a bus with passengers trough the Wadden Sea.
Two of Denmark’s most remarkable roads, Låningsvejen and Mandø Ebbevej, go from Vester Vedsted to Mandø Island. Both roads are submerged by the tide twice daily. Låningsvejen is open to the public, if you know the tide, and know when the tide is out. Ebbevejen may only be used by the Mandø Island busses, which transports mail, students and tourists to and from the island. The Mandø Island bus schedule is also controlled by the tides.

The Fisheries and Maritime Museum, Esbjerg (35km)

The Museum is focusing on fisheries and marine biology, the tidal wetlands (Wadden Sea), west Jutland coastal shipping and the North Sea offshore industries. Meet the common seal and the very rare grey seal in the seal pool. You can see them fed daily. Read more: The Fisheries and Maritime Museum

Save the Wadden Sea - Eat oysters

Go with the Wadden Sea Centre’s oyster hunts from fall until spring, and help eradicate the many Pacific oysters that have infested and spread throughout the Danish Wadden Sea. They are delicious - those you don’t eat can be kept fresh in the refrigerator if you stay at Danhostel Ribe Family and Youth Hostel. Oysters and Mussels can be gathered from October till May, as they are only eaten during the cool months. Ask for the scheduled Oyster excursions and other excursions in the Wadden Sea. Other excursions are “Seal excursions” and “The Wadden Sea for children”. Excursions for groups are arranged. Phone: 7544 6161.

Rømø Wadden Sea Island

by the North Sea. The widest beach in Scandinavia (35km).

Animals, birds and plants in the Wadden Sea

No other place in Denmark has as many birds during the spring and fall migrations, - Altogether between 10 and 12 million aquatic birds use the Wadden Sea to rest and feed during their migration.
Wading birds primarily eat snails, mussels and worms, and their different beak lengths mean they find different food.
Short beaked birds such as sandpipers, plovers and redshank take mud snails and mud shrimps off  the surface, while long beaked birds such as godwits  and curlews can find mussels and sandworms deeper in the sand. The Oystercatcher take care of the common cockles and the common mussels, which it is expert at opening with a quick attack on the hinge muscle or by crushing the shell. During high water the mussel banks are left to the eider ducks. Ducks primarily eat the many mud snails, mud shrimps and other things off the surface of the water, and some ducks supplement their diet with the many plants that grow in the marsh.

 

Lug worms, mud shrimps, common periwinkles, mud snails, sand gapers, common shrimps, sandworms, common mussels and common cockles can be seen during low tide. Microscopic algae and plankton is the reason for the Wadden Sea’s enormous population of lower life forms, because they transform inorganic materials to organic particles.

Many of our most important kinds of fish, such as plaice and sole grow up in the Wadden Sea, and during the summer schools of seasonal guests such as garfish and mullet can be seen.

The Wadden Sea, moreover, has Denmark’s largest population of common seals (harbour seals) - about 3000 - that can be seen around Mandø. Also the grey seal can be seen. Seals primarily eat fish.

 

During recent years Pacific oysters have been found in the Wadden Sea. They spread very quickly, and there is concern they will out compete native mussels, and disrupt the food chain that oysters catchers, eider ducks and  herring gulls depend on. The pacific oyster’s only natural enemies are humans with a taste for delicacies, because birds are unable to open their thick shells. Pacific oysters often grow twice as large as common mussels, and there are already many tons of them in the Wadden Sea. These oysters should not be able to reproduce at our latitude, as they require a temperature of 20 degrees to thrive. Please come and help us eradicate the Pacific oyster. The tours are strenuous and not for children, and are arranged with nature guides from the Wadden Sea Centre.

 

Plants such as common sea-lavenders, glassworts, and sea plantains grow in the beach meadows and tolerate being flooded by salt water. Glassworts are usually the first plants to grow in the marsh, and Common Cordgrass become dominant in subsequent years. It was imported from England for its ability to bind and hold the sand.

 

 

The Tidal Area
Ebb and flood alternate along the Wadden Sea coast.
Every 24 hours there are 2 floods and two ebb tides, at six hours intervals. The reason for the variations in water depth is the moons gravitational pull. The moon is smaller than the earth, and the earth’s gravity cause the moon to revolve around the earth. But the moon's gravity is strong enough to influence the liquid part of the earth’s surface, the ocean.
About one third of the Danish Wadden Sea is submerged at low tide, while two thirds are exposed. The tide moves 1 billion cubic meters of water back and forth over the salt march.
During low tide an immense amount of food is exposed to birds, and they take advantage of this bounty.

 

The marsh

The marsh is land deposited by the ocean. Its composition is particles of the oceans living organisms, fine grained sand and clay. It is called silt.
Because the silt deposited during each tide is so fine, the deposit left each year is only 1-2 centimeter thick.
Fences made of two rows of poles about a half-meter apart, and filled with branches, have been built out from the coast to gain land and to encourage silting. The water easily passes through these fences at high and low tide, but each time a little silt is left behind.

When the deposits reach a certain level it becomes economically feasible to dike the land so it doesn’t flood. A number of fresh-water plants begin to grow, but the soil is still very wet and is mostly used for grazing sheep and cattle.

In recent years preservation has become important, and the silt farms are only used for maintenance and to preserve the coastline in a few places, like along Låningsvejen to Mandø.

When you go from Ribe to the Wadden Sea you go through the marsh. It is a very low area and in wintertime it is sometimes flooded and when driving on the highway around Ribe you can see water on both sides of the road. On the Ribe side of the road, the water goes up all the way to the Hostel. Read about storm surges and floods in the area here: “Storm surges in Ribe”

 

© Danhostel Ribe Hostel. The stories may be used by our guests for private use and for education by using a link to Danhostel Ribe. Any other use requires permission.