Published in: Helgoland Marine Research 59 (2005), pp. 2-8.
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.
O.S.
Knottnerus
Uiterburen 47,
9636 EC, Zuidbroek, The Netherlands
Phone: +31‑598‑452985
E‑mail: ottoknot@xs4all.nl
Received: 1 June 2004 / Revised: 17 October 2004 / Accepted: 19
October 2004 / Published online: 18 January 2005.
Abstract Humans
have been present in the Wadden Sea area since the end of the last ice age, but
their perception of and interference with their marine environment has changed
over time. In this paper, I will give an overview on the interactions between
man and nature since the 6th millennium B.C., on the opportunities for human
settlement as well as on restrictions posed by the maritime environment. Only
after many centuries of passive adaptation did the local farming population
begin to modify their immediate surroundings. They made a living as cattle
breeders, supplemented this with fishing, hunting, weaving, salt production and
peat digging. Efforts to transform the agricultural landscape did not start
before the 11th century A.D., when the first dikes and canals were constructed.
The consequences were profound. By the end of the Middle Ages, the dikes had
become totally indispensable. The land under cultivation was perceived as a
sacred inner world, conflicting sharply with the marine environment outside its
flood‑gates. This essentially dichotomous world‑view held out until
the 19th and early 20th centuries. As we will see, however, the actual
settlement history had been marked by various gains and losses, by successes as
well as by setbacks. Not only did humans destroy valuable natural resources,
but they also created alternative habitats for novel species. I conclude that
the initial tendency towards increasing natural and cultural diversity has been
reversed during the last few centuries. Yet, mounting conservationist concerns
may cause a turning‑point.
Keywords Wadden
Sea · Coastal wetlands · Man‑made landscape · Man and nature · History
Communicated by: H.K. Lotze and K. Reise
In June 1610, the
marshland farmer Jan Cornelis Femmes from Vrouwenparochie (near Leeuwarden, The
Netherlands) established himself on Kamperzand, a desolate sandbank lying in
the tidal inlet between the barrier islands of Terschelling and Ameland. The
reason for this peculiar step was a bet with his colleague Thomas Thomas, to
whom he had sold a parcel of ploughs and wagons for an excessive sum of money.
In order to get paid, Jan was obliged to persist in the wilderness for a full
year without the support of family or friends. If he failed, Thomas would get
the merchandise for free. As soon as he arrived, Jan constructed a cabin on
stakes, which could be moved up and down with a jackscrew, just like the roof
of a haystack. Food supplies were stored on its floor. Despite his ingenuity,
however, Jan had an extremely difficult time during the winter storms and
spring tides. The cabin hardly survived as the jackscrew was carried away by
the waves. Jan had already conceded to the idea that he would get drowned: he
tied himself to the rafters so as to get a decent burial when the wreckage was
washed ashore. Luckily, the cabin was spared, but its solitary inhabitant
became obsessed with loneliness. For 27 days, haze and darkness blotted out the
bell‑towers of civilization. He later told his grandchildren that evil
spirits living in the North Sea continuously haunted the place. On no account
would he have repeated the experience.
Yet, after the
dreadful winter days the fine season set in. Dozens of vessels with their
crews, as well as seal hunters from the adjoining islands, visited the cabin. Jan
was able to rescue several cows and horses that had been carried out to the sea
by the tide. He caught many fish in his fish‑traps, particularly plaice (Pleuronectes
platessa), flounder (Platichthys flesus), dab (Limanda limanda)
and eel (Anguilla anguilla). Sometimes, he could observe cod (Gadus
morhua), smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) and herring-gulls (Larus
argentatus[1]) nearby,
indicating that storms were approaching. Once he found a deceased seal calf (Phoca
vitulina) washed ashore. Above all, however, the white‑tailed eagle (Haliaeetus
albicilla) held sway, catching a great number of >sea coots= (koertvogels[2]),
but Jan Cornelis bravely seized its prey and ate the birds himself (Winsemius
1620; Becker 1691‑1693: vol 4; Sannes 1951).
The story of Jan
Cornelis might have been quite exceptional. It was not for nothing that the
provincial government of Fryslân took offence at his actions and ordered that
the cabin should be removed, under the pretence that ships might be misled.
Only under great public pressure (many people had taken a bet on the outcome of the venture) did the authorities give in.
Obviously, Jan=s efforts to defy the forces of nature met with great
public interest. Yet official disapproval, as well as popular fascination,
reflected a more general attitude concerning the outskirts of civilization.
Living in solitude at the fringes of the North Sea was generally considered to
be an unusual and disturbing experience. Most people agreed that the realm
beyond the safety of the dikes was a potentially dangerous place (Schama 1991;
Corbin 1994; Knottnerus 1997). Sometimes they even considered the inhabitants
of the islands savage and ferocious, because the latter did not participate in
the delicate socio‑political arrangements of mainland society. The
embankmentless forelands were the places where evil spirits were expelled to
and where the outcasts of society received a dishonourable burial. In
summertime, hundreds of fishermen and seal, fowl and egg hunters earned their
living on the extensive shallows, which were demarcated each spring in order to
facilitate small‑scale shipping. During the winter, however, the area was
deserted, except for the occasional impudent wrecker and desperate skipper.
For sure, people have
been living in the Wadden Sea area for thousands of years. However, during most
of this time they were hardly able to perceive their own presence as part and
parcel of wetland ecology. Particularly during the late Middle Ages (1300B1500 A.D.) and the early
Modern Age (1500B1800 A.D.) nature was perceived as the counterpart of
society, at most as some kind of anti‑society with its own rules and
properties, more often, however, as a potential enemy that had to be challenged
and besieged. It was not before the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement of
the early Industrial Age that people began to see nature as something by
itself, to be appreciated and to be studied on its own accord (Groh and Groh
1996; Fischer 1997). Notwithstanding this fact, conventional ideas about the
opposition of nature against civilization have prevailed up to the present,
whether with an emphasis on catastrophes (e.g. storm surges), plagues and
natural decay, or, alternatively, as a glorification of pure nature uncorrupted
by the actions of men. The latter became fashionable during the 1960s and has
held sway since then.
As far as we know,
humans have always been present in the Wadden Sea area (for overviews see
Abrahamse et al. 1976; Fischer 1997; Knottnerus 1994, 2001). As soon as rising
sea levels reached the present coastline during the early Atlanticum (6th
millennium B.C.), a string of barrier islands came into existence, separating
the North Sea from the mud flats and sandbanks at its rear. The sheltered
lagoons, with their diversity of fish, shellfish, fowl and wild plants, must
have offered ample opportunities for Mesolithic hunters and gatherers. The
archaeological evidence is scarce, however, as it has been largely destroyed by
wave erosion or buried under massive layers of sediment. A rise in sea levels
boosted natural developments (Behre 2003). It trimmed the barrier islands,
eroded the extended moraine ridges and provided the sediments for the formation
of pristine salt marshes. During periods of regression extensive mires emerged,
which were subsequently flooded during periods of transgression. By the first
millennium B.C. a broad belt of salt marshes bordered most of the coastal area.
Its highest parts became increasingly fit for human settlement, but huge bogs
isolated these marshes from their Pleistocene hinterlands. Mires and bogs also
covered parts of the Wadden Sea, particularly at its outer edges, where tidal
impact was less pronounced than in the central parts of the German Bight.
Reports about floating peat banks and bog oaks carried away by the floods have
been frequent from Roman times until the early Modern Age. The only surviving
tidal raised bog (at the Jade Bay) is expected to disappear within a few
decades (Behre 1991).
Some of the earliest
known Neolithic communities were well adapted to living in wetland areas (Louwe
Kooijmans 1993). Summer camps of the sedentary Swifterbant and EllerbekBErtebølle cultures
have been excavated in the Zuiderzee area as well as on the banks of the Elbe River
near Hamburg. Step‑by‑step Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers
learned to use the fertile salt marshes and riverain thickets for pasturage,
agriculture and fishing. Yet permanent settlement was largely restricted to
higher grounds. In fact, many sites might be considered as outposts of the
upland Funnel Beaker Culture and its successors. On the moraine islands of
Sylt, Föhr and Amrum, as many as 77 megalithic graves and 1,000 Bronze Age
barrows have been located, while the adjoining mud flats and sandbanks provided
dozens of flint daggers and sickles. At the mouth of the Ems River, a
megalithic chambered tomb has been discovered under several feet of clay and
peat (Bierma et al. 1988; Bantelmann 2003).
Wetland settlements
are only known from the Western edges of the Wadden Sea area. They have been
associated with the Vlaardingen Culture (3500B2700 B.C.), an
amphibious counterpart of the Funnel Beaker Culture, as well as with the Single
Grave Culture (2900B2300 B.C.). Both types of settlements combined agriculture
with fishing and fowling. Apparently, locals had learned to build seaworthy
boats at an early date. Archaeozoological research has revealed traces of cod
and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) caught in the tidal inlets or on
the open sea (Zeiler 1997; Van Heeringen and Theunissen 2001: vol 3). Wherever
possible, diets were supplemented by shellfish. During the Bronze Age (2100B600 B.C.) the island
of Helgoland, 100 km off the coast, developed into a centre for copper
production, flint mining and amber trade (Hoops Reallexikon, S.V. Helgoland).
Whereas Neolithic
settlers merely exploited the wetlands as they found them, Bronze Age farmers
began to modify their immediate surroundings (c.f. Rippon 2000). They started
by cutting down thickets and woodlands in order to obtain timber, fuel and
fodder. They made ditches to surround their fields and occasionally raised
their farmyards in order to cope with increasing groundwater levels. About 1350
B.C., relatively large numbers of colonists settled at a former salt marsh
estuary on the Noord‑Holland peninsula. A 9th‑century B.C. site has
been excavated on the banks of the Weser River (Buurman 1996; Hoops
Reallexikon, S.V. Rodenkirchen). Both areas were characterized by a freshwater
environment. The river banks of the Ems were first colonized during the 7th
century B.C., the Elbe River banks at the latest during the 4th century B.C. In
each case, settlements were abandoned as soon as forward‑pushing mires
and recurrent sea‑breaches submerged the area. In Roman times, the
riverbanks were densely populated: by then, the original elm‑ash tidal
forest had been largely destroyed (Behre 1995a, 1995b).
The adjustments
required for living in the unprotected salt marshes were even more profound, as
people had to cope with shortages of fuel, timber, cereals and drinking water,
as well as with the risk of storm surges. The first settlers may have been
transhumant pastoralists who took their cattle to higher grounds during the
winter season (Bierma et al. 1988). Probably the expansion of inland bogs
reduced their means of subsistence and made them look for alternatives in the
rapidly expanding marshes. The salt marshes were largely treeless, covered by a
broad spectrum of habitats ranging from Spartina swards and Aster‑
and Artemisia‑dominated salt meadows to brackish reed swamps,
freshwater sedge beds and transition mires, bordered by raised bogs and alderCbirch swamp woods
(Behre 1985). Intensive grazing and mowing, however, created an open landscape
in which black‑grass communities (Juncetum gerardi) and Puccinellia
grass lawns were the dominant vegetation.
The Fryslân and
Groningen coastal marshes were the first to receive permanent human settlement,
which took place in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. The other coastal districts
were colonized in the first century B.C., the SchleswigBHolstein marshes
somewhat later (Kossack et al. 1984: vol 1; Bierma et al. 1988; Behre 1995a,
1995b, 2001; Meier 2001; Bantelmann 2003). Additionally, the moraine plateaus
and outcroppings bordering the Wadden Sea (including the future islands of
Texel, Föhr and Sylt) came to harbour large populations. Several barrier
islands may have been inhabited as well. Yet archaeological findings are
totally absent due to coastal drift.
As a rule, the first
salt marsh settlements were established on the surface just above high‑tide
levels, which were at least 1.25 m lower than they are today. Subsequently, the
inhabitants began to raise their farmyards. Only after several generations did
they start to build collective raised mounds from sods and dung on which they
situated their farms and infields. Occasionally, quays measuring three to four
feet in height surrounded the infields (Bazelmans et al. 1999). Step‑by‑step,
the settlers became fully adapted to living in tidal areas, preserving winter
stocks of hay, fuel and drinking water, and tilling the stiff clay soil during
the brief summer season. Various tribes shared virtually the same technology.
They cultivated salt‑resistant summer crops, mainly field beans (Vicia
faba var. minor) and hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare var. tetrastichon),
supplemented by oats (Avena sativa), flax (Linum sativum), emmer
wheat (Triticum dicoccum), gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa) and
probably kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala). Ditches radially
descending from the village mound and running towards tidal creeks and gullies
carefully drained the outfields. The farms, accompanied by helmed haystacks and
artisan pit‑houses, were located side by side along the slopes of the
mound. Alternatively, on the banks of the Elbe River, where the tides were less
pronounced, farms were situated on a row of house platforms bordering a tidal
creek. The aisled longhouses had roughly the same structure as their Bronze Age
predecessors. Cattle were stalled in the side‑aisles behind a gutter; the
living quarters were located in the adjoining hall. Wells and ponds guaranteed
fresh water supplies; dried cow‑dung, reed or peat served as fuel;
timber, weaponry and querns had to be imported. The coastal farmers were
primarily cattle breeders, exchanging their surplus products with the upland
villagers or selling them to Roman traders (Kossack et al. 1984: vol 1; Bierma
et al. 1988).
The early history of
coastal settlement is one of successes and setbacks (Behre 2001, 2003). Sites
that had been populated during times of maritime regression were later
abandoned because of rising seawater levels and increased storm surge
frequencies. Fresh layers of sediment covered the existing salt marshes,
forcing the settlers to move towards recently deposited seashore banks or,
alternatively, to find refuge on the edges of the raised bogs. The abandoned
backswamps turned into peat moors. Particularly during the Migration Period
(450B600 A.D.), tribal wars and the introduction of malaria
took a heavy toll. The existing population was decimated. A new generation of
settlers came from the east, others subsequently moved back, colonizing the
lower Saxon and southern Jutland coasts as well as the western barrier islands.
Apparently, the lower Saxon and Jutland barrier islands had not been settled
before the high Middle Ages (1050B1300 A.D.) (Abrahamse
et al. 1976).
Basic technologies
remained practically the same. The majority of the early Medieval settlers were
ethnic Frisians, who mastered the skills of wetland settlement far better than
their Danish neighbours who stayed on higher grounds. Archaeological finds show
a rich and diverse material culture, characterized by extensive maritime
contacts and a considerable degree of specialization (Schmid 1991; Knol 1993;
Heidinga 1997). Next to stockbreeding, sheep breeding and some arable farming,
people were engaged in the production of dyed cloth, salt and hides. Trade
concentrated on the exchange of foreign luxury products, which were vital for
the gift economy of local warlords and their retainers. A new type of trading
village came into existence, situated along tidal creeks and populated by
merchants, skippers and artisans. In many cases these trading villages
developed into centres of political and ecclesiastical power (Kossack et al.
1984: vol 2).
The Frisians were
specialists in salt making, for which they burned silted peat as well as
eelgrass (Zostera marina) and boiled the ashes. In order to obtain the
raw material, they dug off the tidal peat banks, which were more or less
systematically destroyed. For 100 kg of salt, at least 4B10 cubic metres of
peat or, alternatively, 11 loads of eelgrass had to be processed. The extent of
the devastated area is unknown, but it must have numbered thousands of
hectares, reinforcing the natural erosion of the tidal bogs. Salt making was
introduced in Roman times and became increasingly popular in the early Middle Ages
(600B1050 A.D.). By the end of the Middle Ages most tidal
bogs had disappeared. The only remaining salterns closed down in the 18th
century (Marschalleck 1973; Oost 1995; Van Geel and Borger 2002).
Most of the coastal
villages were largely agricultural. Farm construction probably remained the
same as before, but sod walls temporarily replaced the wickerwork, probably
because of the depletion of willow carr. Most dwelling mounds had a freshwater
pond, often connected to a natural well. The infields were located on elevated
mounds, banks and holms, surrounded by ditches and hedgerows. After the harvest
these served the sheep flocks as a winter refuge. The outfields were parcelled
out into privately owned fields, leaving only the remote meadows and peat moors
undivided. Historical evidence about fishing is scarce. The indigenous word for
cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) meaning >beggar, glutton= suggests that
medieval Frisians still considered these birds as serious competitors to man
(Sjölin 1961). The usual fishing techniques may have involved reed fences,
weirs, pikes, fish‑traps and nets made of sea clubrush (Scirpus
maritimus). Plaice, flounder and dab were consumed in considerable
quantities, but finds of whiting (Merlangius merlangus), cod and haddock
give evidence that sea fishery was known as well. Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio)
and salmon (Salmo salar) catches seem to have been limited to the major
river mouths (Illing 1923).
To a certain extent,
the coastal society may be considered as a peculiar socio‑ecological
niche amidst largely unspoilt natural reserves (Knottnerus 1994). People could
make use of abundant natural resources, they had ample opportunities for trade
and communication and they were relatively safe from inland human predators.
The risks of piracy attacks were considerable, though, but normally the coastal
inhabitants were not the passive victims presented in history textbooks. In
fact, they were often involved in piracy themselves. Nevertheless,
contemporaries did not have any idea about nature. What they saw was a bunch of
chances, risks and opportunities. The forces of nature were perceived as an
extension of their own social world of friends and foes, something to keep in
with or, alternatively, to fight against (Gurevich 1985; Knottnerus 1997).
From the 9th or 10th
century A.D. the great transformation of the coastal landscape set in (Schmid
1991; Behre 1995b; Meier 2001). The backswamps and peat bogs were
systematically drained and reclaimed. Subsequently, the former salt marshes
came to be protected by sea walls repelling the floods and retaining subsoil
freshwater supplies. By the 13th century, a 1.0B2.5 m earthen wall
surrounded most districts, with valve sluices for drainage purposes at the
lowest points (Kühn 1992; Kramer and Rohde 1992; Van der Ven 2004). Coastal
society turned inward, its population increased, reaching an unprecedented
level of prosperity. Arable farming was extended, partly with the help of new
peat crops such as black oats (Avena strigosa), rye (Secale secale)
and buckwheat (Polygonum fagopyrum); the cattle herds grew in number.
Shipping and sea fishing, on the other hand, became restricted to a limited
number of harbour sites. As early as the 13th century, the islands of Sylt and
Neuwerk served as roadsteads for the herring fisheries around Helgoland.
Additionally, the novel technique of long‑line fishery came to be
introduced from Flanders around 1500. Probably grey whales (Eschrichtius
gibbosus) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) were hunted too,
leading eventually to their extinction (Illing 1923; Wolff 2000). Urban demands
for cattle, cereals and dairy products boosted agriculture and commerce. The
volume of maritime trade grew, making the recently settled barrier islands a
strategic position along the major eastBwest corridor.
Moreover, the booming cities also provided the local population with a mental
horizon, defining their political identity and religious world‑view.
It is a common
misconception, however, to presume that medieval dike‑building and
drainage measures created the present‑day marshland environment. For
sure, they represented a major socio‑ecological innovation, accompanied
by novel patterns of co‑operation and organization that could only be
undone at great cost. But the dikes were feeble, and major storm surges swept
freely over their tops. Several districts relapsed into their original state
for decades. The indigenous population continued to live on elevations, and
they restricted their agricultural activities to cattle farming and growing
spring wheat. In fact, the coastal economy was largely seasonal. Each spring
its inhabitants consecrated their outfields with festivities and large
bonfires, which also marked the beginning of the shipping and fishing season.
With the arrival of the autumnal rains, which inundated most of their fields,
they returned to the safety of their farmsteads, followed by rodents, mustelids
and hedgehogs that could only survive in the vicinity of men (Knottnerus 1997).
The reclamation of the
backswamps and peat bogs, moreover, had unforeseen repercussions as it caused
topsoil erosion and land‑surface subsidence (Borger 1992; Van der Ven
2004). Again and again settlers were forced to retreat to higher grounds and to
restrict arable farming. Human activities may have contributed to the widening
of the Zuiderzee and the destruction of the Nordfriesland mires during the high
Middle Ages. They were certainly responsible for the formation of the Jade and
Dollard Bay in the 14th and 15th centuries. As a consequence, tidal volumes
that had been reduced by dike‑building measures grew again, encroaching
on the barrier islands and causing damage to the mainland coast (Oost 1995).
The barrier islands, on the other hand, may have suffered from wind erosion due
to extensive grazing, fuel gathering and sod cutting as well as the
introduction of rabbit farms in the 14th century, thereby contributing to the
inherent instability of the coastal dunes. The absence of mustelids hunting
rabbits must have been detrimental here.
To a large extent, the
coastal environment was still largely amphibious. Even though human
intervention led to an overall reduction in the available range of natural
habitats, it also created novel ones, in which specific vegetational communities
could thrive. These included ridge and furrow cereal fields, humid pastures, Molinia
grasslands, waterlogged Glyceria meadows, Cladium beds, marsh‑fens,
flood swarts, floating rafts and a whole range of freshwater and brackish
habitats. As the landscape was predominantly handmade, habitats were often
relatively small and variegated. People benefited from the growing number of
available anadromous and freshwater fish species, particularly eel and pike (Esox
lucius), which were highly valued. But they also had to contend with
typical wetland plagues, such as sheep liver flukes (Fasciola hepatica),
nettet slugs (Deroceras reticulatum) and leatherjackets (Tipula
paludosa), which could not have survived in the embankmentless salt
marshes. Moreover, the regular deposition of fertile clay that sustained the
fertility of the land came to a standstill. Soils were being leached and lost
their permeability. Finally, mosquitoes became more numerous, as they found
ample opportunities to breed in brackish water. As a consequence, malaria
became endemic, leading to widespread health problems and increased death rates
(Knottnerus 2002).
In the long run, more
and more wetlands were transformed into agricultural land. As early as the 13th
century, a local chronicle described the fate of a former backswamp lake: AThe area used to be
rich of fish and fowl, now it produces floating grass [Glyceria], mixed
with reed and sedge, but in time it may develop into a pasture, its surface
being strong enough to carry the grazing cattle@ (Lambooij and Mol
2001, p. 428). In fact, medieval man was quite confident about his mission to
contain the forces of nature. Human society was considered as a holy city
surrounded by evil powers, symbolized by ghosts and goblins, wolves and whales,
dragons and sea‑monsters, which all had to be driven out off the
wastelands and into exile (Gurevich 1985).
Decisive changes took
place in Early Modern Age (1500B1800), when people began to reconstruct their dikes
until these were strong enough to stand substantial storm surges (Fischer 1997;
Knottnerus 2001, 2003; Van der Ven 2004). As soon as the risk of flooding
declined, a growing number of farmsteads and cottages were reallocated from the
village mounds into the open fields. The remaining salt marshes were for the
greater part embanked. Extensive drainage schemes guaranteed a substantial
lowering of the water tables. Arable farming was intensified, increasingly so
since the middle of the 18th century. By 1850, 60B80% of the coastal
marshes were used for cereal production, whereas the acreage of winter cereals
had increased as well. The most significant newcomer was oilseed rape (Brassica
napus ssp. Oleifera), which proved to be a very lucrative crop. Step‑by‑step
artificial meadows, dominated by red and white clover (Trifolium pratense,
T. repens) or darnel (Lolium temulentum), came to replace the
natural grasslands.
The resulting
homogenization of the agricultural landscape had far‑reaching
consequences, as it greatly reduced the relative abundance of many species.
True enough, the actual variety of coastal and wetland habitats remained extant
until the 19th century, despite the growing pressure on natural reserves.
Nevertheless, the acreage of wetlands and salt marshes rapidly declined. Large‑scale
arable farming gave way to new pests and diseases: cereals were vulnerable to
plagues caused by rodents and anthropophilic birds such as sparrows, starlings,
pigeons and crows. The 16th‑century marshes were still essentially a
wetland habitat, limiting the vole plagues to years of drought. At that date,
the root vole (Microtus oeconomus) may not have been extinct yet.
Additionally, there are reports indicating that the striped field mouse (Apodemus
agrarius) incidentally invaded the marshlands (Prummel 1999; Dahlmann 1978:
vol 2). In the 18th century field voles (Microtus agrestis) were the
major plague. Apparently, they preferred rain‑spoiled years, indicating
that the land had been drying up lately.
Population growth
caused an increasing pressure on the remaining wetlands. Extensive regulations
of inland hunting, fowling and fishing were introduced in the 16th century,
reserving these activities to the local elite. Nevertheless, coastal fishing
and fowling remained largely free. Fowling had been perfected since the end of
the Middle Ages with the help of duck decoys, bird‑nets and shotguns.
According to a report from the 1530s, local hunters used to catch large
quantities of golden plovers (Pluvialis apricaria), ducks and geese, the
latter being salted and sent abroad. Additionally, people were known to eat
herons, storks, cranes, gulls, quails, snipes, lapwings and hoopoes,
complemented by tiny delicacies such as finches, thrushes and wrens (Ritter
1913B1914). Habitat change must have reduced the supply of
fowl. Additionally, large‑scale egg hunting and killing off breeders,
particularly on the islands, had a detrimental effect on coastal wild‑stocks
as they resulted in the extinction of several marine bird species (Wolff 2000).
More and more, reed
swamps, willow carrs, sedge and clubrush beds became valuable assets, as they
provided thatch, twigs and ropes for various purposes. Dike‑building
necessities had already caused large‑scale deforestation in the 16th and
17th centuries. By the 19th century a large reed bed before the gates of
Hamburg was thought to be worth as much as an entire forest in Hungary (Kohl
1990). Shortages of timber and fuel came to be met with imported peat and
locally produced bricks, for which extensive peat moors and rich pastures were
destroyed. In order to obtain mortar, local skippers ransacked the fossil
mussel banks (Mytilus edulis) of the Wadden Sea, with detrimental
effects on living benthic organisms. In Ostfriesland alone more than 30,000
tons of mussel‑shells were collected each year during the 19th century
(Klöver 2000). In Noord‑Holland the eelgrass banks were periodically
harvested so as to get building material for the dikes.
As before, urban
markets were the driving force behind the growth of the coastal economy. From
the 16th to the 19th century maritime trade climaxed, as the owners of the
growing number of small vessels preferred the trajectory through the Wadden Sea
as against the route along the barrier islands. In fact, human presence in the
area may have been far more disturbing to wildlife than it is today. Coastal
fisheries were intensified, leading to the decimation of ray (Raja batis and
R. clavata) and flounder stocks as early as the 17th century. The
offshore oyster banks probably disappeared because of overexploitation (Illing
1923; Holm 1993; Lozán 1994; Wolff 2000). Pressure may have been reduced,
however, as the islanders became involved in foreign merchant shipping and
whale hunting, which provided them with a regular income.
The arrival of the
20th century may be considered as a turning point. By then the effects of
industrialisation took the lead. Agriculture, dike building, hydrological
management and fishing became mechanized to a large extent. The agricultural
landscape was stripped to its essentials; the scale of human intervention grew
to an unprecedented level. Transitional brackish habitats virtually
disappeared, as the dikes were raised to a level at which they became an
impermeable boundary between the maritime landscape and its hinterland. Urban
settlements, traffic roads, harbours and industrial sites have closed in on the
maritime fringe, whereas a growing number of tourists boosted human presence in
hitherto sparsely populated regions. Tourism, moreover, has also been largely
responsible for the booming idea that the coastal landscape is something to be
valued of its own. In fact, conservationist ideas have become increasingly
popular during the last decades of the 20th century. This may indicate a new
turn in the Wadden Sea=s historical fate.
© Springer-Verlag and AWI
2005
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[1] The published article mistakenly has the word seals (Phoca vitulina, maybe Halichoerus
grypus). The original text, however, reads ‘cobben’, not ‘robben’.
[2] Koertvogels might be
explained as a hypercorrect form of koet-vogels. The original Dutch word
coet, Middle English coot(e) must have described a whole range of
dark grey aquatic species, among which the guillemot (Uria aalge, Dutch zeekoet,
Frisian skût) and the scoter or sea coot (Melannita nigra), which
both hibernate in the Wadden Sea (Eigenhuis 2004; pers. comm.)