Rottumerplaat () is one of the three islands that make up
Rottum in the
West Frisian Islands
The West Frisian Islands (; fry, Waadeilannen) are a chain of islands in the North Sea off the Dutch coast, along the edge of the Wadden Sea. They continue further east as the German East Frisian Islands and are part of the Frisian Islands.
Fr ...
. The island is located in the
North Sea off the
Dutch coast. It is situated between the
shoal
In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...
Simonszand and the
island Rottumeroog
Rottumeroog () is an Desert island, uninhabited island in the Wadden Sea and is part of the Netherlands. The island is one of three West Frisian Islands in the province of Groningen (province), Groningen. It is situated between the islands of Rott ...
.
Rottumerplaat started as a shoal in the 1830. It continued to grow into an island after 1950, when a
''stuifdijk'', a wind-blown dike, was constructed by
Rijkswaterstaat, because there were plans to use Rottumerplaat as a work island for the
reclamation
Reclaim, reclaimed, reclaimer, reclaiming or reclamation means "to get something back".
It may refer to:
* Land reclamation, creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds
* Dedesertification, reversing of the land degradation in arid ...
of the
Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea ( nl, Waddenzee ; german: Wattenmeer; nds, Wattensee or ; da, Vadehavet; fy, Waadsee, longname=yes; frr, di Heef) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern conti ...
.
In 1959, the
Boschplaat merged with Rottumerplaat. Sediment deposition has caused the island to become significantly larger in recent years.
Access to the island is prohibited since Rottumerplaat is a resting and forage area for numerous bird species.
and
Staatsbosbeheer are responsible for the administration of the island. Rottumerplaat is the
northernmost point of the Netherlands.
Fauna
Rottumerplaat is a resting and forage area for
sanderling,
dunlin
The dunlin (''Calidris alpina'') is a small wader, formerly sometimes separated with the other "stints" in the genus ''Erolia''. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from ''dun'', "dull brown ...
and
Kentish plovers.
Common eider,
common shelduck
The common shelduck (''Tadorna tadorna'') is a waterfowl species of the shelduck genus, ''Tadorna''. It is widespread and common in the Euro-Siberian region of the Palearctic, mainly breeding in temperate and wintering in subtropical regions; i ...
,
Arctic tern
The Arctic tern (''Sterna paradisaea'') is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe (as far south as Brittany), Asia, and North America (as far south a ...
,
common tern,
little tern,
Kentish plover, and
ringed plover
The common ringed plover or ringed plover (''Charadrius hiaticula'') is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from ...
nest on the island. From 1996 the
Sandwich tern nested on Rottumerplaat, but has since stopped doing so.
Godfried Bomans and Jan Wolkers
In 1971 writers
Jan Wolkers and
Godfried Bomans each spent a week on the island. Their only connection with the outside world was a short daily radio relay with
VARA
Vara or VARA may refer to:
Geography
*Vara (river), in Liguria, Italy
*Vara Parish, former municipality in Tartu County, Estonia
* Vara, Estonia, village in Peipsiääre Parish, Tartu County, Estonia
*Vara Municipality, municipality in western Swe ...
radio presenter Willem Ruis, who stayed at a hotel in nearby
Warffum
Warffum (Gronings: Waarvum)is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland. It had a population of around 2,175 in January 2017.
History
The history of Warffum can be traced back to at least 6 ...
.
The interviews were broadcast as a radio programme, ''Alone On An Island''.
For Godfried Bomans, the stay on the island was a disaster; he could not cope with the noise the many seagulls made and he was troubled by loneliness. Jan Wolkers however experienced his stay on the island as an adventure and kept himself alive by catching shrimps and eel, and boiling sea sandwort. He also rescued a young seal. Both authors published a book about their stay on the island.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Het Hogeland
Islands of Groningen (province)
Protected areas of the Netherlands
West Frisian Islands
Uninhabited islands of the Netherlands