Worldnature55

North Sea Pelagic

There are some opportunities in the Netherlands to visit the Dutch Continental Shelf.

Dogger Bank
Dogger Bank is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea. The water depth ranges from 15 to 36 metres, about 20 metres shallower than the surrounding sea. It is a productive fishing bank. The name comes from dogger, an old Dutch word for fishing boat, especially for catching cod.
The bank is an important fishing area, with cod and herring being caught in large numbers. Several shipwrecks lie on the bank.
Dogger Bank has been identified as an oceanic environment that exhibits high primary productivity throughout the year in the form of phytoplankton. As such, it has been proposed by various groups to make the area a designated Marine Nature Reserve.

Cleaver Bank
The Cleaver Bank is a Habitat Directive site in the category of Open-sea reefs . It is a marine site of approx. 1,235 km2 that lies some 160 km to the north-west of Den Helder.
The Cleaver Bank is the only site in the Dutch North Sea where considerable quantities of gravel lie on the surface and larger cobbles with a specific covering of calcareous red algae also occur. The site came into being as the terminal moraine of a glacier dating from the last Ice Age.
The Cleaver Bank is split in two from north-west to south-east by a 60-metre deep channel called the Botney Cut. Here, in particular, many harbour porpoises, as well as minke whales and white-beaked dolphins, can be found in summer.

Bruine Bank
The Bruine Bank is a sand bank located on the bottom of the southern North Sea. The sand bank lies almost entirely on the Dutch part of the North Sea and is located roughly halfway between the Dutch and English coast.
The sand bank and the area around it are an important nature area. It is best known for the many fossils that are found there, such as bones of Mammoths, Saber-tooth Tigers, different types of Lions, Hippos and Bears.
Flatfish such as Flounder use this sand bank as a spawning area. and porpoises often come in this ecozone. In the winter the area is an important place for large numbers of Guillemots, Razorbills and Gull's.




Zeeuwse Banken
The Zeeuwse Banken are sand banks that are situated in the coastal zone off the Netherlands and the Belgian part of the North Sea. Sandy banks if these concerns for all kinds of marine life, because of the many soil animals like crags that are typical of this habitat.
The trip goes also along the Thornton bank; a sand bank about 25 meters above the surrounding fairways and is the most northerly of the Zealand banks. This area is both Belgium and Netherlands. In the spring are also sometimes large numbers of Red-throated Divers in the area observed.

There can also day-trips be made out of the seaports off Den Helder; Lauwersoog Neeltje Jans

Trip Report

Do'ing these pelagic's give's me the opportunity to get picture's of the sea-birds (Shearwaters/Petrels/Gannets), which are not easy to get from the shore-lines. Since 2010 I have been making trips to the Nort Sea.

Trip-list

Though, it's not my main purpose to break a record, it give's a nice idea of the things I h've photographed.
So explore the list, to see nice picture's of different familie-goups; there are also detailed list available of the different species.

Trip List

• Birds
• Mammals
• Others

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There are also some pictures available of the

• scenery

These trips was made possible by