The perpetual motion of life and sand on the ‘walking islands’ of the North Sea

Name: The perpetual motion of life and sand on the ‘walking islands’ of the North Sea | Aeon Videos
Uploaded: 2020-09-10
Duration: 8 min
Description: Watch the perpetual motion of life and sand in eastward drift across the windswept Frisian Islands of the North Sea

The Frisian Islands (or Wadden Islands) off the coast of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark form the planet’s largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mudflats. The 300-mile archipelago in the North Sea is notable not only for its scale, but for its continuous eastward drift due to sand erosion. On a geological scale, the islands move at a sprinter’s pace, having forced many a human settlement into the sea over the centuries. In this short documentary, the Dutch filmmaker Paul Klaver chronicles the circle of life within the islands’ rich ecosystem, capturing their flora, fauna and perpetual drift via a combination of observational and time-lapse filmmaking. For more of Klaver’s dazzling nature filmmaking, watch Alaska: The Nutrient Cycle and Winter.

Director: Paul Klaver

10 September 2020

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