Seal Island

When Matt and I visit Texel Island last fall, we stopped at Ecomare, a seal and bird rehabilitation center. We knew the injured and orphaned seals came from the Wadden Sea area, but we did not have an opportunity to see any seals in the wild.

On Monday, we took a boat tour from the harbor in Nes to Seal Island. Once again the narrative was in only Dutch and German, but the very friendly captain came up to us before we embarked and explained everything to us in English. It took about 45 minutes to reach the island; along the way the captain explained the tide patterns, pointed out the ecological systems of the sand flats, and shared interesting tidbits about the islands.


View Ameland in a larger map

When we reached the island, we were greeted by two large groups of seals sunning themselves on the sand. It was a lot of fun to watch the babies playing with each other and the adults. The seals were much more active than we expected them to be and were constantly moving around and tussling with each other.




More photos can be found here.