🦀 The crustaceans of Baltrum

Barnacles are marine crustaceans that, as adults, have a very different appearance from the classic crustacean. In the past, some were wrongly classified as mussels, even though they are not related to molluscs. Their larvae are free-swimming and visually resemble typical crustaceans. The species pictured originally comes from the waters around Australia and New Zealand, but has also appeared in the North Sea since the 1940s and has been multiplying rapidly ever since.

Sand hoppers (Talitrus saltator) are more clearly recognizable as crustaceans. They hop around on the sand, feeding on all sorts of organic matter. While I was taking the video, one nibbled on my hand, but I still managed to keep the camera relatively still.

The common pill bug (Armadillidium vulgare) is a woodlouse with a worldwide distribution. It's very common on Baltrum, and as a child, I enjoyed watching and making them roll up into a ball by touch. Not everyone knows that woodlice are crustaceans.

The shore crab (Carcinus maenas) is probably the most clearly identifiable crustacean. Its lateral locomotion evolved because it allows it to move more easily with its broad body. Firstly, it fits better through narrow spaces, and secondly, its body offers less resistance to water movement. In the video, you can see sand hoppers searching for organic materials on and around the crab.

The common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus) is another crustacean that requires a closer look. It lives in a snail shell. When the tide recedes, hermit crabs and shore crabs either try to follow the water or burrow into the wet sand to survive until high tide.

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🌊🌾 The sea gives. The sea takes. It's in its nature. Wave by wave, it carries away what once was, and brings something new to shore elsewhere.

❤️‍🔥🧠 Memories settle within me too – not always willingly, not always welcome. Beautiful things buried beneath pain. Pain laced with beauty. What belongs to me mixes with what I had to let go of.

🪾🌱 I can't hold on to what is in motion. But I can acknowledge that loss also shapes. That what was taken from me creates space for something else. And that some things I thought were broken are part of something greater.

⏳️🌓 The hourglass of the tides doesn’t stand still. And while the sand trickles down, something grows beneath the surface: not the old, not the same, but something of its own.

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🌊🌾 A mere heap of sand is nothing enduring. No memory – only wind, rain, and tides carry it onward. For something to remain, it needs life that grasps it, holds it, gathers it – like the marram grass that forms the first embryonic dunes. The birth of new life, when the horizon rises and is eventually crowned with white dunes. From up there, one can see far and wide how life and death make fertile land thrive. The dunes turn grey, then brown, and the diversity of life marks each of these hills that, without an initial impulse, would never have been more than a fleeting mineral in the wind.

🌲🌳 Amid shrubs, pines, and bog birch forests, one quickly forgets that all this soil was washed ashore by the sea and carried to this place by the wind. One looks out over endless salt marshes, over reeds and the Wadden Sea, whose tidal creeks meander deep into the newly formed land. And far on the horizon, on the other side beyond the dunes, one sees a solitary hill – a warft – where humans made this world their own, found refuge, and fed their livestock on the salty meadows.

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🥰 Enjoyed until the last ray of sunshine! ✨️

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🏖 No waves to disrupt the vibe.
🌅 Seagulls judge. The sun sets.
🌊 I don't mind.

✨️ Sand in my hair,
💔 empty shells crack everywhere.
🦶 Step on and get the feeling!
🐚 Love is blind.

🌓 The tide is low but I'm letting go.
❤️‍🩹 I'm gonna be my number one.
🌗 The tide is low but I′m letting go.
❤️ I′m gonna be my number one.

– Atomic Sloth Puppy

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🥳✨️ Today I turn 39! I'm enjoying the day all to myself on the German North Sea island of Baltrum. It's the smallest of the populated East Frisian Islands. I've visited here several times since I was a small child. Baltrum is so small that there are no cars and no street names, only house numbers.

⏳️🪁 The last time I was here was 23 years ago, at the age of 16. The photos show me when I was about 3-4 years old (1989/1990), and the others when I was 6 (1992).

👶🦷 I remember losing my very first baby tooth on Baltrum. But you can't see it, because it happened on the last day. As a child, my hair was quite light—but yes, that's really me!

🐇🐓 In the early 90s, there were lots of pheasants and rabbits on Baltrum, and they were very friendly. But that hasn't been the case for decades. Today you can still see them occasionally, but back then there were a lot of them!

🐚🦀⛱️ I remember the girl I played with on the beach, and I also remember that a small seahorse and several starfish washed up into the hole we dug.

🐴😳 I was a bit sceptical about the horse (Norwegian Fjord Horse) because I didn't really like feeding it by hand. I was once bitten by a donkey, and that scared me. But I wasn't afraid to get on the horse and ride it. I have many memories of Baltrum, and that's why I'm spending my birthday in this special place. I'll have a detailed report as soon as I get back.

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