Editing German Bight (section)

== Use==
The German Bight contains some of Germany's largest national parks by area, the aim of which is to protect the [[Wadden Sea]], a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the "nature" category. Due to being divided among three different [[states of Germany]] those protected areas fall into three different national parks, namely the [[Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park]], the [[Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park]] and the small [[Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park]] mostly around the island of [[Neuwerk]]. Despite or maybe because of its unique natural environment, the German Bight is also subject to intense economic and recreational use with the Wadden Sea being one of Germany's [[tourism in Germany|most popular tourist destinations]]. [[Mudflat hiking]] is a particularly popular tourist activity usually undertaken with licensed guides employed by the national park service. Fishing and mussel banks (particularly [[oyster]]s) are other important economic activities with ''[[crangon crangon]]'' a particularly well regarded product of local fishing. Energy extraction also plays an important role with Germany's only offshore oil rig ([[Mittelplate]]) located in the German Bight and an increasing penetration by [[offshore wind farm]]s such as [[Alpha Ventus]]. While offshore wind farms are more expensive to build and require more expensive operations for maintenance and repair than land-based wind turbines the steadier winds out at sea allow for [[variable renewable energy|steadier power output]] and a higher [[capacity factor]]. Both these advantages are important enough to justify the higher cost as Germany is in the process of [[nuclear phaseout| phasing out nuclear energy]] and plans to [[Energiewende| phase out all fossil fuels]] thereafter leaving few [[Dispatchable generation|dispatchable electricity sources]].