Bramen op de Nederlandse kust

During a beached bird survey along the Waddensea dyke of Texel on 10 December 2008, scavenging gulls indicated the remains of an Atlantic Pomfret or Ray’s Bream Brama brama. On the island’s North Sea beach, at least 17 specimens had been found in the preceding weekend by staff of the marine education center Ecomare. Pomfrets are predatory fish of deep warm water, only occasionally coming to North Sea latitudes in late autumn where they may die if trapped in undeep fast cooling water. Postscript: on 6 January 2009 the author encountered another pomfret, which turned out to be report nr 45 for just the island of Texel. As many as 200 further reports for the Netherlands and other locations in the southern North Sea during winter 2008-2009 illustrate the strength of the invasion. Earlier invasions of similar magnitude on Dutch beaches date back to 1952 and 1976 and all of these are actually peak-years in periods of several years in which Breams occur in the area (information Hans Witte).