The British-German artist duo HeHe will realise a colourful art project on the beach of Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam at the end of May 2012. The project, entitled RODUIN, will involve spreading around 75 cubic tonnes of red sand on the beach, where it will form a large red stain that will gradually disappear under the influence of wind, rain and sea. Whether that will take a long time or happen very fast is uncertain and depends on the weather.

A fossilised otter skull trawled from the bottom of the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands last year is approximately 9000 years old. This otter fossil was found together with the remains of mammoths and other mammals dating from the ice age.

Rotterdam's new harbour, Maasvlakte 2, is now protected against the severest of storms and wave attacks. On Monday 30 January, Rotterdam municipal executive councillor Jeannette Baljeu (Port, Transport and Regional Economy) laid the last block in the dam forming the hard sea wall of Maasvlakte 2.