A shallow subtidal area in the northern Wadden Sea was monitored over 17 years for sediment parameters and macrobenthic fauna using stratified random sampling of a grid of 50 sampling positions. Samples were collected with a Reineck-type box-corer of 0.02 m² surface area, always during preceeded high tide. Granulometric sediment composition was analysed from a sub-sample of each box-core using a diffraction laser particle-size analyser. Macrobenthos (sieved through 1 mm square meshes and fixed in buffered formalin solution) was counted, identified to species level, and the size of hard-shelled individuals measured. The amount of shell detritus was quantified as wet-weight in the benthos samples. From 2003 to 2007 sampling was approximatively monthly and from 2008 to 2013 seasonally. When a new ship with larger drought was put into operation, the number of sampling sites needed to be reduced to 33 from 2014 onwards and sampling frequency was only once per year in autumn.