Shoreline Protection
Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging storm and hurricane winds, waves, and floods. Mangroves also help prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their tangled root systems. They maintain water quality and clarity, filtering pollutants and trapping sediments originating from land.
Nursery
Threatened and Endangered Species
These species utilize mangrove systems during at least some portion of their life histories, while others reside their entire life spans, feeding and nesting within the mangroves.
Renewable ResourceMangroves are utilized in many parts of the world as a renewable resource
In other parts of the world, people have utilized mangrove trees as a renewable resource. Harvested for durable, water-resistant wood, mangroves have been used in building houses, boats, pilings, and furniture. The wood of the black mangrove and buttonwood trees has also been utilized in the production of charcoal. Tannins and other dyes are extracted from mangrove bark. Leaves have been used in tea, medicine, livestock feed, and as a substitute for tobacco for smoking. In Florida, beekeepers have set up their hives close to mangroves in order to use the nectar in honey production.
Like coral reefs, mangrove forests are extremely productive ecosystems that provide numerous good and services both to the marine environment and people.
According to a recent report, these goods and services are conservatively estimated to be worth US$186 million each year. They include:
- Mangroves protect shorelines from erosion
Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging storm and hurricane winds, waves, and floods. Mangroves also help prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their tangled root systems. They maintain water quality and clarity, filtering pollutants and trapping sediments originating from land.
Nursery
- Mangroves serve as valuable nursery areas for fish and invertebrates
Threatened and Endangered Species
- Mangroves Support Threatened and Endangered Species
These species utilize mangrove systems during at least some portion of their life histories, while others reside their entire life spans, feeding and nesting within the mangroves.
Renewable ResourceMangroves are utilized in many parts of the world as a renewable resource
In other parts of the world, people have utilized mangrove trees as a renewable resource. Harvested for durable, water-resistant wood, mangroves have been used in building houses, boats, pilings, and furniture. The wood of the black mangrove and buttonwood trees has also been utilized in the production of charcoal. Tannins and other dyes are extracted from mangrove bark. Leaves have been used in tea, medicine, livestock feed, and as a substitute for tobacco for smoking. In Florida, beekeepers have set up their hives close to mangroves in order to use the nectar in honey production.
Like coral reefs, mangrove forests are extremely productive ecosystems that provide numerous good and services both to the marine environment and people.
According to a recent report, these goods and services are conservatively estimated to be worth US$186 million each year. They include:
- Fisheries: Mangrove forests are home to a large variety of fish, crab, shrimp, and mollusk species. These fisheries form an essential source of food for thousands of coastal communities around the world. The forests also serve as nurseries for many fish species, including coral reef fish. A study on the Mesoamerican reef, for example, showed that there are as many as 25 times more fish of some species on reefs close to mangrove areas than in areas where mangroves have been cut down. This makes mangrove forests vitally important to coral reef and commercial fisheries as well.
- Timber and plant products: Mangrove wood is resistant to rot and insects, making it extremely valuable. Many coastal and indigenous communities rely on this wood for construction material as well as for fuel. These communities also collect medicinal plants from mangrove ecosystems and use mangrove leaves as animal fodder. Recently, the forests have also been commercially harvested for pulp, wood chip, and charcoal production.
- Coastal protection: The dense root systems of mangrove forests trap sediments flowing down rivers and off the land. This helps stabilizes the coastline and prevents erosion from waves and storms. In areas where mangroves have been cleared, coastal damage from hurricanes and typhoons is much more severe. By filtering out sediments, the forests also protect coral reefs and seagrass meadows from being smothered in sediment.
- Tourism: Given the diversity of life inhabiting mangrove systems, and their proximity in many cases to other tourist attractions such as coral reefs and sandy beaches, it is perhaps surprising that only a few countries have started to tap into the tourism potential of their mangrove forests. Places as diverse as Bonaire and offer snorkelling expeditions in and around mangroves to witness a marvellous variety of baby fish, jellyfish, and urchins against a magical background of interwoven roots delving deep into the sandy substrate. Great potential exists elsewhere for revenue generation in this manner, which values the mangroves intact and as they stand.
- Basis of a complex marine food chain.
- Creation of breeding habitat.
- Establishment of restrictive impounds that offer protection for maturing offspring.
- Filtering and assimilating pollutants from upland run-off.
- Stabilization of bottom sediments.
- Water quality improvements.
- Protection of shorelines from erosion.
Why are mangroves important?Mangroves are quite literally the roots of the ocean. Three-quarters of all tropical fish species are born within mangrove forests, whose branches provide shelter and protection for the juvenile fish and some sharks. As nurseries, mangroves are vital not only to the health of coral reefs but also to commercial fisheries. There are 110 species of mangrove, and they grow only in tropical regions. Mangroves add an estimated $186 million per year to the global total of goods and services. This includes the production of timber and plant products for local communities and also products for trade within the international marketplace.
Mangroves offer environmental benefits as well. These forests provide coastal protection against wind and wave action, such as tsunamis. In a time of more severe weather patterns, mangroves are key to our continued survival as we urbanize coastal areas.
Mangroves also trap sediments. By doing so, they prevent coral reefs from becoming silted. They also break down pollution from agricultural activities. Mangrove forests can store 50 times more carbon in their soils as defined by area than tropical forests, and 10 times more carbon than temperate forests. The decomposed leaf litter from mangrove forests provides nutrients for phytoplankton to grow as well. This is the base of all ocean ecosystems. In effect, mangroves support the entire food web that humans rely upon.
What are the threats to mangroves?Mangroves are disappearing at a rate of 1 percent every year. Aquaculture, coastal development, agriculture, unsustainable fishing and pollution are mostly to blame. We have already lost over half of the world’s original mangrove forest area, which scientists estimate at almost 80 million acres.
Most of this loss has occurred within the last 20 years. Shrimp farming is a significant threat to the survival of the remaining forests. The United States, Japan, Canada and Europe are the main shrimp consumers. The high demand for shrimp and the profitability of shrimp farming has led to extensive removal of mangrove forests to create shrimp farms in recent years. Shrimp producers only use the pools within shrimp farms for short periods of time before they deforest other areas for use. Producers often abandon the pools due to pollution and disease. In the end, they’ve laid waste to extensive areas of deforested land for this trade, which results in the long-term loss of mangroves.
Why does this matter to scuba divers?Put simply, if we want to continue diving on clean and healthy coral reefs around the world, then we need to protect mangrove forests. Without mangroves, there will be considerably fewer fish, sharks and other marine species that hold such appeal for divers. That is of course putting aside the value of mangroves for the health of the oceans and for the tourism industry, of which scuba diving is a significant part. As ocean users, it is our responsibility to do all that we can to protect and care for the environment around us.
Mangroves offer environmental benefits as well. These forests provide coastal protection against wind and wave action, such as tsunamis. In a time of more severe weather patterns, mangroves are key to our continued survival as we urbanize coastal areas.
Mangroves also trap sediments. By doing so, they prevent coral reefs from becoming silted. They also break down pollution from agricultural activities. Mangrove forests can store 50 times more carbon in their soils as defined by area than tropical forests, and 10 times more carbon than temperate forests. The decomposed leaf litter from mangrove forests provides nutrients for phytoplankton to grow as well. This is the base of all ocean ecosystems. In effect, mangroves support the entire food web that humans rely upon.
What are the threats to mangroves?Mangroves are disappearing at a rate of 1 percent every year. Aquaculture, coastal development, agriculture, unsustainable fishing and pollution are mostly to blame. We have already lost over half of the world’s original mangrove forest area, which scientists estimate at almost 80 million acres.
Most of this loss has occurred within the last 20 years. Shrimp farming is a significant threat to the survival of the remaining forests. The United States, Japan, Canada and Europe are the main shrimp consumers. The high demand for shrimp and the profitability of shrimp farming has led to extensive removal of mangrove forests to create shrimp farms in recent years. Shrimp producers only use the pools within shrimp farms for short periods of time before they deforest other areas for use. Producers often abandon the pools due to pollution and disease. In the end, they’ve laid waste to extensive areas of deforested land for this trade, which results in the long-term loss of mangroves.
Why does this matter to scuba divers?Put simply, if we want to continue diving on clean and healthy coral reefs around the world, then we need to protect mangrove forests. Without mangroves, there will be considerably fewer fish, sharks and other marine species that hold such appeal for divers. That is of course putting aside the value of mangroves for the health of the oceans and for the tourism industry, of which scuba diving is a significant part. As ocean users, it is our responsibility to do all that we can to protect and care for the environment around us.
The open ocean and deep coral reefs can be scary places for a fish, even for sharks. As a small shark, there are many things that could eat you in the big blue, from large groupers, moray eels, or even other larger sharks. Before becoming the mighty predators of the sea, small newborn sharks need a strategy to survive long enough to grow into large strong fish that can fend off predators. For some tropical shark species this strategy is hiding out in the roots of shallow water mangroves: trees that grow in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves support large populations of prey on which sharks feed and also provide a means of avoidance from large sharks and other marine predators1.
When young bull sharks are still small, they remain in the shallow waters of estuaries and bays, after which they move out to the open ocean and nearby coral reefs. Caribbean reef sharks spend the majority of their younger years in shallow lagoons and close to shallow coral reefs before moving to the deeper reef slopes and pinnacles as adults. Lemon sharks are the best example of a species that spends the first couple of years of its life in the safety of shallow waters with mangroves and seagrass beds.
The shallow waters and mangroves provide a complex habitat structure that keep the young sharks safe from predators, thereby increasing their chances of survival. Species such as lemon sharks, shovelnose rays, blacktip sharks, sicklefin lemon sharks, stingrays, and whiprays are recorded in mangrove habitats. Unpublished data from experts in West Australia suggests that even juvenile and newborn whale sharks spend time in mangrove forests. Juvenile sawfish, one of the ocean’s most critically endangered groups of elasmobranchs, also depend on mangroves for their initial survival. And it is not just sharks. Countless other fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, and even some marine mammals reside in mangrove habitats. For coral reef species, the mangroves have a supporting function. The biomass of commercially interesting fish on coral reefs directly connected to mangroves is more than double compared to reefs with no connecting mangrove. Furthermore, the large diversity of species residing in the mangroves serve as a major food source for sharks.
The small island of Bimini in the Bahamas is probably home to the most studied mangrove system with sharks. Every spring, pregnant lemon shark females arrive at Bimini to give birth to their pups near the mangroves and seagrass beds of the island. The lemon sharks are very attached to their specific place of birth. Research shows that when newborn lemon sharks are displaced from their natural habitat, their so-called homing behavior kicks in, and the small sharks find their way back to the exact mangrove area where they were born. This even applies when the sharks are displaced to nearby islands with similar suitable habitats. Even after they grow older and leave the mangroves to explore other places, when it is time to pup themselves, they always come back to the same spot.
Mangroves are not only essential habitat for sharks and other marine species, but they are invaluable in the race against climate change. Marine vegetation, such as mangroves and seagrass beds, absorb atmospheric carbon up to 100 times faster than terrestrial forests.
Unfortunately, this important nursery habitat is under great threat. Worldwide an estimated 50% of the mangroves has been lost due to coastal development, construction of tourism facilities, and natural distasters. On Bimini, a decline in survival of young lemon sharks has been correlated to developments on the island, causing a 23% decline in first-year survival of the young sharks2.
Lemon sharks also occur in Sint Maarten, where previous developments already removed 80% of the island’s mangroves. Now, due to the passing of hurricane Irma and Maria, another 80% of the mangroves that were left on the island were uprooted and destroyed, damage that was most prominent in the internationally recognized RAMSAR-site “Mullet Pond”. Save Our Sharks initiated a crowdfunding campaign to support the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation in restoring Mullet Pond. With your help, the Nature Foundation can continue cleaning Mullet Pond and replant mangrove seedlings to restore the function of this important site.
When young bull sharks are still small, they remain in the shallow waters of estuaries and bays, after which they move out to the open ocean and nearby coral reefs. Caribbean reef sharks spend the majority of their younger years in shallow lagoons and close to shallow coral reefs before moving to the deeper reef slopes and pinnacles as adults. Lemon sharks are the best example of a species that spends the first couple of years of its life in the safety of shallow waters with mangroves and seagrass beds.
The shallow waters and mangroves provide a complex habitat structure that keep the young sharks safe from predators, thereby increasing their chances of survival. Species such as lemon sharks, shovelnose rays, blacktip sharks, sicklefin lemon sharks, stingrays, and whiprays are recorded in mangrove habitats. Unpublished data from experts in West Australia suggests that even juvenile and newborn whale sharks spend time in mangrove forests. Juvenile sawfish, one of the ocean’s most critically endangered groups of elasmobranchs, also depend on mangroves for their initial survival. And it is not just sharks. Countless other fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, and even some marine mammals reside in mangrove habitats. For coral reef species, the mangroves have a supporting function. The biomass of commercially interesting fish on coral reefs directly connected to mangroves is more than double compared to reefs with no connecting mangrove. Furthermore, the large diversity of species residing in the mangroves serve as a major food source for sharks.
The small island of Bimini in the Bahamas is probably home to the most studied mangrove system with sharks. Every spring, pregnant lemon shark females arrive at Bimini to give birth to their pups near the mangroves and seagrass beds of the island. The lemon sharks are very attached to their specific place of birth. Research shows that when newborn lemon sharks are displaced from their natural habitat, their so-called homing behavior kicks in, and the small sharks find their way back to the exact mangrove area where they were born. This even applies when the sharks are displaced to nearby islands with similar suitable habitats. Even after they grow older and leave the mangroves to explore other places, when it is time to pup themselves, they always come back to the same spot.
Mangroves are not only essential habitat for sharks and other marine species, but they are invaluable in the race against climate change. Marine vegetation, such as mangroves and seagrass beds, absorb atmospheric carbon up to 100 times faster than terrestrial forests.
Unfortunately, this important nursery habitat is under great threat. Worldwide an estimated 50% of the mangroves has been lost due to coastal development, construction of tourism facilities, and natural distasters. On Bimini, a decline in survival of young lemon sharks has been correlated to developments on the island, causing a 23% decline in first-year survival of the young sharks2.
Lemon sharks also occur in Sint Maarten, where previous developments already removed 80% of the island’s mangroves. Now, due to the passing of hurricane Irma and Maria, another 80% of the mangroves that were left on the island were uprooted and destroyed, damage that was most prominent in the internationally recognized RAMSAR-site “Mullet Pond”. Save Our Sharks initiated a crowdfunding campaign to support the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation in restoring Mullet Pond. With your help, the Nature Foundation can continue cleaning Mullet Pond and replant mangrove seedlings to restore the function of this important site.
Mangroves also play an essential role in the reproduction of several shark species, like the lemon shark. If we want to protect shark populations, we have to protect shark nurseries, refuges and habitats as well. And a more unexpected relation is the one between whale sharks and mangroves. Mangroves provide essential nourishment for plankton bloom, that attracts whale sharks.
If we lose our mangrove forests, we could lose species: not only sharks, but also other species of fish and invertebrates, that are part of our blue planet’s ecosystem. In several countries, there are mangrove restoriation projects, like in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Mangroves: The roots of the seaWe have been settling into life at Projects Abroad in Pacific Harbour, Fiji and enjoyed a workshop on the importance of mangroves.
Did you know that three quarters of all tropical fish species are born within mangroves?
Mangrove habitats are crucial for shelter and provide nurseries for various shark and fish species. The mangroves of Fiji are home to endangered Scalloped Hammerhead sharks, juvenile Bull and also Lemon sharks (which are classed as near threatened). Lemon sharks spend the first 7 years of their lives in mangroves. These mangrove forests can only grow in tropical regions and there are 110 species of mangrove, including some which are palm trees that live in salt locations such as beaches.
Mangroves are the main producers in the oceans and their decomposed leaf litter provides nutrients for phytoplankton to grow, which is the base of ALL ocean ecosystems. In effect, they support the entire food web which humans rely upon. Go mangroves!
If that were not enough, mangroves also provide a physical barrier against wind and waves, such as tsunami protection, and they trap sediments. By trapping sediments, they prevent coral reefs from becoming silted and ensure the fish species we rely upon have somewhere to breed. Mangroves also break down pollution from our agricultural activities and support our economy by providing productive areas for juvenile fish to flourish.
Mangrove swamps can store 50 times more carbon in their soils by area than tropical forests and 10 times more carbon than temperate forests.
These superhero mangroves are disappearing at a rate of 1% every year due to aquaculture (shrimp farms), coastal development, agriculture, unsustainable fishing and pollution and we have lost 35% of the remaining worlds mangroves since 1980.
Projects Abroad are working hard to protect the remaining mangroves and run a mangrove planting and education project on Fiji in partnership with Beqa Adventure Divers and Mangroves for Fiji – who developed a mangrove carbon offsetting programme.
Planted mangroves can be fully functional within 5-30 years and Projects Abroad Fiji have so far created four nursery areas, which have 7000 trees capacity. They also planted 30,000 mangrove plants in 2014.
The goal now is to expand the nursery areas, offset carbon emissions with local businesses and plant 100,000 mangroves in the wild.
“Mangroves are the roots of the sea”
If we lose our mangrove forests, we could lose species: not only sharks, but also other species of fish and invertebrates, that are part of our blue planet’s ecosystem. In several countries, there are mangrove restoriation projects, like in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Mangroves: The roots of the seaWe have been settling into life at Projects Abroad in Pacific Harbour, Fiji and enjoyed a workshop on the importance of mangroves.
Did you know that three quarters of all tropical fish species are born within mangroves?
Mangrove habitats are crucial for shelter and provide nurseries for various shark and fish species. The mangroves of Fiji are home to endangered Scalloped Hammerhead sharks, juvenile Bull and also Lemon sharks (which are classed as near threatened). Lemon sharks spend the first 7 years of their lives in mangroves. These mangrove forests can only grow in tropical regions and there are 110 species of mangrove, including some which are palm trees that live in salt locations such as beaches.
Mangroves are the main producers in the oceans and their decomposed leaf litter provides nutrients for phytoplankton to grow, which is the base of ALL ocean ecosystems. In effect, they support the entire food web which humans rely upon. Go mangroves!
If that were not enough, mangroves also provide a physical barrier against wind and waves, such as tsunami protection, and they trap sediments. By trapping sediments, they prevent coral reefs from becoming silted and ensure the fish species we rely upon have somewhere to breed. Mangroves also break down pollution from our agricultural activities and support our economy by providing productive areas for juvenile fish to flourish.
Mangrove swamps can store 50 times more carbon in their soils by area than tropical forests and 10 times more carbon than temperate forests.
These superhero mangroves are disappearing at a rate of 1% every year due to aquaculture (shrimp farms), coastal development, agriculture, unsustainable fishing and pollution and we have lost 35% of the remaining worlds mangroves since 1980.
Projects Abroad are working hard to protect the remaining mangroves and run a mangrove planting and education project on Fiji in partnership with Beqa Adventure Divers and Mangroves for Fiji – who developed a mangrove carbon offsetting programme.
Planted mangroves can be fully functional within 5-30 years and Projects Abroad Fiji have so far created four nursery areas, which have 7000 trees capacity. They also planted 30,000 mangrove plants in 2014.
The goal now is to expand the nursery areas, offset carbon emissions with local businesses and plant 100,000 mangroves in the wild.
“Mangroves are the roots of the sea”