Exit the Mangrove Dwellers

Two-fifths of the species that call the world's mangrove forests and swamps home could be wiped out

A wide variety of animals -- amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds -- live exclusively in mangrove forests around the globe. Many of these species are listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Seventy-five percent of tropical coastlines feature mangroves, but these forests have been decimated by pollution, changes in sea level and coastal development.

And more than two-fifths of the specialized species that live in mangrove environments face extinction, according to a new study by David A. Luther of the University of Maryland and Russell Greenberg of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center published in the July/August issue of BioScience.

"In the first global assessment of terrestrial vertebrate species that are restricted to mangrove ecosystems, we found 48 bird, 14 reptile, 1 amphibian, and 6 mammal species endemic to mangroves, the majority of which are found in Asia and Australia," according to Luther and Greenberg. "We also found that more than 40% of assessed mangrove-endemic vertebrates are globally threatened."

"Not only are the more visible creatures such as the manatee, the Royal Bengal tiger, the proboscis monkey, numerous amphibians and reptiles endangered, but whole species of migratory birds which may have rest or feeding stopovers along their long migratory flights are endangered with extinction," said Mangrove Action Project Director Alfredo Quarto to 13.7 Billion Years.

"Loss of mangroves causes erosion of shorelines which in turn clouds up coastal waters and kills sea grasses and coral reefs, magnifying the problems resulting from the loss of these inter-tidal wetlands," Quarto added. "There are just so many adverse repercussions from mangrove loss that it is imperative that we do something now to reverse this trend, conserve the existing mangrove areas and restore those areas that have been destroyed or degraded."

One of the biggest killers of mangrove forests -- and consequently the creatures that rely on these unique ecosystems -- is shrimp aquaculture.

"The rapidly expanding shrimp aquaculture industry poses one of the gravest threats to the world's remaining mangroves," Quarto said in an exclusive 13.7 Billion Years interview. He recommends that "if you must eat shrimp...eat only shrimp caught or produced in the United States or Canada."

"Thousands of hectares of lush mangrove forests have been cleared to make room for the artificial shrimp ponds of this boom and bust industry. This highly volatile enterprise has grown exponentially over the last 25 years, leaving devastating ruin in its wake."

GET INVOLVED

• Participate in Seattle's Blue Festival in October to celebrate wild and healthy oceans
• Support the Mangrove Action Project
• Download a full PDF copy of the new mangrove study
  
• Sign the Save the Mekong petition urging the Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to keep the Mekong flowing freely
• Sign the Curacao Nature Conservation and Amigu di Tera petition urging the government of Curacao to protect the mangroves by law and reforest mangroves where they have been removed

RELATED POSTS

• Atlantic Salmon Dying in Chile's Pacific (August 4, 2009)
• EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Alfredo Quarto, Executive Director of the Mangrove Action Project (October 27, 2008)
• Mangrove Activists Ask Consumers to Eat Less Shrimp (June 15, 2008)
• On Myanmar, Mangroves and Shrimp (May 9, 2008)
• The Shrimp Effect: Does Eating Shrimp in Canada Kill People in Myanmar? (May 8, 2008)
• Absence of Mangroves Proved Fatal During Myanmar Cyclone (May 8, 2008)
  

image: manatee (credit: Chris Muenzer)