Mangrove Destruction Affecting Fisheries

Mexico City. The
fish catch decline with the increase in the destruction of mangroves
estimated annual loss of about 800 pounds of shrimp and commercial fish
per hectare of these ecosystems destroyed, because the correlation
between the extent of the tidal zone (mangrove the
tropics) and the amount of catch in the waters adjacent said Francisco
Javier Flores Verdugo, specialist in biological oceanography and
fisheries.
These
areas are of great importance not only for its socio-economic value,
but by the ability to maintain high productivity and balance in the
lagoon estuarine environments.
Fertilities
presented as high as the most efficient domestic crops, in some areas
reach capacity to export that adjacent marine waters and in arid regions
adjacent terrestrial ecosystems are functionally equivalent to an
oasis, added the researcher of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology (ICMyL), Unit Mazatlan, UNAM.
Three quarters of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, but 90 percent have fertility similar to that of a desert scrub. Sea fertile regions cover only 10 percent and are located within coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves.
In
fact, he added Flores Verdugo, an estimated total world fisheries, 90
percent is done in coastal regions, and of those, 70 percent are at
estuarine organisms, or those who at one period of his life living in
these environments.
The
benefits of mangrove-estuarine and lagoon ecosystems comprise a variety
of goods, services, uses and functions of value to society, flora and
fauna, as well as for the maintenance of natural processes, and interact
with other marine and terrestrial . For example, there is evidence that destruction causes loss of coral reef structure, detailed the university.
Mangroves
are characterized by high production are habitat to support fisheries
of the continental shelf, are areas of food, shelter and crustaceans and
fry growth and protection of flora and fauna, including species
threatened with extinction , endemic and migratory.
Systems
also act as natural flood control and erosion, as hurricane protection
and saline intrusion, and improve water quality by acting as a
biological filter.
They
also help to prevent the formation of acid soils, microclimate
conditions generate, help maintain natural systems and processes in
response to changes in sea level, carbon traps, and retain accretion
processes, sedimentation and formation mobs, he said biological oceanographer, whose main research is primary productivity in estuarine and mangrove lagoon systems,
An estimated 60 to 75 percent of the tropical coasts are bordered by mangroves. The extension covering the country is six thousand 600 square kilometers, and ranks sixth in the world.
Have
adaptations to soils rich in organic matter (anoxic) and comprise more
than 50 species, of which four are widely distributed in Mexico red
mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), black mangrove (Avicennia germinans),
white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) and buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus).
In
the country are referred to within the standard 059 of the General Law
of Ecological Balance for conservation, with a special category for
mangrove protection white, black and buttonwood, and a rare species, the
red mangrove.
They
are also under a conservation or sustainable use by various standards
such as NOM 022 for the conservation of wetlands, he said.