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KNOWLEDGE BASE

Mangroves and fisheries

Many commercial and subsistence fish and prawns spend part of their lives in mangrove creeks.

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Beginner 1 min read fisherieslivelihoodsfood security

In many tropical coasts a large share of the fish and shellfish people eat started life among mangrove roots. The roots offer shelter from predators and the creeks are rich in food from leaf litter and algae.

Who benefits

  • Small-scale fishers who net and trap in creeks and tidal channels.
  • Women who collect crabs, oysters and shellfish at low tide.
  • Offshore fleets, because juvenile fish raised in mangroves later move to reefs and open water.

What happens when mangroves are lost. Studies from several regions link mangrove clearing to falling local catches of species that use them as nurseries. The effect is strongest close to the cleared area and for species that depend on mangrove as juveniles.

Using Atlas. Combine the Mangrove Change page (how much mangrove has been lost) with the villages layer (who lives next to it) to see where fisheries are most exposed.

Limits. Atlas does not hold catch data. The link between area and catch is a pattern from the literature, not a calculation Atlas makes.

Related reading

What mangroves do for people (ecosystem services)

Mangroves protect shorelines, feed fisheries, supply wood and honey, filter water and store carbon.

What destroys mangroves

Clearing for farms, shrimp ponds and development, over-harvesting, pollution, damming and rising seas.

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