Mexican Resorts Destroying Mangroves, Dooming Fisheries
The loss of Mexico’s coastal mangrove forests to development is threatening the country’s multimillion-dollar fishing industry, according to a new study.
Around Mexico’s Gulf of California—between Baja California peninsula and the west coast of the mainland—mangroves are being destroyed to make way for high-end tourism resorts, marinas, and controversial industrial shrimp farms.
The government has overvalued such development and grossly undervalued the vital role mangroves play in supporting the region’s U.S. $19-million-dollar fishing industry, the report said.
The Gulf of California harbors more than a hundred fish species, 30 percent of which depend on mangroves for survival.
In particular, the roots of the saltwater forests serve as sanctuaries and nurseries for commercial fish species such as snapper, snook, and mullet.
The study, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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