Puerto Galera UW clean up

[CODMAN]

Mangroves are very usefull for marine ecosystems in many ways. Of the more know are: 1- Nursery habitat for young fish and invertebrates, so they can grow big and striong before going out into the open water (and get fished ), 2- They reduce erosion, which is never good (silts up the water; bad for reefs and many other organisms).

One of the main problems in areas under development is they cut down the mangroves for realestate. So there is a world effort to try and restore magroves back to areas that were cut, or to new areas. It should increase biodiversity and productivity of the local marine environments...

What's the idea behind the mangrove planting?

I don't know anything about mangroves - how will that affect the marine life, viz etc?

 

[rickthediver]

We did our first collection yesterday as part of the 505th Squadron Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary mangrove project.

We collected about 1000 seeds in an hour - and promptly ran out of planting bags. We still managed to pot about 600 seeds

Here are the seeds in the basket. Babae species (short seeds) and lalaki (18'' tall).

We planted the seeds out in potting bags, place just below the high water mark, so that they get naturally watered twice a day. The seeds we be left for 2 months to grow leaves and roots so that when planted out they have a head start.

Getting stuck in the mangrove mud was all part of the fun

Thanks to everyone that helped including LT Frank Doyle PCGA [behind the camera]

505th Coast Guard Auxiliary Squadron
Puerto Galera

 

[rickthediver]

....couldn't get the photos to embed. You can check them out on our facebook page. Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary, 505th squadron