Introduction:
Mangrove habitats have different functional attributes of to life history of some marine-estuarine fish species. What mangrove attributes are essential to maintain ecological functions? How changes in mangrove will affect coastal fisheries? Understand these as an aid to better planning of mangrove forests. Methods used are a combination of image interpretation and field surveys of mangrove attributes; correlations of these with fisheries catch and effort data; and analysis of local knowledge and historical mangrove and fisheries data.
Results:
The research aims to (1) review and assess relations between important (commercial, subsistence) marine-estuarine fish and shrimp species and the spatial extent of functional attributes of mangrove forest habitats; (2) assess (historical) temporal and spatial changes of near shore fishing patterns in relation to changes in extent, structure of mangrove forest and (3) develop, test, and validate a spatial trade-off model to assess changes in mangrove attributes on fishing patterns. |
