See the birds, mangroves and fish, in a very protected
environment and learn of the importance of the mangroves.
People don't realize that the mangrove ecosystem
plays such an important role in our planets ecology.
Your guide, makes this educational and very enjoyable,
something you'll remember for years to come.
The Mangroves of Vieques are found along the shorelines, fringing the bays and around the lagoons, where there is no wave action.
The most notable mangrove lagoons are Kiani (western
end), Mosquito Bay (biobay), Playa Grande Lagoon
(Very shallow) and Barracuda Bay ( or Puerto Ferro).
All of these lagoons can be explored. The mangrove
lagoons of the northeastern shore are not presently
accessible.
Puerto
Rico has three types of mangroves: Red mangroves,
Black mangroves and White mangroves (named for the
color of their bark) and Buttonwood which is related
and sometimes called a mangrove. All of these line
the lagoons and shorelines, what you most readily
see from the water is the Red mangrove with its
noticeable prop roots. The black and the white mangroves
grow behind them. Under normal conditions these
trees would reach 60 to 80 feet high but almost
all of these trees were leveled by Hurricane Hugo
and are recovering. They grow very slowly.
Mangroves
reproduce by dropping their 'propagules' into the
water which float across the oceans until they lodge
into the ground, on perhaps a distant seashore.
There they take root and form a new plant, if allowed
to grow. Propagules contain no seeds. They have
already matured on the plant and are 'ready to go'
plants that only need lodge themselves to send out
their roots and leaves. They are viable, floating
in the ocean, for up to a year.
The
bioluminescent bay in Vieques is nurtured by
the vitamin B12 which is released with the tannins
from the red mangrove roots. Nutrition is also created
by the decomposition of mangrove leaves etc. This
feeds the Pyrodinium bahamense plankton that
create such a spectacular sight at night (because
of the unusually high density of the light emitting
dinoflagellates in this lagoon). There are also
many other factors involved in establishing such
a density of bioluminescent dinoflagellates). See
biobay information.
Here
are several websites that have lots of information
about mangrove ecosystems: They all open in new
windows so to come back to this website just close
the new window.
The
Mangrove Action Project.
Mangroves.Org
curious website also has good links
All
kinds of uses for Mangroves, even medicinal - Purdue
University
Great
Resource page for lots of Links
