http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3190306.stm
Last Updated: Tuesday,
14 October, 2003, 11:25 GMT 12:25 UK
World's
seagrasses 'in peril'
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment
CAPTION
#1:
"Seagrasses: Home to the manatee."
CAPTION
#2:
"Distribution of Seagrass In British Isles.
Seagrass:
- Flowering plants in seawater
- Have ribbon-like, grassy leaves
- Live in coastal bays, estuaries
- Food and shelter for animals"
CAPTION
#3:
"Protection for seahorses will also benefit the grasses"
CAPTION
#4:
"There are about 60 species of seagrasses"
Many marine creatures, from seahorses to turtles, are at risk
from the rapid destruction of the Earth's seagrasses, according
to the United Nations.
It has released the
first map of their global distribution,
and says 15% of them have gone in the last 10 years.
Seagrasses are flowering
plants - not seaweed - that flourish
in some of the shallow waters that line our coasts.
They provide an important
habitat for a range of other sea life
and benefit people by helping to combat erosion.
The World Atlas Of
Seagrasses is the work of the UN Environment
Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC),
based in Cambridge, UK.
Long grass
It estimates the area
of seagrasses in the world at 177,000 square
kilometres, an area about two-thirds the size of the UK.
But this is likely
to be an underestimate, because there have been
no surveys of seagrasses off the western coasts of Africa and
Latin
America.
The 60 or so species
of seagrass, which grow in large meadows
in both tropical and temperate seas, are extremely varied.
They range in length
from the 2-3-centimetre leaves of sea vines
in deep water off Brazil to the strands of eelgrass that grow
to
more than four metres in the Sea of Japan.
The meadows are home
to fish, manatees, dugongs and green turtles,
and provide a good habitat for many other plants.
Little known
They also protect coral
reefs by binding sediments, and help
to clean the water and protect the coasts from storms.
Yet the authors say
the seagrasses are being steadily destroyed
by the run-off of nutrients and sediments from human activities
on land, and by boating, land reclamation, dredging, and some
fishing methods.
Dr Klaus Toepfer, the
executive director of Unep, said seagrasses
were "a vital marine ecosystem whose importance has largely
been
overlooked until now".
He said: "The
scientists have presented us with a worrying story.
In many cases, these vitally important undersea meadows are being
needlessly destroyed for short-term gain without a true understanding
of their significance."
Help a friend
Ed Green, one of the
co-editors of the atlas, said: "There are
few places where seagrass meadows are protected. We now know that
vast numbers of fish use seagrass for a short but critical part
of
their lifecycle.
"We are also becoming
aware of the role that seagrass plays in
the climatic and oceanic carbon cycles and in coastal protection.
The true economic value is difficult to measure, but this work
suggests it is immense."
Dr Mark Collins, director
of Unep-WCMC, said the seagrass beds
had been overlooked by conservationists and coastal development
planners throughout their range.
He said: "The
public can play an important role. By insisting
on protection for seahorses, turtles and dugongs they will also
safeguard the ecosystem that supports them and has intrinsic
benefits that are less obvious."
The UK has seagrass
meadows in south-west England, sheltering
two rare species of seahorse as well as cuttlefish, crabs and
sea bream.
###
