Some time today the oil spill is expected to reach our shores. No effort is being made at the present to protect the beaches. Efforts are focused on protecting the marshes and mangroves. Beaches are easier to clean up while the marshes and mangroves are critical to our already fragile ecosystem.

Don't know what you know about mangroves. When I first moved to Florida I thought they were disgusting. They often smell badly and make one think of slimy, creepy things. True. True. True. They do smell badly and one does find slimy, creepy things in them! It took me a while to learn how important they are. Mangroves should be called 'womangroves' because they are the wombs of life. It is here that shrimp, spiny lobster and fish spawn and other life forms- like turtles and amphibious creatures begin. Manatees live in mangroves and troves of fish eating birds live in the branches above. All play a role- some as food for others and some as predators, but many of the fish deep in the ocean depend on the small creatures born in the mangroves for sustenance.

When Florida's coastlines were first developed, the builders and developers stripped out the mangroves because the wealthy people who bought these coastal properties did not want to deal with the stench. Hundreds of miles of mangroves were destroyed. This is one reason why Florida now has so many life forms on the endangered species list. Some are gone forever- like the variety of Caribbean seal that lived in Florida. It is now illegal to destroy mangroves, but like everything else, it was like closing the barn door after the horse got out. Marshes play a similar role and have one added critical function: marshes prevent soil erosion.

All of this is very scary--- and hurricane season- predicted to be very active this year, just started.



Typical mangrove
P.S.: The blue arrow is the panhandle of Florida where the oil is expected to reach later today.