[ad_1]
Issued on: Modified:
When Diovanie de Jesus, a biologist and bird lover, visited one of the last mangrove forests in the Bay of Manila, in the Philippines, he found it covered with plastic and other bits of trash, ranging from plastic bags to surgical masks to bottles. Images shared online, showing the mangrove forest covered with plastic, demonstrate just how bad the situation is in Manila Bay in the Philippines.
The mangrove forest is an ecosystem common to tropical and subtropical coastal zones. Mangroves have long, distinctive roots, adapted to swamps. The forests, which hug the coasts, play the important role of protecting inland areas from intense weather events, including high waves, strong currents and even typhoons. Mangroves are also important reproduction sites for many different animals.
‘People feel like Manila Bay is already dead’
Biologist Diovanie De Jesus was looking for birds when he went to the mangrove forest on Tanza Island, located near the town of Novatas, on September 25, 2021. Even though it was prime season for migratory birds, that’s not what De Jesus found there. He posted a few pictures of all the rubbish he found on social media.
I went to the island to take pictures of birds. But when I saw all the plastic, I was devastated. The sight of birds trying to feed themselves amongst all the waste just broke my heart.
Almost the entire site was covered with rubbish. It’s an estuary and so rubbish gets carried in by the rivers and the swamp and then gets stuck in the mangrove roots.
