Video Transcript

Mangrove Facts for Kids

Hi, my name is Dylan and today our episode will be on mangroves. We're off to the mangroves in Linton
Bay, Panama to see what the mangroves are about.

Mangroves are the only trees in the whole world that can tolerate saltwater. Mangroves cannot be
planted; they must occur naturally. This is a baby mangrove which one day will hopefully grow to fill out
this whole beach.

Mangroves come in a variety of sizes between two to ten meters tall. There are estimated to be fifty and
about up to a hundred species of mangroves. This variety is called the red mangrove.

Sea level rise is changing where mangroves can grow and threating their existence. Impenetrable roots
are vital to shoreline communities, as natural buffers against storm surges and increasing threats of
global climate change with rising sea levels.

Fish flock to mangroves. It is a great nursing place for the fish. Here we can see the eggs of some kind of
fish. The mangrove is a very good breeding spot for all kinds of fish. From one inch fish to 10-inch
sharks, this offers great protection for the small fish from predators.

Mangroves may help fight coral beaching. Young corals grow among the mangrove roots and healthy
mangrove forests could provide shelter for coral species at the risk of extinction from coral bleaching.

Their strategy to get rid of the otherwise toxic levels of salt in the water is by excreting it through their
waxy leaves.

Mangroves occur on the coasts of 118 tropical and subtropical countries totaling an area of roughly
137,000 square kilometers. Indonesia has the largest amount of mangrove coverage in the world
totaling an area of 23,000 square kilometers which is more than twice the size of Jamaica.

Mangroves require the perfect amount of seawater, too little and they dry out, too much and they drown.

Nature’s slowest animal is the sloth. The sloth feeds on mangrove leaves. Their long claws make it hard
for them to walk on land so they prefer to climb on trees. A sloth spends 90% of his life hanging upside
down. Studies show that this is made possible because their organs are attached to their ribcage so their
lung does not get squashed.

Mangroves store more carbon than terrestrial forests. A patch of mangroves could absorb as much as 10
times the carbon of the same sized patch of terrestrial forests. In Thailand, Mexico, and Indonesia,
mangroves are often cut down to make room for temporary shrimp pens. But once the pens have been
removed, the bio waste that has been left there is too toxic for most forms of life. By protecting
mangroves, we can help protect the future of our planet.