\u201cPeople\ncan\u2019t think of Inhaca without thinking about seagrass,\u201d says Salamao Bandeira\nof Maputo\u2019s Eduardo Mondlane University, knee-deep in the shallow waters on the\nseaward side of Maputo Bay, as he points at the shores of Inhaca Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearby,\nresidents are submerged waist-deep in the sea, taking advantage of the low-tide\nto fish in the current or hunt for clams and crabs in the seagrass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\nmeans a lot to the people here\u2014it\u2019s not just a resource, it\u2019s part of the way\nof life,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed,\nseagrass helps sustain life here in the Maputo and Inhambane bays of\nMozambique. The shrimps, sea cucumbers, clams and crabs found among these\nunderwater meadows are a source of food and employment for local communities,\nsays Bandeira. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\nexperts warn that destructive shellfish harvesting\u2014along with the flooding and\nsedimentation from rivers emptying into the bay\u2014are destroying seagrass beds at\na rapid rate. Research indicates that 86\nper cent of seagrass meadows have been lost in the northwest of Maputo Bay\nalone\u2014putting local culture, jobs and food security at risk. Read\nmore>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cPeople can\u2019t think of Inhaca without thinking about seagrass,\u201d says Salamao Bandeira of Maputo\u2019s Eduardo Mondlane University, knee-deep in the shallow waters on the seaward side of Maputo Bay, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}