Mangroves at Sutukil/OWT and WWW

I was in Cebu last week and when in Mactan Island and craving for some fresh seafood, we usually go to Sutukil.  Sutukil is a wet market and restaurant row---we shopped at the wet market first then have the seafood cooked at the restaurant for a fee, of course.  Because most of the customers here are tourists, the prices are more expensive compared to other seafood restaurants in Cebu.

Sutukil is a few meters away from the Lapu-Lapu Shrine, overlooking a mangrove forest; about half a kilometer away from Mactan Shangri-la Hotel.

The mangrove forest at Sutukil looks healthier now than the last time I was here.  I'm glad they cleaned up and installed bamboo fences to protect the mangrove area from garbage coming from the coast.

Mangroves provide nursery grounds for fish and other marine life; food source and shelter for other animals, from crocodiles to snakes, monkeys to bats.  They're brilliant adapters--each mangrove has an ultra-filtration system to keep much of the salt out and a complex root system that allows it to survive in the intertidal zone.  Mangroves are also land-builders...their interlocking roots stop river-borne sediments from coursing out to sea, their trunks and branches serve as a palisade that diminishes the erosive power of waves.  Source: NGM

Sutukil is an acronym for 3 methods of cooking popular in Cebu---Sugba (grill), Tola, Tinola (soup) and Kilaw, Kinilaw (ceviche).

At the intersection of land and sea, mangrove forests support a wealth of life, from starfish to people, and may be more important to the health of the planet than we ever realized. 

~ Kennedy Warne, Forests of the Tide

 

Linking to: 

 Our World Tuesday

Watery World Wednesday

NF Waters