February 19, 2011

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Coastal area of Belize is an ideal natural system consisting of a main obstacle to the reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, several hundred sand banks, mangroves, coastal lagoons and estuaries. System of seven sites illustrate the evolutionary history of reef development and are an important habitat for endangered species like sea turtles, manatees and the American marine crocodile.

The coastal region of Belize is a natural system consisting of the largest reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons and estuaries. The system of seven sites illustrate the evolutionary history of reef development and are an important habitat for endangered species.

Reef stretches from the Mexican border to the north, near the border with Guatemala to the south. Belize submarine shelf and its barrier reef is the second largest coral reef system in the world’s largest reef complex in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Outside the fence are three large atolls: Turneffe Islands, Lighthouse Reef and Glover’s Reef.

Mainland and the offshore reef is a large lagoon, which will increase the breadth and depth from north to south. In the north, the average water depth of 2-3 m above the flat, featureless bottom 20-25 km wide. South of Belize City, the shelf gradually deepens to form a channel between the mainland and the outer surface to a depth of 65 m over the Gulf of Honduras.

The approximately 450 sand cays and mangroves confined within the barrier and atolls vary in size from small sand more ephemeral, permanent islands capable of sustaining human settlements.

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A total of 178 terrestrial plant species and 247 taxa of marine life described in this region. There are over 500 species of fish, 65 scleritian corals, hydroids 45 and 350 of seafood in the area, plus a variety of sponges, marine worms and crustaceans. The region hosts a number of species conservation, including the West Indian manatee, the green turtle, hawksbill, loggerhead turtles and American crocodile. The population of West Indian manatees (300-700 people) is probably the largest in the world. Several bird species whose conservation is in the cays and atolls. colonies of seabirds and waterfowl are the major red-footed boobies noddy (3000-4000 people) Half Moon Caye, weapons of Brown on Man O’War Caye, Glover’s Reef and common. Other notable breeding birds are brown pelicans and magnificent frigate birds.

ecosystem of the coral reef of Belize in the Western Hemisphere is distinctive because of its size, variety of types and abundance of reef corals flourishing so pristine conditions. Several unusual features geophysicists, such as the near side by side on the reef shelf edge reef complex maze of barriers and patch the Faros is a relatively deep lagoon storage, types of coral reefs are unusual in a small area, the presence of atolls, and a large mangrove cays offshore.

Shell dump on Mayan sites along the coast and Cayes provide evidence that the reefs have been used for fishing 2500 years ago. Between 300 BC and AD 900, was in the coastal waters probably widely used for fishing by the Mayans and commercial messages, ceremonial centers and cemeteries were established on the Cayes. With the decline of Mayan civilization, the resources of coral probably went largely unused for a number of centuries, though the first Spanish explorers used the Cayes to repair their boats and get fresh water. In the early 17th century, the coastal waters of Belize, however, become a haven for pirates and buccaneers, mostly from Britain, who plundered the Spanish merchant ships and British and survived on the abundant marine resources. Subsequently, most of the pirates and traders Puritan the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua, moved to Cayes, fishermen and plantation owners.

Since then, there have been several waves of immigration into the coastal zone, including the Garifuna people, immigrants from Mexico, and later the North Americans and other foreigners who were attracted by the beauty of the reef and its surroundings and make their home in Les Cayes.

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