Measuring Mangroves | Explorers in the Field

I remember the first time that I used Norco we jump in the water with so many colorful fish and it was unbelievable [Music] so since then I wanted to to repeat that experience again it wasn't until I turned 24 when I had the opportunity to travel all around the Baja California peninsula and that was

the moment that I realized that I wanted to be an explorer [Music] my name is Octavio Aburto I am a conservation biologist and a National Geographic Explorer I am studying mangroves mangroves are trees that live where the ocean meets the coast and they are special because they grow in salt water here in Mexico I think we have the most

beautiful mangroves in all the planets they are not only beautiful they provide a lot of economic benefits for coastal communities the mangrove roots come into the water and they form a refuge for many many baby fish then they can live inside these roots like a nursery it's like a playground for them I just saw a

bigger school over snappers and a lot of part of fish this juvenile only lived here inside the mangroves and eventually when they grow up they would supply the fish markets here in La Paz City mangas protect coastal areas against hurricanes and erosion they also filtered water for many coastal towns and provide essential

habitat for many species unfortunately in the last 50 years we have lost half of the mangroves worldwide and this is because of Agriculture mystery farming coastal development and pollution the first step to help mangroves is to know how much mangrove we have in order to tackle this problem my research both two techniques one is

counting everything that we have inside the mangrove roots and the other branch of our research is to estimate the cover of the mangroves to estimate the mangrove cover we we are using drones with drone technology we are serving in areas faster and it even is a new perspective [Music] we fly at different heights and 100