Threats to Marine and Coastal Habitats
Coastal development and destructive fishing practices can threaten the basis for healthy fisheries and coastal communities by directly and indirectly altering, removing, and degrading coastal and marine habitats. For instance, approximately 60,000 acres of wetlands were lost each year from 1998 to 2004, depriving wetland-dependent species such as summer flounder, shrimp, and menhaden of nursery and feeding habitat (Stedman and Dahl 2008). Likewise, dams along rivers can block fish migratory routes, making it impossible for diadromous species to carry out important life functions, such as spawning.
In combination, habitat loss and degradation, overfishing, and bycatch have led to the designation of nearly a quarter of U.S. marine fisheries as "overfished" (NOAA 2007). Fishery declines have had severe ramifications on the U.S. economy. The Department of Commerce estimates that fisheries depletion costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars in lost revenue each year. Some portion of that lost revenue and ecological degradation is directly connected to habitat loss.
