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The Gulf of Fonseca’s Restaurant and Restoration
Making sure the plover’s restaurant stays open for business
© Kenneth Cole Schneider
The Gulf of Fonseca is shared between El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Ecologist Salvadora Morales studies best management practices in shrimp farming and salt production to benefit shorebirds in her native Nicaragua and other parts of the Gulf. The Wilson’s Plover, many of which breed in the southern U.S., comes to the shrimp farms of the Gulf to rest and refuel. But this is also a great place to have a shrimp farm. Salvadora and her team help make sure that the plovers are able to find places to rest within the shrimp farms.
Listen to this episode in Spanish here.
BirdNote®
The Gulf of Fonseca’s Restaurant and Restoration
Written by Camilo Garzón
This is BirdNote.
[Wilson’s Plover calls, Xeno Canto 105486]
The Gulf of Fonseca is shared between El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Ecologist Salvadora Morales studies best management practices in shrimp farming and salt production to benefit shorebirds in her native Nicaragua and other parts of the Gulf.
Salvadora Morales: Y resultó que sí, pues encontramos más de cinco especies donde su población biogeográfica era super importante.
She’s saying that she and her team observed more than five species that have especially important ties to this area. Including…
[Wilson’s Plover calls, Xeno Canto 135972]
The Wilson’s Plover, many of which breed in the southern U.S., comes to the Gulf to rest and refuel. And what better place for that than mudflats that are basically restaurants stocked with their favorite food: fiddler crabs.
[Wilson’s Plover calls, Xeno Canto 574004]
But this is also a great place to have a shrimp farm. Habitats where plovers like to sleep are now ponds for the shrimp surrounded by walls and dikes.
Salvadora Morales: Entonces una de las cosas, por ejemplo, las aves necesitan muros libres de vegetación.
Every two or three years, the shrimp farms have to remove excess vegetation from the pond walls so the plovers have a place to rest. Salvadora and her team are making sure the plovers’ restaurant stays open for business.
This show is part of a series on Manomet's shorebird conservation research, and it's also available en español — visit our website, BirdNote dot org, to learn more. I'm Camilo Garzón.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Script Editor: Camila Kerwin from the Rough Cut Collective
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Wilson’s Plover Xeno Canto 105486 recorded by J. van Dort, Wilson’s Plover Xeno Canto 135972 recorded by M. McKewy Mejía, and Wilson’s Plover Xeno Canto 574004 recorded by M. Grosselet.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote September 2022
Narrator: Camilo Garzón
ID# manomet-04-2022-09-27 manomet-04
Camilo Garzón
Writer Narrator