Reclamation and construction of industrial complexes add a pollution dimension to the conversion of marine habitats and thus threaten the viability of coastal aquaculture areas and future coastal and off-shore fisheries.
Coastal habitats (mangroves, seagrass systems, coral reefs and lagoons, and estuaries) provide habitat for about 90 percent of the world's fish production, at all or some stages in the lives of the fish. In particular, salt marshes, seagrass beds, and mud flats have enormous biological productivity and are important as nursery grounds for coastal and oceanic marine fish as well as for endemic and migratory birds. Even species not confined to wetlands are dependent on the shelter offered by inaccessible wetlands.