Love at low tide: why mangroves deserve our admiration

[Extract] Blood-hungry biting bugs. Flesh-craving crocs. Oozy, smelly mud. Rotten, decaying detritus and slime. Ankle-twisting roots. It’s fair to say that the mental images that flicker to mind when most people think about mangroves are less than romantic. Even for mangrove researcher Norm Duke, it wasn’t exactly love at first ‘bite’ when he began studying this vital coastal flora. Now, much of his role is convincing the public to fall in love with these plant communities, which act as vital ‘coastal kidneys’