Baseline surveys of Lac Bay benthic and fish communities, Bonaire

Lac Bay is a clear-water, 5 m deep shallow tropical lagoon of 7 km2 opening onto the wave and wind exposed east coast of the island of Bonaire, southern Caribbean. Over the last decades land reclamation by mangroves in Lac has been expanding the surface of turbid, saline backwaters into the bay at an average rate of 2.34 ha per year. This process threatens the future habitat quality and critical ecological function the bay fulfills as the most important fish nursery habitat for Bomaire