Focus on marine flowering plants importance.
On March 1st 2026, World Seagrass Day , highlights the importance of marine flowering plants which cover an estimated 0.1% of the ocean floor. Despite their limited spatial extent, seagrass meadows support thousands of marine species, including fish, seahorses, and turtles, by providing food and shelter. Seagrass ecosystems also function as highly efficient carbon sinks and stores. One area where these ecosystems play a particularly important role is the Tañon Strait in the Philippines. Located between Negros Island and Cebu Island, this marine corridor is designated as the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape. It hosts extensive seagrass meadows, coral reefs, and mangroves, forming one of the country’s most important marine ecosystems. This image, acquired on 18 January 2025 by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites, shows the southern section of Tañon Strait . Shallow waters appear in turquoise tones, deeper waters in dark blue, and vegetation on the surrounding islands in bright gr...