100 Places To Remember: Rio de la Plata, Uruguay
Geschreven op 11-3-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Natuur
A Raging Eddy of Mud and Water. Every year, 57 million cubic metres of silt flow into the muddy estuary of Rio de la Plata, where fresh water from the Paraná and Uruguay rivers collides with salt water from the South Atlantic Ocean in a raging eddy caused by wind and changing tides.
At its widest point, the mouth of this immense estuary is 220 kilometres wide, making it the largest estuary in the world. On the southern coast is Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina; on the north-eastern coast is Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The estuary makes the soil of the surrounding regions rich and fertile.
Rio de la Plata is a natural habitat for a number of threatened species, including sea turtles and the rare La Plata dolphin, the only river dolphin that lives in the ocean and in saltwater estuaries.
The estuary is also home to the croaker, a drum-fish that croaks like a frog. Every year from October to January, croakers migrate to the mouth of the estuary to spawn on the riverbed and feed on mussels. For generations, the croaker has been the main catch of the local Uruguayan fishermen as well as the main food of the threatened dolphins.
The croakers are now under pressure from industrial fishing and pollution, and are also highly vulnerable to climate change. Any change in climate that causes stronger winds and higher sea levels will lead to the flooding of the coastal areas of Rio de la Plata, potentially tipping the delicate balance of the ecosystem, destroying the croakers feeding ground and threatening its very existence.
