A Tide-Fueled Trove of Biodiversity in Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau's Bijagós Archipelago sees tidal swings of up to twenty-three feet twice daily. Per NASA Earth Observatory, this surge and retreat exposes mudflats and sandflats, creating feeding grounds for some eight hundred seventy thousand migratory shorebirds—making it one of West Africa's most vital stopovers along the East Atlantic Flyway. The rhythm also draws manatees, dolphins, and tens of thousands of sea turtles seeking nesting sites on sandy beaches. Research from twenty twenty-five shows the archipelago's wide, shallow shelf and unique estuary geometry amplify tides to record levels for West Africa. UNESCO designated it a World Heritage site that year as the continent's only active deltaic archipelago on the Atlantic coast.

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