This issue focuses on the value and benefits of fishponds and the comparative economic analyses of mangroves and fishponds. Shrimp farms are used to illustrate the benefits and hazards from aquaculture. It is evident that leaving the remaining mangrove forests as reserves can provide the human population with tremendously higher returns in terms of wildlife sanctuary, pollution sink, nutrient enrichment, nursery and breeding ground, and maintenance of sustained yield of brackishwater and marine fishes, shoreline protection, and natural land reclamation.