From a boat the mangroves look like a tangle, the kind of thing you clear to make space. That is the mistake.
Those roots are a nursery for the fish that feed families here, a wall against the water on bad days and a filter for the creek itself. Remove them and the bill arrives later: thinner catches, more erosion, higher repair costs.
Nobody is asking the island to stop living. People need wood, land and space. The argument is narrower: protect the stretches that do the most work, replant what we take, and keep plastic out of the roots.
A monthly shoreline clean-up is a small thing. Repeated for ten years it is the reason there is still a creek worth sitting beside.