The Agoo–Damortis Protected Landscape and Seascape is located on the eastern side of

Lingayen Gulf Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central (Luzon), Cordillera Central. The Agno ...

in southern

La Union La Union (), officially the Province of La Union (; ; ; ; ; ), is a coastal province in the Philippines situated in the Ilocos Region on the island of Luzon. The province's capital, the San Fernando, La Union, City of San Fernando, is the most ...

, Philippines. It was established in 2000 to protect of coastal area, including

mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withs ...

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

beds and stretches of fine black sand beaches. It was first gazetted as a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

in 1965 and was known as the ''Agoo–Damortis National Seashore Park''. It covers approximately of the coastline of Lingayen Gulf shared between the municipalities of

Agoo Agoo (), officially the Municipality of Agoo (; ; ), is a coastal municipality in the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 66,028 people. Etymology The name "Agoo" is believed to have originate ...

, Santo Tomas and

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

Description

Picnic grounds at the Agoo-Damortis Protected Landscape and Seascape

The Agoo–Damortis park is located in 25 coastal

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

s in southern La Union from Santa Rita in Agoo to the border with the province of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

. It is fed by three rivers, namely the Agoo, Bani and Cupang Rivers. The park includes the Santo Tomas Cove (also known as Damortis Cove) in Santo Tomas formed by a

sand spit A spit (cognate with the word for a rotisserie bar) or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drif ...

and bank on the western side which extends for southwards in the

sitio A ''sitio'' ( Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own barangay if its popu ...

of Sungyot. The cove is the location of large tracts of fishponds, as well as the Santo Tomas Anchorage and Fish Port. On the park's northern portion in Santa Rita is the Agoo Eco-Tourism World of Fun, an eco-tourism park developed by the local government, which contains a lagoon for fishing, kayaking and other water sport activities, and bicycle lanes along the park's seawall. The park is just south of the provincial capital of

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

and north of

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Flora and fauna

Mangroves dominate the foreshore area which provide spawning and nursery grounds for fishes and crustaceans, and habitat for both local and migratory birds. Mangrove species in the area include: '' Avicennia spp.''; '' Nipa fruticans''; ''

Pemphis acidula ''Pemphis acidula'', commonly known as bantigue (pron. ) or mentigi, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lythraceae. It is the only species in the genus '' Pemphis''. It is found growing in sandy and calcareous soils in littoral zones, ...

''; ''

Rhizophora apiculata The tall-stilt mangrove (''Rhizophora apiculata'') belongs to the Plantae kingdom under the Rhizophoraceae family. ''R. apiculata'' is distributed throughout Southeast Asia and the List of islands in the Pacific Ocean, western Pacific islands. ...

''; and ''

Rhizophora mucronata ''Rhizophora mucronata'' (loop-root mangrove, red mangrove or Asiatic mangrove) is a species of mangrove found on coasts and river banks in East Africa and the Indo-Pacific region. Description ''Rhizophora mucronata'' is a small to medium si ...

''. The

slipmouth Leiognathidae, the ponyfishes, slipmouths or slimys / slimies, are a small family of fishes in the order Perciformes. They inhabit marine and brackish waters in the Indian and West Pacific Oceans. They can be used in the preparation of '' bag ...

goatfish The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mul ...

bream Bream (, ) are species of freshwater fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Ballerus'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', '' Lepomis'', '' Gymnocranius'', ...

, snapper,

grouper Groupers are a diverse group of marine ray-finned fish in the family Epinephelidae, in the order Perciformes. Groupers were long considered a subfamily of the seabasses in Serranidae, but are now treated as distinct. Not all members of this f ...

tigerperch Grunters or tigerperches are ray-finned fishes in the family Terapontidae (also spelled Teraponidae, Theraponidae or Therapontidae). This family is part of the superfamily Percoidea of the order Perciformes. Characteristics The Terapontidae ...

and

rabbitfish Rabbitfishes or spinefoots, genus ''Siganus'', are perciform fishes in the family (biology), family Siganidae. It is the only Extant taxon, extant genus in its family and has 29 species. In some now obsolete classifications, the species having ...

are some species of fish in the area. Vast expanse of seagrass is also found in the area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agoo-Damortis Protected Landscape and Seascape Protected landscapes and seascapes of the Philippines Geography of La Union Tourist attractions in La Union Protected areas established in 1965 1965 establishments in the Philippines