The Habitats and Biodiversity of Watamu Marine National Park: Evaluating Our Knowledge of One of East Africa’s Oldest Marine Protected Areas

Abstract

Watamu Marine National Park (WMNP) is one of the oldest no-take Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the world. Since its establishment in 1968, it has been the subject of a number of scientific studies as well as being exposed to range of modern anthropogenic threats to coastal marine habitats. The current state and conservation value of WMNP is documented in terms of habitat, biodiversity, and available scientific literature. Most of the 101 published references relating to WMNP focus on coral reef ecology, with less attention to biodiversity, socio-economics, or the ecology of non-coral reef habitats. The habitat map produced of WMNP is the first to show this level of detail and the only habitat map of a Kenyan MPA. Nine habitat categories were mapped, revealing that the most dominant habitat type by area is seagrass and the least is coral reef. Species lists were collected for fish, echinoderms, molluscs, crustaceans, corals, and seagrass, and species abundances were used to estimate total species richness, species diversity and sampling completeness. There were 18 species across all groups that fall into a category of conservation concern (other than Least Concern or Not Evaluated) on the IUCN Red List and 8 species found which are currently undescribed. This detailed case-study of marine biodiversity conservation in a less economically developed tropical nation emphasises the importance of non-coral habitats in the WMNP, such as seagrass beds, and the need for more research into the ecology and conservation importance of these habitats.