The effect of visitor use on the hard coral communities of the Kisite Marine Park, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated the damage and community structure of corals occupying the back-reef slopes of the coral reefs in the Kisite Marine National Park, Kenya to determine the effects of visitor recreational activities on these communities. The main tourist activities include SCUBA diving, snorkeling and viewing the reef from glass bottom boats. Four sites were studied -consisting of two in areas that tourists frequent and two in adjacent less frequented areas. A total of 94, 10 m line transects were laid out at different depths to determine the major substrate types and levels of coral damage. There were no significant differences in the overall live coral cover or bare rock and rubble within or between experimental and control sites. Coral species composition and diversity did not differ between sites and years although the percent cover of the dominant species was variable. There was, however, significantly more damage to coral in the experimental sites as evidenced by a higher incidence of broken, abraded, and broken and reattached coral in the experimental sites. In contrast, injury to live coral caused by fish bites was higher at control sites indicating the potential disruption of fish feeding activity at the experimental sites. Damage was greater in shallow than deep water which may indicate that snorkeling activities caused more damage than SCUBA diving but may also be due to the larger more robust corals in deeper water.