Ecosystem modelling to support fisheries management efforts in the Nyali-Mombasa area, coastal Kenya

Abstract

This volume investigates the consequences from the effective ban of different fishing gears at Nyali-Mombasa, a site on the Kenyan coast. Using ecosystem modelling, it explores different scenarios for evaluating high-level impacts of various intervention or management decisions, as well as the resulting socio-economic consequences on relevant communities. The work has mapped various aspects of the Nyali-Mombasa ecosystem through the creation of a food web model, reproducing and quantifying main energy flows, and holistically investigating dominant food-web dynamics, and the role of fisheries on the system. With the exception of a simple Maputo Bay model (Silva et al. 1993), this research is the first to develop an Ecopath model for a coastal area in East Africa.