Sustaining Coral Reef Ecosystems and their Fisheries in the Kiunga Marine National Reserve, Lamu, Kenya

Abstract

Coral reefs in the Kiunga Marine National Reserve (KMNR) (40o 07’ E, 2o 00’ S) are located in a transition ecotone between the warmer East African coral reef bioregion to the south, and colder waters of the Somali Current to the north. The reefs have been monitored annually from 1998 to the present, documenting a range of ecosystem changes from large and small scale threats. Reefs in the area suffered ˜60% loss of coral cover due to mass bleaching in the 1998 El Niño event, and 25-40% loss of coral species at individual site levels. Recovery of coral community structure has been variable, with some reefs showing strong recovery, while others have declined further. A harmful algal bloom and coral disease in early 2002 further impacted these reefs, causing mass mortalities of fish and coral, and failure of coral recruitment in that year. Fishing impacts to the reserve are high, with a strong south-north decline in fish density due to easier access to the migrant and large fishing communities to the south of the reserve. Responsibility for management of the KMNR falls under multiple institutions, including the Kenya Wildlife Service, Fisheries and Forestry Departments, and the local council. Overlapping mandates, unclear relationships, limited information and understanding, and lack of resources have hampered effective management. The monitoring programme reported here is one aspect of new collaborative appro aches to coral reef and fisheries management, and has focused on improving the information and understanding of the biological and resource systems of the area. The ecosystem trends induced by larger scale threats and the south-north fish resource gradient caused by local use patterns will be analyzed in an attempt to develop sustainable management practices for the reserve.