Biophysical Survey of Mafia Island Marine Reserves

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area, the most extensive continuous reef site identified at NIMR. The north-west tip of the reef consists of extensive Thalassodendron cilatum seagrass beds but changes into a soft coral dominated reef approximately 300m along the reef edge to the east. The rocky reef section extends down to a depth of 10m. Sand substrates are found at the bottom of the reef edge, which then very gradually slopes downwards reaching a maximum depth of about 20m. The site is frequently subject to strong currents and high turbidity. In places, the shallow crest and reef flat areas support branching Acropora communities, however, at other locations, such as site 3, the shallow areas are dominated by macroalgae and seagrass. This section of reef is formed of coral rock overlaid by loose sand and rubble substrates. It supports a diverse and extensive soft coral community (27.78% +/- SE 4.67), as well as sponge (7.33% +/-SE 1.04) and scleractinian coral species (7.17% +/- SE 2.22) (Figure 6). The scleractinian coral consists primarily of massive growth forms (6.17% +/- SE 2.30) with low levels of encrusting and branching forms (Figure 7). Average percent cover (+/- SE) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 All hard coral Dead Coral Bleached Coral Soft Coral Sponge Other Benthic Organisms Seagrass Macroalgae Turf algae on rubble Turf algae on coral rock Crustose Coralline Algae Nutrient Indicator Algae Rock Figure 6. Average percent cover (+/- SE) by benthic type across all transects completed at site 3, NIMR. Rubble Sand Silt Other
Average percent cover (+/- SE) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Massive Branching Columnar Submassive Foliaceous Encrusting Solitary Tabular Figure 7. Average percent cover (+/- SE) of scleractinian coral by growth morphology across all transects completed at site 3, NIMR. b) Invertebrate Abundance Observations of catch levels for octopi and various gastropods appears to be very high, which suggests abundant populations around Nyororo. However, this was not borne out by the transect data collected. Collection of further data sets at other sites might reveal which areas support higher population levels, and therefore are of greatest importance to fishers. The majority of invertebrates observed at both site 2 and 3 were urchins or starfish. Site 3 had much higher abundances than site 2 for Other Urchins (Table 3) (Site 2: 8.67 +/- SE 8.37; Site 3: 42.25 +/- SE 14.90) and NT Starfish (Table 3) (Site 2: 2.94 +/- SE 0.67, Figure 8; Site 3: 37.17 +/- SE 5.06, Figure 9), although both sites exhibited high variability in abundances. Nudibranch species were also common at both sites, with similar abundance levels recorded.
Page 1: Frontier Tanzania Environmental Res
Page 4 and 5: Suggested Technical Report citation
Page 6 and 7: Executive Summary Major Findings
Page 8 and 9: price it fetches may be contributin
Page 10 and 11: IV. RESULTS A. Nyororo Island Marin
Page 12 and 13: I. INTRODUCTION Project Aim To cond
Page 14 and 15: The reserves were established under
Page 16 and 17: III. METHODS A. Field Methods 1. Re
Page 18 and 19: Ground Proofing Methodology (Low Re
Page 20 and 21: Invertebrate Abundance Invertebrate
Page 22 and 23: Commercially Targeted Fish The meth
Page 24 and 25: Indian Ocean Bird wrasse Gomphosus
Page 26 and 27: Several areas of coral reef habitat
Page 30 and 31: Average abundance (+/- SE) 30 25 20
Page 32 and 33: Average abundance (+/- SE) 3 2.5 2
Page 34 and 35: stop off or shelter. Boats from the
Page 36 and 37: 2. Coral Reef Habitat a) Benthic Co
Page 42 and 43: 68% 5% 18% 2% 0% 1% 0% 6% 0% 0% Tha
Page 44 and 45: on Mbarakuni. At times of good weat
Page 46 and 47: edge is visible at around 10m deep.
Page 50 and 51: 97% 0% Figure 28. Average percentag
Page 52 and 53: c) Invertebrate abundance Invertebr
Page 54 and 55: lobster fishing. A foreign financed
Page 56 and 57: (Chaetodon trifascialus) are closel
Page 58 and 59: transects. Commercial fish species
Page 60 and 61: damage at present, but if further u
Page 62 and 63: VI. Appendices Appendix 1. Fish spe
Page 64 and 65: Whitespotted Epinephelus Grouper ca

Biophysical Survey of Mafia Island Marine Reserves

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