Malindi Marine National Park.
Background Information
Malindi Marine Park and Reserve was the first marine protected area in Kenya, established in 1968 and designated as a Biosphere Reserve under the Man & Biosphere Reserve programme of UNESCO in 1979. The park has a total area of 6 km2 and lie between Lat. 3o and 4o South. It is located south of Malindi town extending to Mida creek. It neighbors Gede ruins and Arabuko Sokoke forest. The park is enveloped by a national reserve and a 100 ft strip of coastal land starting from Vasco-da-Gama pillar to Watamu. The reserve covers 213 km2 and extends three and a half nautical miles out to seaward.
Malindi Marine Park and Reserve was established for the following objectives:
1. Encourage public education, understanding, appreciation, recreation and enjoyment of marine natural resources
2. To conserve and maintain representative areas of the marine ecosystem
3. To promote research of marine ecosystem
4. To provide opportunities for generation of economic benefits
The Park and Reserve has features such as being easily accessible by road and air, hosting rich and relatively unaffected marine biodiversity, beautiful beach and warm water safe for swimming among other factors to achieve the objectives outlined above.
Malindi marine Park and Reserve is endowed with magnificent resources such as fringing reefs, coral gardens in the lagoons, sea grass beds, mangroves, mudflats, high fish diversity, marine mammals (e.g. dolphins), Turtles and Shorebirds. The main biotopes of Malindi Marine Park include fringing and patch reefs distributed on the seaward edge of barracuda channel. The structure of these reefs is influenced by the prevailing physical conditions, especially wind, and sediments from Sabaki River which runs north of Malindi. The fringing reef is close to shore, 150m or less in some areas, and exposed during low tide, but drops gradually to a sea grass bed that descends precipitously to a deep channel, barracuda channel. A small submerged patch reef with the top covered by algae and sides dominated by large heads of Goniastrea retiformis, occurs on the eastern edge of this channel. A large patch reef, north reef, has developed further offshore and this reef is the main focus of much of the tourism activity in the park.
North reef has a shallow (5m at high tide) lagoon with an extensive sea grass bed where green turtles are often encountered feeding in the lush Thalassia beds. In the center of the lagoon, scattered patches of hard coral dominated by branching and massive forms of Porites, Platygyra and Goniastrea are found. The lagoon edges are dominated by branching Porites, Acropora, encrusting Montipora and the colorful Galaxea clavus. Many coral reef fish, including large schools of sweetlips, surgeonfish and parrotfish can be observed here. Many species of butterflyfish and damsels have also been recorded foraging and maintaining algal lawns amongst the corals. The rare olive shell Ovula ovum is sometimes seen feeding on soft coral and other gastropods including tiger cowries, cone shells and helmet shells also occur here.
The leeward side of north reef has low coral cover and slopes down to a soft bottom at 8 to 10 m depth. Large coral heads of Goniastea retiformis and Porites lutea rise up from the bottom. The wind ward side of north reef slopes down to a sandy bottom at 18 to 20m depth. The reef has a high coral cover dominated by Galaxia, Montipora and Porites. Several species of large sea cucumbers including the commercial Holothuria nobilis and Thelonata ananas are scattered along the bottom where they feed on the substrate. Large schools of Barracuda and the occasional reef shark are also commonly encountered as well as large rays that feed on the bottom. The northern end of North reef is characterized by very large and old massive Porites heads up to 3 to 5m in height. Studies of cores taken from these corals have indicated an age of ~400 to 600 years and a climate record showing increasing sediment loads in the waters of these reefs.
Tewa reef is a smaller submerged patch reef found to the south east of North reef. Surrounded by a sea grass bed, the reef has a high coral cover and very high visibility due to its distance from shore. Large schools of predatory fish including Barracuda are common here. On the eastern side of North reef lies a shallow rubble reef, Leopard reef, in the Malindi Marine Reserve. Much of the artisanal fishery in the reserve in this area is concentrated on this reef.
The reefs of Malindi are seasonally inundated by silty waters from the Sabaki River. Maximum river discharges occurs during the long (April - July) and short (October - December) rainy seasons at the coast. The waters of Malindi bay are colored red at this time and depending on when the winds switch from the Northeast monsoon to the Southeast monsoons, the sediment plume may reach as far as Malindi Marine Park. This sometimes decreases visibility and the aesthetic quality of the reefs in park.
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