Comparison or damage caused by beach seining vs. corallivory on coral transplants in Mombasa, Kenya.

Abstract

Two coral species were transplanted into three distinct management areas adjacent to the Mombasa Marine National Park, Kenya: a no fishing MPA a gear restricted reserve with no beach seining, and a reserve with beach seining. Corallivory from fish or breakage from beach seining were measured by percentage mortality of transplants. The branching species, Porites cylindrica was more susceptible to disturbances than the massive species Porites lutea which showed no difference in mortality rate between the three sites. Branching Porites were more affected by corallivory than by beach seining or by restrictive gear fishing. Corals transplanted into the gear restricted fishing site had the highest survival, although in the past, this site has shown signs of overfishing and phase shifts towards a sea urchin dominant community. Branching coral transplants suffered the most damage inside the no fishing MPA, however, in the long term corals may suffer more in the two other areas through direct impact by beach seining and indirect impacts from overfishing. Extended experiments of longer duration should be conducted to differentiate between long and shon term effects and the rates of recovery for each management strategy.