Coral transplant damage under various management conditions in the Mombasa Marine National Park, Kenya

Abstract

Two coral species, Porites palmata and Porites lutea, 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 by fish or breakage by fishing gear was measured over a 57-day period. Porites palmata, the branching species, was more susceptible to disturbance than Porites lutea, the massive species, which showed no difference in mortality rate between the three management Porites palmata was affected more by corallivory than fishing gear and, therefore, suffered more damage from coral predators in the no-fishing MPA. Corals transplanted into the gear- fishing site had the highest survival. The damage from predators was small and seldom resulted in total colony mortality, which was common in the fishing area with beach seining.