Fish Surveys

Fish Surveys

  • Task fish survey techniques

On Pemba, fish are an important source of protein for local communities, but this is a resource that is declining rapidly through overfishing and illegal fishing practices.

 
On Pemba, fish are an important source of protein for local communities, but this is a resource that is declining rapidly through overfishing and illegal fishing practices. Fish also play an important role for tourism in Pemba. By establishing Marine Protected Areas, these fish are protected, and their numbers can increase, however we need to know how successful our protected areas are in contributing to local fish populations.

We do this through fish survey techniques. Fish come in a bewildering variety of shapes and sizes. So, we focus our surveys on key indicator species – those fish or families of fish that play key ecological roles on coral reefs, as well as vulnerable species such as those fish susceptible to fishing. The techniques we use include visual census along a transect line using SCUBA, general fish counts while diving and linking these surveys to our Citizen Science programme.

You can help us kick start our fish surveys by donating to our conservation team at the Kwanini Foundation. We will use these donations to purchase monitoring equipment to assist our divers in collecting data. For more information, you can also refer to our our Citizen Science page and to learn how to get involved in three simple steps.