Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve, Marine national park near Mombasa, Kenya.
Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve lies in the Indian Ocean off southern Kenya between Mtwapa Creek and Tudor Creek. The national park covers 10 km² within the reserve, which spans 200 km². A coral reef runs parallel to the coast along the entire protected area, with Acropora, Turbinaria and Porites corals and seagrass beds of Thalassia hemprichii and Halodule uninervis.
The protected area was established in 1986 to prevent coral reef damage from commercial fishing activities. This action represented a turning point in safeguarding marine ecosystems along the Kenyan coast.
The reserve allows controlled resource extraction, so local fishermen keep working inside it, while the park core bans all extraction including fishing. A 2007 study found species richness, average species size and biomass recovering across the protected area, and catches improving in adjacent waters through spillover.
The park lies within the reserve, between Mtwapa Creek and Tudor Creek off the southern Kenyan coast, so access is by boat from the shore near Mombasa's tourist beaches. Fishing is banned inside the park but controlled resource extraction is allowed in the reserve. Surface water stays between 25 °C and 31 °C year-round.
The reserve's waters shelter five sea turtle species: green, hawksbill, loggerhead, olive ridley and leatherback. The reef also holds corals of the genera Acropora, Turbinaria and Porites, and seagrasses such as Thalassia hemprichii and Halophila ovalis.
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