Reef Fish Catalouge

The reef fish catalogue, by definition, is a easy way to visually represent what kind of fish biodiversity we can see in our transects inside Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area.
Somebody in a previous expedition started one but now with our marine biology back ground we think we can work on it again and provide improvements. But in fact this “work” is something that gives us a lot of pleasure. The methodology is simple, we just go to the water, in our transects, and take pictures with a Canon Power Shot D10, underwater camera. The aim is always to take a picture of the fish that shows the full body, usually the flank plane to be able to recognize easily through the reef fish species book. Normally this flank shots show us the main features of the fish including colouration, shape of the body, tail and fin shapes and markings or identifying features.

----- Treadfin Butterfly Fish------

This enthusiastic project involves the collaboration of all the island group, staff and volunteers. Each time we go to the water everybody wants to get more pictures from species that don’t exist yet on the catalogue, with the aim to extend and improve it all the times.

-----Titan Triggerfish--------

With the catalogue we will be able to identify which species of fish we have on each transect and do a comparison between species of the Marine Park and Marine Reserve. This data can be passed onto Kenya Wildlife Service with the potential to assess the effectiveness of current management strategies. We also plan to give out laminated copies to the tourist boats enabling them to identify species themselves and to educate the tourists about what interesting species are found here so they can identify the reef fish species when snorkeling.

--------Indian Redfin Butterfly Fish--------

The final aim for the project is to complete regular snorkel surveys with dive slates with species names and size estimations. The group to start this long term project is already here carrying the enthusiasm, skills and the will to keep developing it and see what will be the final product of this interesting and fun hard work on the reef fish catalogue of this underwater dream land.
More news about this subject will come in a close future,

REEF FISH RULE!!!

Fred & Julien

Reef Fish Catalouge