{"id":40092747,"date":"2022-12-15T14:11:02","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T14:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadialogueocean.net\/?p=92747"},"modified":"2024-07-04T14:03:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T13:03:58","slug":"the-community-restoring-kenyas-seagrass-meadows","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/the-community-restoring-kenyas-seagrass-meadows\/","title":{"rendered":"The community restoring Kenya\u2019s seagrass meadows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three women and a young diver set out on a motorboat from Wasini Island, south-east Kenya, to monitor the seagrass they have planted in a coral garden.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them, Samira Musa, a 43-year-old mother of three, recounts how years of dredging and other human activity, including tourism, has damaged the marine habitat along Wasini. A team from her local area, she explains, has worked hard to restore the island\u2019s seagrass beds and coral reefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing a coastal community and understanding what life underwater means, we had to step up and restore the seagrasses because of their benefit to us and also to everyone else who depends on the ocean,\u201d Musa says. \u201cThe seagrass is even more important because that\u2019s where the fish multiply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Samira Musa heads towards a motorboat to check a patch of seagrass she helped replant a month previously. Years of damaging fishing practices, dredging and tourism have severely degraded the coastal habitats around Wasini Island. (Image: Brian Otieno<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The team have had some notable success in restoring seagrass and helping to train other groups to do the same elsewhere in Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania. However, a fishing port under construction on the mainland nearby could undo much of their good work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restoring seagrass in Kenya<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As of 2018, Kenya\u2019s coastline was home to about 320 square kilometres of seagrass, according to a study<\/a> by researchers from Edinburgh Napier University. This relatively small area \u2013 for comparison, Australia has about 83,000 square kilometres<\/a> \u2013 has been shrinking at an accelerating rate. In 2000, it fell by 0.29% and in 2016 by 1.59%, driven largely by fishing pressure, climate change and pollution, the researchers found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A patch of seagrass on the shores of Wasini Island (Image: Brian Otieno<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Which seagrasses are found in Kenya?<\/span>
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Twelve of the world\u2019s 60 species of seagrass are found in Kenya, according to Charles Muthama of the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. The two most commonly found are Thalassodendron ciliatum<\/em> followed by Thalassia hemphrichii<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Samira Musa is a member of the Wasini Beach Management Unit, a Kenyan organisation pioneering seagrass restoration. Its former secretary, Omar Abdalla, gives several good reasons for restoring seagrass in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe seagrass protects us from strong waves and apart from being a breeding ground for fish, it is also food for marine life and an attraction to humans,\u201d Abdalla explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says the unit has so far restored 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of seagrass and is working on more. They have set no firm targets, however, partly because they are unsure of the impact the Shimoni port may have. This industrial fishing port<\/a> will be situated on the Kenyan mainland just across from Wasini. Construction began in March 2022 and is expected to take two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sanura Ali Kassim (right) with fellow members of the Wasini Beach Management Unit, Omar Abdalla (left) and Samira Musa (centre), prepare a sack that will be used to plant seagrass (Image: Brian Otieno<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Musa (right) and two other women stake out the sacking they have prepared. They then cut holes in the material and plant seagrass through them. The sacking helps hold the seagrass in place as it takes root. (Image: Brian Otieno<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Wasini Beach Management Unit nurture seedlings in underwater nurseries before transplanting them to the meadow zone using sisal sacks, which have often started life as food sacks. The sacks are staked to the seabed, and then the seagrass is planted in holes cut through the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sacks decompose, explains Abdalla, and the seagrass take root. He says growth rates vary between species, but they can reach maturity in anywhere from two weeks to a few months. Some grow up to one foot tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n