Menai Bay is located on the southwestern coast of Unguja island (Zanzibar Island), in the

Zanzibar Archipelago The Zanzibar Archipelago ( ar, أرخبيل زنجبار, sw, Funguvisiwa la Zanzibar) consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa south of the Somali sea. The archipelago is also known as the Spice Islands. There are four ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

Geography

It is an 8 km wide

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

on the

Zanzibar Strait The Zanzibar Channel is a strait in south-eastern Africa, separating the island of Unguja (also known as Zanzibar) from mainland Tanzania. The channel is 120 km long and 29–37 km wide, with depth varying from a few dozen metres (in the ...

of the Western

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

GoogleEarth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and GIS data onto a 3D globe, allowing users ...

The long coastline of Menai Bay has nineteen villages, with a total population of around 17,000. The villages are within the

Unguja South Region Unguja South Region, Zanzibar South Region or South Zanzibar Region (''Mkoa wa Unguja Kusini'' in Swahili) is one of the 31 regions of Tanzania. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the na ...

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

. The

Menai Bay Conservation Area The Menai Bay Conservation Area (MBCA) is located in Menai Bay, Zanzibar Tanzania. At , it is Zanzibar's largest marine protected area. It was officially established as a conservation area in August 1997 in the traditional fishing area, known as ...

is a

marine reserve A marine reserve is a type of marine protected area (MPA). An MPA is a section of the ocean where a government has placed limits on human activity. A marine reserve is a marine protected area in which removing or destroying natural or cultural ...

protecting the habitats and biota of the bay area.WWF: story on Menai Bay Conservation Area
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References

External links

Bays of Tanzania Bays of the Indian Ocean Bodies of water of Zanzibar Unguja South Region {{Zanzibar-geo-stub