Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve is a marine park and national reserve in

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. The park is 10 km (2,500 acres) while the reserve is 200 km (49,400 acres).World Database on Protected Areas – The Mombasa Marine National Reserve
/ref> It is located on the coast near tourist areas and is a popular beach because of the

snorkeling Snorkeling ( British and Commonwealth English spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a ...

and

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

; other activities include taking a boat ride,

recreational fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

, and viewing the other wildlife on land and underwater. It is the most frequently visited of Kenya's marine parks. It has

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

in its waters. The reserve also provide a home to a variety of marine species including crabs, starfish, stone fish, cucumbers sea urchins, corals, turtles, sea grasses and migratory birds including crab plovers. The Marine park is characterized by warm tropical conditions varying at the surface between 25 °C and 31 °C during the year, stable salinity regimes and moderate nutrient levels.

History

Through legislation in 1987, the area was officially recognized as a National Park to prevent damage to both the park and the communities surrounding the park due to over-fishing, coral reef stripping, and revenue lost resulting from less tourism. The park was also recognized as a marine park to protect the coral reefs and animals who were the target of fishing and trophy-hunting. While the legislation was supposed to protect wildlife and marine-life, fishing and poaching persisted. In 1992, night-time patrols were introduced to curb wildlife poaching and legislation was introduced to ban fishing; it wasn't until 1994 when both poaching and fishing ceased and the area was under full protection.

References

National parks of Kenya Marine parks of Kenya Mombasa Protected areas established in 1986 1986 establishments in Kenya East African coral coast {{CoastKE-geo-stub