Research on reef recovery

[ietermagog]

We have made a tiny reserve in front of our lodge in northern Mozambique, Africa whereby we have stopped all fishing in an area 350m along the beach by 150m out which reaches a depth of 35m. The locals would previously drag nets from the shore, destroying coral and taking everything, including hacking all molluscs off the rocks exposed on low tide. The aim is to treat this as a nursery area where the juveniles can safely develop and then move out to deeper, pelagic water where it is more economical and less destructive to fish. Have seen amazing recovery of fish life since inception almost one year ago. How would I go about documenting the increase in a 'scientific' or research manner?

 

[ae3753]

Great news!

Regarding collecting data, my recommendation is to visit http://www.reefcheck.org/.

I am currently in class for California events, and it's been very educational. The methods are repeatable and data is used by our agencies to make decisions affecting the ecosystem.