Mooring- and Marker Buoys in Mnemba, Kwale and Mafia Island

15.03.2017

During the last two months we were quite busy - mainly under water. 41 mooring buoys and respective supplies finally arrived after an almost one year lasting journey from Italy to Zanzibar and we were able to start fixing them.

In Mnemba - one of the paradise islands in the Indian Ocean - we have marked the marine protection area again. The original buoys had disappeared years ago, but haven't been replaced despite the income the Marine Park would have from the protected area's entrance fees. Additionally, we have anchored eight mooring buoys into the seafloor, in order to offer the daily arriving dive and snorkelling boats an alternative to drop their anchor into the corals and so damage them. At times there are over 30 boats anchoring in the small bay in the islands southwest! On Kwale Island - also known as 'Blue Island' - the rush is equally high. Here we installed three buoys. We will see whether additional buoys are needed.

The fixation of the buoys on Mnemba wouldn't have been possible without the great support of the dive organisation 'Scubafish Zanzibar' and from Yong Mi and her team. Many thanks to them as well as to 'Menay Bay Conservation', which provided us with a hydraulic drill.

We just came back from Mafia Island where we made a first step to protect the corals in the marine protection area of 'Chole Bay' from anchor damages. The increasing tourism asks its price. Unfortunately, the Mafia Island Marine Parks (MIMP) haven't shown any effort to install some buoys by themselves, although they are perfectly equipped with a hydraulic drill and a jack hammer, which are needed for a professional anchoring of the buoys in the seabed. To make sure that going forward they can install buoys by themselves better, we have trained Julius and Shante from MIMP. We hope that MIMP will invest and spend more time under water and patroling the outside reefs to protect Mafia‘s stunning underwater world.

A big thank for their valuable support goes to the team of MIMP, to Demi Mills from Frontier TZN and David von Helldorff from Mafia Island Diving Ltd. And a big, big thank goes of course to Rolf Voorhuis from coralreefcare.com who sponsors the whole project. Their commitment to the protection of the world's reefs is admirable! The buoys would probably still be in some containers in a port without the help of Hon. Hamad Raschid, Minister for Agriculture, Livestock, Natural Resources and Fisheries. Asante sana!

We plan to install additional buoys on Zanzibar and its neighbouring island Pemba in July or August 17.

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