Research within KZN MPA’s Tamsyn Livingstone on behalf of Jennifer Olbers Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife

Research within KZN MPA’s Marine Animal Stranding Non-consumptive Resource Use Monitoring Rocky shores Monitoring Sandy Beach Monitoring Reef Monitoring Sea temperature Monitoring Baited Remote Underwater Video Surveys (BRUV)

Marine Animal Strandings Fully collaborative uShaka Sea World, KZN Sharks Board, EDTEA, DEA, CROW, NSRI, municipalities, NGO’s, local vets etc. Ezemvelo coordinates KZN Network. Annual report produced and animals reported on include seals, sea birds, turtles, dolphins, whales and whale sharks state of animal, weather, wounds/injuries, behaviour Releases also recorded

Non-consumptive Resource Use In Collaboration with EDTEA, ORI and DEA Report on use from launch site register (BLSMS) Comment on permits and exemptions SCUBA diving (NEW – currently being implemented)

Rocky Shore Monitoring In Collaboration with DEA Biodiversity surveys – top shore to low shore Resource use species extracted and evaluated Nine years of data Long term changes 1 x 0.5 m quadrat used All biodiversity is calculated incl resource use species 7 sites along the coast – not really comparable to each other as geology different

Sandy Beach Monitoring In Collaboration with DEA Past data – 3 sites in iSimangaliso only 2016 - baseline data for Operation Phakisa

Reef Monitoring In Collaboration with DEA Biodiversity surveys Long term changes Nine years of data Similar Biodiversity survey using same quadrats as for RS North concentrate on hard and soft corals, algae and macroalgae South concentrate on algae, sponges and inverts.

Saxon Reef over time Turf algae Macro-algae becoming more prominent Saxon should be coral dominated, with a higher soft coral cover than hard coral. Currently its algae dominated which is not a problem, because it will still have the ability to recover, but the dominating algae needs to be turf algae and not macroalgae. Macroalgae is becoming more prominent over time There is also a decline in both soft and hard coral cover over time which is a little concerning. Turf algae Macro-algae becoming more prominent

Sea Temperature Monitoring In Collaboration with DEA and DAFF (Seaweed Unit) Five sites 2002 onwards Lower lows and higher highs

Baited Remote Underwater Video Surveys Mono-BRUVs 10 -20 m depth 6 stations with 4 replicates at each 2014 & 2015, to be continued in 2017 Monitor change in diversity of fish species over time Monitoring change in diversity of fish species over time

Test Station BRUV BRUV and UTR UTR = Underwater temperature recorder

Baited Remote Underwater Video Results Saxon and Leadsman both sanctuary areas 2-Mile reef situated in restricted zone and allows only diving but showing decline in predator species which is of concern – possibly related to diver impacts I’m going to show a video of the highlights, there are very few. What we have seen so far from the video is that the ratio between diversity and predator abundance is a possibly a worry. The two reporting periods show some large differences in the number of species, but this may be a sampling bias as 2014/2015 was our first attempt and although the methodology has not changed we may have became more efficient at the way we deploy the equipment. The graph on the right, show that in the 2 sanctuary areas, there are still a fair amount of different predators but two-mile is showing that there are few. This was also seen in Camilla Floros’ work as she concluded that it was diver numbers and not fishing that was having this effect. Video