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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

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

7. 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.

8. 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

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

10. Baited Remote Underwater Video Surveys
Mono-BRUVs
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

11. Test Station
BRUV
BRUV and UTR
UTR = Underwater
temperature recorder

12. 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