Our research on the biological and ecological aspects of reef fishes is designed to understand the most effective ways of managing them in the context of species vulnerability, government and community based approaches to management, existing fishing methods and community dependence and climate change. more information can be downloaded from here.


This research programme, which spanned Kenya, Seychelles and Zanzibar, was initiated because it was inevitable that aggregative spawners are subject to increasing fishing pressure in the region while very little was known regarding their stock status and the health of their spawning aggregations. The overall goal of the research was to address critical information gaps and develop robust scientific approaches for the management and conservation of commercially important species that aggregate to spawn in the WIO. The research results are detailed in a book published in 2013 WIOMSA-CORDIO spawning book full. The research demonstrated the feasibility of using basic information from spawning aggregation-based fisheries to systematically evaluate management needs in data-poor contexts. This was achieved through a conceptual approach that involved estimation of key aggregation and fishery parameters and the application of those parameters in a vulnerability assessment and a no-take reserve (NTR) model for spawning aggregations. Conservation initiatives would benefit from explicitly incorporating assessment and management of spawning aggregation-based fisheries. Moreover, conservation initiatives would benefit from avoiding the over-generalisation, lack of quantitative evaluation and ethical and validity issues that have sometimes emerged in other regions. Clearly, the conservation imperative is influenced by the fact that most research to date has focused on the more vulnerable aggregative spawners such as groupers. However, recognition that some aggregative spawners are relatively resilient to fishing is needed and the socio-economic aspects of the system must be understood (Robinson et al 2011). Upon verification of an aggregation-based fishery and when status information is lacking, it is necessary to consider taxa-specific vulnerability to fishing and the potential costs and benefits of both conservation and fisheries management approaches. The data-poor tools used in the studies described here can provide rapid information in such contexts. In Kenya this research has led to a community closure for one of the rabbitfish spawning aggregations. (link to Protecting spawning aggregation story in LMMAs in Kenya folder).
