Malindi Marine National Park
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Malindi Marine National Park
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| location |
Kilifi County , Kenya
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| surface |
6 km² |
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| WDPA ID | 765 | |
| Geographical location | 3 ° 15 ′ S , 40 ° 9 ′ E | |
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| Setup date | 1968 | |
| administration | Kenya Wildlife Service | |
The Malindi Marine National Park is a national park on the coast of Kenya in the south of Malindi . It was established by the Kenyan government in 1968, making it one of the oldest marine national parks in Africa. It was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1979 and expanded to the Malindi-Watamu-Arabuko-Sokoke Biosphere Reserve in 2019 .
geography
Together with the Watamu Marine National Park, the park is part of a nature reserve with a total size of 213 square kilometers, which stretches over an approximately 30 meter wide stretch of coast from the Vasco da Gama column in Malindi to Watamu . It runs from Leopard Point in the south to northern Chaoni Point and closes an area up to about 3.5 nautical miles into the sea to Sand Island in the south, along the approximately one kilometer long and between ten and twenty meters deep Stork Passage to the north reef a.
A few hundred meters from the shore, the reef runs almost parallel to the beach. The Barracuda Channel flows between the coast and the North Reef and the Barracuda Reef. The surf there is slowed down by the Barracuda reef, which has a gentle effect on the coastal area. Along the national park there is a wide sandy beach, the sand of which is largely made up of corals. The reefs partially protrude from the water at low tide .
Flora and fauna
The vegetation along the coast is characterized by coconut palms , casuarina trees and mangroves as well as a few screw trees . There are also occasional kapok and Kaschubäume and numerous, especially grown mango trees .
The Malindi Marine National Park is home to over 300 species of fish, including surgeonfish , giant dark grouper ( Epinephelus lanceolatus ) and barracudas . The mudflats and the fringing reefs are home to lobsters , crabs , mussels , octopuses , starfish and around 140 types of coral such as the organ coral . In addition, live dolphins and various species of turtles such as the loggerhead turtle , the green turtle , the hawksbill turtle and the olive ridley sea turtle in the reserve.
There is a mangrove ecosystem on the coast . The area is also home to numerous bird species, such as curlews , snipe birds , pygmy sandpipers , sanderlings , whimbrels and green thighs .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malindi Marine Park - Kenya Scuba Diving africanmeccasafaris.com
- ↑ Horst Hagen: Kenia and his national parks , 1983, Kilda-Verlag, ISBN 3-921427-49-5 , page 192 ff
- ↑ Malindi-Watamu Marine National Park magicalkenya.com