Ecological Monitoring of Selayar

Selayar Regency is one of the new COREMAP locations, which administratively belongs to the Province of South Sulawesi, and is composed of several island groups. With this kind of condition the Local Government decided on having the “Maritime Regency” as the vision of the regency, with tourism and fisheries as the most important sectors to be developed. However, the inhabitants are still agrarian oriented. Therefore hard work has to be done to change their daily habits from working their lands into working the marine environment as a new working ground.

The enormous marine natural resources, if incorrectly managed, will only give temporary benefits. Uncontrolled exploration of the marine resources will only have negative effect to Selayar Regency waters.

The coral reef ecological baseline study was carried out in 2006. The research in 2007 is an activity to monitor coral reef health at the permanent transects location that was chosen during baseline study. It is hoped that the collected data could be used by stakeholders in the management and preservation of coral reef ecosystem and that the monitored data be used as comparison notes to evaluate CORE-MAP success.

The study is conducted at COREMAP Phase II working site in the Selayar Regency, i.e. along the western coast of Selayar Island (from the northern tip until southern part) and Pasimasunggu Island (Tanahjampea Sub-district). The study is carried out in November 2007 involving Jakarta CRITC (Coral Reef Information and Training Centre) staff, assisted by Makassar and Selayar Regen-cy CRITC staff. The purpose of study is to observe the coral reef condition at permanent transect locations, such as the coral cover, abundance of mega-benthos, as well as the coral fish.

Results:

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A number of 85 species of stony corals belonging to 13 genera are identified.
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No siginicant difference is observed between live coral cover (LC) of 2006 (LC=33.48%) and LC of 2007 (LC=33.91%).
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A change in percentage cover is only observed for the categories dead corals (DC) and other biota (OT).
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Statistically the change of CMR (mushroom coral and Fungia spp.) from 948 individuals/ha (2006) to 836 individuals/ha (2007) is insignificant.
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During 2007 a number of 107 individuals/ha “small giant clams” emerged, that was absent in 2006.
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UVC result identified 273 coral fish species belonging to 33 genera, with an abundance of 22,020 individuals/ ha.
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Although a decreas in coral fish abundance occurred in 2007, but the decrease is insignificant.
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The most abundant economic important fish is Pterocaesio tile (Caesionidae), with an abundance of 931 individuals/ha.
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Most abundant among the major fish group is Archamia zosterophora (Apogonidae), with an abundance of 1,429 individuals/ha, while the most abundant indicator fish is Chromis tematensis (Apogonidae) with an abundance of 957 individuals/ha.
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The ratio between major fish, target fish, and indicator fish is 8: 3: 1.

Conclusion:

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Based on statistical analysis the coral cover does not differ significantly between 2006 (LC=33.48%) and 2007 (LC=33.91%).
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Among the mega-benthos, the “small giant clam” does differ significantly.
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Although abundance of coral fish decreased in 2007, but the decrease is insignificant.