MALINDI MARINE NATIONAL PARK
The Malindi Marine National Reserve encloses Watamu and Malindi Marine National Parks. The area also includes several coral islets, notably Whale island at the entrance to Mida Creek in the Watamu Marine National Park. The reserve is 213 km2 forming a complex of marine and tidal habitats on Kenyas North Coast. It extends 5 km into the sea and stretches 30 km along the coast from Malindi town to beyond the entrance to Mida creek. Habitats include intertidal rock, sand and mud; fringing reefs and coral gardens; beds of sea grass; coral cliffs, platforms and islets; sandy beaches and mangrove forests. Mida creek is a large, almost land locked expanse of saline water, mangrove forest and intertidal mud protected in the Watamu Marine Reserve. Its extensive forests are gazetted as forest reserves and the extreme western tip of Mida Creek is part of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve.
Malindi Marine Parks’ unique historical features include Vasco da Gama pillar build slightly over 500 years ago.
Roads: 118 kms from Mombasa ( Malindi Town)
Airstrips: Via Malindi Airport.
Facilities: KWS Bandas.
Activities: Snorkelling, diving.
Reptiles/fish: It is a key spawning ground for many fish species. Turtles, Parrot fish, Several species of coral fish
Insects/arthropods: Butterfly, Mosquito
Vegetation: Mida Creek has important mangrove forests with a high diversity of species including ceriops tagal, rhizophora mucronata, bruguiera gymnorrhiza, avicennia marina and sonneratia alba.
Coral reefs are among the richest, diverse and biologically productive ecosystems, with more organisms per square meter than any other type of ecosystem in the world. A total of 140 species of hard and soft corals have been recorded along the Kenya coast. These corals live in symbiosis with chlorophyll generating animals, which give corals their spectacular colours.
WATAMU MARINE NATIONAL PARK
Watamu National Park is part of a complex of marine and tidal habitats on Kenyas North coast stretching from Malindi town to beyond the entrance to Mida creek. It is enclosed by the Malindi Marine National Reserve which also encloses Malindi Marine National Park. Habitats include intertidal rock, sand and mud; fringing reefs and coral gardens; beds of sea grass; coral cliffs, platforms and islets; sandy beaches and Mida Creek mangrove forest. The park was designated as a Biosphere reserve in 1979.
Mida creek is a large, almost land locked expanse of saline water, mangrove and intertidal mud. Its extensive forests are gazetted as forest reserves and the extreme western tip of Mida Creek is part of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve.
Roads: Access is via tarmac road from Mombasa or Malindi.
Airstrips: Mombasa or Malindi Airports.
