The document summarizes the work of photojournalist Cheryl-Samantha Owen who has been diving and documenting reefs along East Africa's Swahili Coast. Some of the most vulnerable and overfished reefs in Africa, scientists have made important discoveries about how to strengthen their resilience to climate change. The photographs show researchers measuring coral size in Kenya, a fisherman catching coral grouper, acropora coral spotted in Aldabra Atoll, and scientists monitoring whale sharks in the Gulf of Tadjoura to better conserve the species.

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Photojournalist Cheryl-Samantha Owen has been diving
and documenting the seas along East Africa’s Swahili
Coast. Some of the most vulnerable and overfished
reefs in Africa, they are also some of the most studied,
and scientists have made important discoveries about
how to strengthen their resilience to climate change –
and people.
TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL-SAMANTHA OWEN
SEAS OF
SYMBIOSIS
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PORTFOLIO
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BEETLECAM
ABOVE Researchers north of Mombasa, Kenya, measure the size of coral in a shallow lagoon at low tide.
Part of an IUCN coral reef resilience assessment, this innovative method helps scientists to understand and
quantify the most important factors affecting the health of reefs.
LEFT A fisherman in Kenya’s Indian Ocean leans from his traditional ngalawa catamaran to pull his prize
catch, a coral grouper, out of the water. Though his method is preferable to large-scale commercial fishing,
neither is sustainable along this stretch of reef, and many top predator reef fish are caught before they
reach reproductive maturity.
OPPOSITE As one of the first ecosystems to clearly show both climate change impacts and increasing
human population pressure, coral reefs are the ocean’s canary in the coal mine. Within the Aldabra Atoll’s
protected reef I spotted this acropora coral painted in glassy sweepers.
PREVIOUS SPREAD Deep within the Gulf of Tadjoura, in the Horn of Africa, scientists are monitoring and
tagging whale sharks in an effort to better conserve and manage these migratory species. Like the shark
species in all our oceans, they are threatened by overfishing, while their extremely large fins make them
highly sought after in the Chinese shark-fin soup market. ᮣ
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4. SWAHILI SEAS
ABOVE A Kenyan fisherman walks across an exposed reef armed with little more than a home-made speargun
and buoy. I photographed him shooting butterflyfish smaller than the palm of my hand. Asked what good these
tiny morsels would do for him, he answered, ‘I will feed them to my five brothers.’
ABOVE Finning through an unprotected lagoon on Kenya’s south coast, I came across this vivid starfish on a
bed of seagrass. Though there is hardly a fish in sight (due to overfishing), the population of starfish thrives here
thanks to the initiative taken by a single local fisherman to protect them. Starfish in East Africa’s seas are col-
lected, dried and sold as curios to tourists, but this man has realised that they are worth more alive than dead.
PREVIOUS SPREAD Fins slice through the Aldabra Atoll’s tranquil waters as blacktip reef sharks converge in the
shallows and stir the sandy bottom into a cauldron of bubbling energy. Such a healthy population of top predators
is thought by many scientists to be an indicator of a healthy coral reef ecosystem.
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