Fish and benthic communities within coral reef areas of Pulau Karah, Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the abundance of fish and benthos, inside and outside coral areas in Pulau Karah, Terengganu. The abundance of the organisms was also compared between pre monsoon (September - October) and post monsoon (April - May). Seven stations were selected where Station 1 and 2 were inside coral area while Station 3 to 7 was outside coral area. The most dominant type of coral at Station 1 (10m depth) was found to be branching Acropora (ACB) while encrusting form of non-Acropora (CE) was the most dominant at Station 2 (15m depth). Station 1 has higher percentage of live coral (59.24%) compared to Station 2 with only 30.26% of live coral. Station 1 can be classified as in 'fair' condition and 'poor' condition was suitable to classify 'health' status of coral at Station 2.