Coral reefs.

Coral is a jellyfish like organisms in order Scleractinia. It produce limestone calcium carbonate skeleton and symbiosis with zooxanthellae. Coral use its tentacles with stinging cells to catch zooplankton. Coral reef are the most diverse and beautiful of all marine habitats. Large wave resistant structures have accumulated from the slow growth of corals. The development of these structures is aided by algae that are symbiotic with reef-building corals, known as zooxanthellae. Coralline algae, sponges, and other organisms, combined with a number of cementation processes also contribute to reef growth. 


Coral reefs are a precious resource in the ocean because of their beauty and biodiversity. Coral reefs provide shelter for a wide variety of marine life, they provide humans with recreation, they are a valuable source of organisms for potential medicines, they create sand for beaches, and serve as a buffer for shorelines. Coral reefs are built by millions of coral polyps, small colonial animals resembling overturned jellyfish that use excess carbon dioxide in the water from the atmosphere and turn it into limestone. However, coral reef today seems to be declining due to the human impacts such as pollution and development. So, here the result of coral cover survey in Pulau Kapas. 


Point intercept transects (PIT) measure the points of interest at specific interval either below the line or below and adjacent to the transect tape (Wilkinson, 2000). The objective of this coral survey is to describe the coral reef macrobenthic communities (benthic life form) and to study the health status of coral reef in Pulau Kapas.

Figure 1 show the pie chart of percentage of coral cover (%) in Pulau Kapas

Index scale form (Idris et al., 2006)

Quality	Index scale
Very poor	<-0.602
Poor	-0.602 to -0.176
Fair	-0.176 to 0.176
Good	0.176 to 0.602
Very good	>0.602

a) Condition index

                CI = Log₁₀ [CR/ (DC+AL+OT)]

Where,

                CR = Percentage area cover of live coral category

                DC = Percentage area cover of dead category

                AL = Percentage area cover of algae category

                OT = Percentage area cover of other fauna category

    CI = Log₁₀ [16/ (40+16+4)]

                     = - 0.574

Based on the index scale form (Idris et al., 2006) the condition index is very poor.

b) Development index (DI)

                DI = Log₁₀ [(CR +DC+AL+OT)/ AB]

Where,

                CR = Percentage area cover of live coral category

                DC = Percentage area cover of dead category

                AL = Percentage area cover of algae category

                OT = Percentage area cover of other fauna category

                AB = Percentage area cover of abiotic category

                DI = Log₁₀ [(16 +40+16+4)/ 26]

                     = 0.4658

 Based on the index scale form (Idris et al., 2006) the condition index is poor.

c)  Succession index (CI)

                SI = Log₁₀ [OT/ (DC+AL)]

Where,

    DC = Percentage area cover of dead category

                AL = Percentage area cover of algae category

                OT = Percentage area cover of other fauna category

                SI = Log₁₀ [4/ (40+16)]

                     = -1.1461

Based on the index scale form (Idris et al., 2006) the condition index is very poor.

The coral condition in Pulau Kapas in categorized under very poor. The highest percentage of coral cover in Pulau Kapas is 56%. This might be due the increasing number of tourists in Pulau Kapas. This development (tourism centre) and associated diving activities are threatening valuable coral reef ecosystems (Jameson 1998; Jameson et al., 1995). Besides, as stated by (Wilkinson 2000), over the last two decades, coral reef communities have been experiencing increasingly stressfull conditions due to a combination of natural and anthropogenic detrimental factors. Dead coral algae (DCA) is dominant might be caused from the tourist that come to this islands for holiday. Not only that, the increasing number of new and inexperienced divers and snorkelers has also been identified as one of the threats causing physical damage to the coral reefs (Status of Coral Reef, 2010). The Terengganu state government recently banned the use of fins for snorkelling in the state to prevent snorkelers from inadvertently treading on the corals and damaging them (Coral Reef Monitoring Report, 2008).