Programme storyHeshimu Bahari was awarded to ASUTA in three components: BES Northern (1st), then BES Southern (2nd), and finally Community Based Activities (3rd). This dispatch belongs to the BES Northern component.
01
What the imagery showed
Across the 2,156 grids, hard substrate covers roughly 31% of the surveyed area, with the strongest live coral signal concentrated in nine clusters along the Kinondoni-Kigamboni boundary. Sand and rubble dominate the rest — a baseline, not a verdict.
02
Pressure indicators
Visible gear impact (drag scars, abandoned nets) appears in about 12% of grids and is heavily clustered near three landing sites. This gives BMUs a concrete map to negotiate gear-use rules around.
03
Handover to BES Southern
The protocol, the codebook and the QA workflow now move south. The data layer from BES Northern is already feeding the design of the second award.
31% hard substrate, 9 priority patches, 3 hotspots of gear damage — a baseline you can act on.
Key takeaway
A complete benthic baseline now exists for the northern coast — and it points to where protection effort should land first.