Bawe Reef

Bawe Reef lies approximately 6.2 kilometers west of Stone Town, surrounding Bawe Island on the sheltered side of Unguja. Its reef flat, crest, and slope support hard corals, soft corals, sponges, and diverse Indo-Pacific reef fishes, with dive profiles generally extending from shallow coral gardens into deeper sandy and reef-slope habitats. Bawe was historically noted for dense branching Acropora corals, but scientific monitoring documented substantial losses following crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and the severe 1998 coral-bleaching event. The site therefore represents both Zanzibar’s marine biodiversity and the pressures affecting reefs near its most densely populated coast, including warming, fishing activity, tourism, and declining water quality.

Fun Fact: Bawe has been included in Zanzibar’s coral-reef monitoring program since 1992, making it part of one of the region’s longest reef-health datasets.