Inventory of Marine Fauna on Reef Balls Structures of Selingan Island, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia

Selingan Island is well known as a turtle sanctuary in Sandakan, Sabah. However,beach erosion has affected both infrastructure and turtle nesting grounds on theisland. As one of the solutions, stone revetment and reef ball structures weredeployed at the southeast part of the island in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Theuneven stony surface of reef ball structures creates tiny pockets of space forattachment and colonization of coral larvae and sessile invertebrates. The objectivesof this study are to determine the condition of the reef ball structures and to identifythe types of marine fauna within these structures. The field surveys were carried outin May and December 2017. The survey area covered the 120 m length of ballsstructures for inventory of marine fauna using random quadrat sampling andobservation of the reef balls condition. The survey areas were divided into Part 1 (1-40 m), Part II (40-80 m) and Part III (80-120 m) from the shoreline of the island.There was only one reef ball unit damaged and others were intact with encrustingmarine invertebrates and other associated marine life. The structures of the reefballs play an important role as an artificial marine habitat. A total of 3,583 individual (298 inv/m-2) of invertebrates (barnacles, bivalves, limpets and gastropods) wereidentified and 26 marine fauna species comprising of fishes, algae and coralsassociated with the reef balls structures. The marine fauna was expected to behigher if the survey could be done at the different tidal cycles, weather conditionsand increase number of the survey. The findings provide insight of marine fauna atthe reef balls structure in Selingan Island and enhance baseline data for marineresources management in the marine protected area of Turtle Island Parks.