Abundance and Diversity of Coral Fish in Border Water of Unarang Reef, Nunukan, Kalimantan Utara Province

Abstract

Nunukan regency, North Kalimantan Province is one of the outermost regions adjacent to the neighboring country Malaysia, both land and water borders. Some of the district is still subject of a claim by Malaysia. One strategic area is Unarang Reef, a coral reef formations situated in the territorial border. The most important natural resources of the region were fisheries and coral reefs. The research objective was to determine the diversity of species of coral fish in the Coral Unarang. Besides, it was also to identify the environmental factors, especially, the coral reefs, turbidity, salinity, pH, flow etc. Sampling of coral fish was conducted using transect technique. The line transect was diterminated following the permanent sampling points that have been installed under water column permanently. The method used was Underwater Visual Census (UVC), where the fish found at a distance of 2.5 meters on the left and right along the transect lines 25 m were recorded both the species name of fish and amount. Data analysis were diversity and evenness indices. The observation shows that there are about 21 species of coral fish in the waters. The species diversity belong to small, particularly compared to fishes in Bunaken which reached 181 species. The most common species of fish were Pullers, Damselfish, Anemone fish and butterfly fish. Analysis of fish diversity index of H ' were between 1.5 to 1.8. The value were likely to be small. This indicated that the stability of the environmental conditions tend to be low, mainly due to the fishing pressure and environmental factors. Environmental factors affected were turbidity, pH, flow and quality of the reef. The quality of the fish should be managed through introducing fish apartment well as protection of the environments. This can be done through mangrove conservation and see weed culture. Coral will greatly support the preservation of the availability of fish catch for fishermen. The existence of fishermen on the territorial boundary can also be empowered to strengthen border patrol, so that the neighboring countries would be reluctant to claim territory