Sharks & Rays
Protecting Kenya’s Sharks & Rays
From landing sites to learning spaces, we work with coastal communities to protect the species that help keep our ocean in balance.
Overview
Why it matters
Sharks and rays play an essential role in healthy marine ecosystems. As predators and key species within the food web, they help regulate populations, support reef resilience, and contribute to the balance of benthic habitats that coastal communities depend on every day.
Ecological role
When shark and ray populations are healthy, reefs and seagrass systems are better able to function as living, connected habitats. Their presence is part of what keeps ocean systems dynamic, productive, and capable of supporting biodiversity along the Kenyan coast.
People and livelihoods
These species also matter to people. They hold value for tourism, local identity, and long-term livelihoods linked to a thriving coast. Protecting them is not separate from community wellbeing; it is part of building a future where ocean health and local opportunity grow together.
Threats we face
Overfishing, bycatch, and habitat degradation continue to put pressure on sharks and rays in Kenyan waters. Pwani Bora responds through a community-led approach that listens first, works with fishers and partners, and turns local knowledge into practical conservation action.
Community-led action
Our role is to support people on the ground with tools, learning, and partnerships that make protection possible. We believe people protect what they understand, and lasting conservation grows from trust, relevance, and shared responsibility.
Key activities
How we protect sharks and rays
Our work combines education, field-based monitoring, and policy engagement so that conservation stays practical, local, and rooted in the Kenyan coast.
Knowledge as power
We create education kits for children and adults, run workshops with fishers and schools, and develop materials tailored to the Kenyan context. The goal is simple: people protect what they understand.
Hands-on monitoring
We support community fisheries management and research, including landing-site engagement and monitoring methods such as BRUV surveys. Collaborative research and working with partners, helps turn observations into evidence.
Policy from the ground
We help connect field realities with policy conversations, making sure local experience, practical needs, and community voices shape the decisions that affect the coast.
How we work
Local ownership, lasting impact
Pwani Bora’s sharks and rays work is built around local ownership, partnerships, practical learning, and capacity building. We work alongside fishers, youth, schools, researchers, and coastal institutions so that knowledge stays useful and conservation stays grounded in place.
Local ownership
Community members are not bystanders in this work. They are knowledge holders, monitors, educators, and decision-makers whose leadership shapes what protection looks like in practice.
Strong partnerships
We collaborate with research and conservation partners where it strengthens outcomes, including shared learning around our work and other evidence-building efforts relevant to the coast.
Practical learning
We focus on tools and training that people can use immediately, from awareness materials to field methods and discussion spaces that connect science with everyday experience.
Capacity building
By investing in local skills, confidence, and long-term relationships, we help build a stronger foundation for marine stewardship in the Malindi-Watamu sea scape and beyond.
Help protect the coast we share
Support local leadership, practical conservation, and a healthier future for Kenya’s sharks, rays, reefs, and coastal communities.
You can also partner with us to support community-led marine conservation on the Kenyan coast.