Coastal Area 13201 Adjacent waters of Karekinada, Kushimoto

Basic Information References

Reason(s) for selection Criteria

Characteristics References

These are the waters on the Kumanonada coast from Katsuura on the southern Kii Peninsula to the mouth of the Hiki River, centered on Cape Shiono. The coast from Karekinada through Cape Shiono to Kushimoto Oshima are waters where reef-building coral can be seen, and their species of temperate coral are one prominent feature. Kushimoto Sabiura and the west coast of Cape Shiono provide a living environment for numerous coral-reef animals and benthic organisms, with high levels of diversity of species and cover, and these include many species for which this area is the northern limit of their distribution. This is the only place in the world where there is known to be a dense concentration of elegance coral (Ministry of the Environment, 2001). Particularly important waters in this area are those in front of Zobana on the north coast of Kii Oshima Island (habitat for highly diverse reef-building coral, mainly Echinophyllia aspera, and also good habitat for seaweed and soft coral), Omimi beach on Kii Oshima (home to the easternmost community of Acropora hyacinthus in Japan east of Cape Shiono and relatively diverse in other reef-building coral as well), the north coast of Tsuya Island (home to the largest community of rare elegance coral in Japan), the sea extending in front of Naminoura on the south coast of Cape Shiono (home to communities of Acropora hyacinthus) and others (Kushinomoto Marine Park Center, 2010; 2011). In addition, the beach beneath the Cape Shiono lighthouse, known as Ogokuda beach, has the greatest diversity of shellfish on Honshu (Ogawa, 1954; Okutani et al., 1981). There have been reports of 828 gastropods, 237 bivalves, six tooth shells, three cephalopods, and 15 Chitonidae, for a total of 1089 species of shellfish, on Cape Shiono (Kato, personal communication). The area of the mouth of the Koza River too is home to numerous species unique to brackish water, such as Luciogobius palliduse and others, and it is a place where numerous migratory creatures (Japanese eel, ayu, freshwater goby, freshwater prawn, Clithon retropictus and others) go upstream (Kato, personal communication). In addition, Cape Esa has a shore reef with no bank protection, where Cavernacmella yamamotonis lives in the high-tide zone and the intertidal zone has a rich biota as well (Kato, personal communication). In the shore zone in the vicinity of Uragami Bay and the town of Taiji can be seen beds of sea grass including eel grass, Zostera japonica and others, and multiple cetaceans have been confirmed to live here. In addition, breeding of finless porpoise has been confirmed in Nachi Bay. Ota River and Yukashi Lagoon have good brackish-water environments, habitat to saltwater plants as well as many fish, crustaceans, shellfish and others (Hirajima, personal communication).