MOE home > Nature and Parks > EBSA home > Coastal Area > 13303 Yura, Awajishima Island
Relevant municipalities | Sumoto, Hyogo Prefecture |
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Area (km2) | 13 |
Selected by experts for its uniqueness and remarkable diversity of shellfish, since the remarkable formation of the sandbanks provide a unique habitat for many organism.
These are the waters in the vicinity of Yura on Awajishima Island. Yura is home to a sandbank called Narugashima where many plants and animals live, including Hibiscus hamabo and other rare creatures. For example, 445 species of shellfish have been confirmed here, of which Tegillarca granosa and Anodontia stearnsiana are of particular note (Wada, 2008). The unique terrain that has developed on the sandbar could provide a habitat unseen in any other region (Yamanishi, 2011). In addition, the waters in the vicinity of Narugashima include the only natural coast in Osaka Bay and are important as waters in front of a loggerhead turtle spawning ground. Other important invertebrates live here too (Kamezaki et al., 1999).
Tidal mud flats (km2) | 0.1 |
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Moba (seaweed bed) (km2) | |
Coral reef coverage (km2) | |
Natural coast (km) | 5.8 |
Rate of natural coast (%) | 41.4 |
Sand bank / submerged sand bank | |
Other habitats |
Criteria 2 |
<Pisces> |
Ammodytes personatus (Japanese sand lance)[Sp] |
Seriola quinqueradiata (Japanese amberjack)[Sp] |
Trachurus japonicus (Japanese jack mackerel)[Sp] |
Pagrus major (Red seabream)[Sp] |
<Cephalopoda> |
Amphioctopus fangsiao (Ocellated octopus) |
Octopus vulgaris (Common octopus) |
* This is the species list of which meet the criteria. In that matter, this list does not include all species that inhabit the individual area.
Abbreviation in the information is as follows.
[Br/Ne] : Adjacent water of breeding area or nesting site
[Sp] : spawning area
[Ad] : species not used for analysis but add to the list because inhabit information was collected later
[Ex] : species used for analysis but considered to be possibly extinct in the EBSA region (area)
No mark : data of species distribution