The island
Misali is a small uninhabited coral-rag islet of about nine-tenths of a square kilometre, roughly ten kilometres west of Chake Chake on Pemba, in Ndagoni ward. It is forested, it has landing beaches as well as reef, and it is the standard boat day from the island. Visitors do land; Wesha is the working dock for Chake Chake and the usual departure point.
The island is also a gazetted historical site: Zanzibar’s Department of Museums and Antiquities added Kisiwa cha Misali to its register in 2002, so the land carries a heritage designation as well as a forest order and a fisheries one.
The name is the Swahili word for a prayer mat. Local tradition explains it: a holy man caught in a storm asked fishermen for a mat to pray on and, none being available, declared the island itself one, noting that it lay oriented towards Mecca. A cave on the island is held sacred and offerings are left there, and the site is treated accordingly by the people who use it.
What protects it now — and what no longer does
Misali is very often described as sitting inside the Misali Island Marine Conservation Area. That designation no longer exists. The Order establishing it was repealed by the Order that created the Pemba Channel Conservation Area, declared on 23 September 2005 under the Fisheries Act of 1988. Misali today is a no-take zone inside that larger conservation area, with the land protected separately under the Misali Forest Order. Rangers are stationed on the island.
The older designation’s own start date is not agreed. A Fauna & Flora International and Mwambao assessment puts it at 1993; the project literature and the protected-areas database give 1998. Both circulate, and neither could be resolved against the gazette itself: the Zanzibar fisheries sites that would carry it do not respond.
The management history behind it is worth knowing, because it is the reason the reef is in the condition it is. A community body, the Misali Island Conservation Association, ran a conservation and development project from 2001 to 2006 overseen by CARE. It diminished after 2005 amid conflict between the association and government. An unusual footnote: it was proposed that the conservation area be designated a hima, a protected zone under Islamic conservation principles — a framing that has been applied here more seriously than almost anywhere else on this coast.
The reef
A 2009 resilience assessment by IUCN surveyed thirteen sites around Pemba and found Misali’s no-take zone the best of them on every measure it used: the highest hard coral cover, the highest coral diversity at 42 genera, and the highest fish density at more than 250 individuals per 250 square metres. The island-wide average for coral cover across those thirteen sites was 23 per cent; degraded sites elsewhere on Pemba came in at three and five per cent. Misali also ranked highest for resilience — the capacity to come back from a bleaching event rather than simply the state on the day.
The assessment documented photographically what that means: an area at Misali that bleached in 1998 and recovered to very high cover dominated by Acropora, beside an area where recruitment failed because the rubble would not consolidate. The diving guide carries the recovery figures and sets Misali against Tanzania’s other protected reefs.
Parts of the reef are shallow enough to snorkel, which makes Misali the exception on an island whose character is otherwise steep and deep. Turtles nest here — the sea turtle guide covers the recorded nesting and why nesting beaches are not visitor attractions.
Common questions about Misali
Can I land on Misali?
Yes. It is uninhabited but it has landing beaches, and a boat day here is the standard excursion on Pemba, usually leaving from Wesha near Chake Chake.
Is it still a marine conservation area?
Not under its own name. The Misali Island Conservation Area Order was repealed by the Order creating the Pemba Channel Conservation Area in September 2005. Misali is now a no-take zone within that larger area, and its forest is protected separately.
Is the snorkelling good?
It is the best snorkelling on Pemba, largely because the rest of the island is too steep for it. The 2009 IUCN assessment found the highest coral cover, the highest coral diversity and the highest fish density of thirteen Pemba sites inside Misali’s no-take zone.
Why is the island called a prayer mat?
Misali is Swahili for prayer mat. Local tradition holds that a holy man, unable to find one in a storm, declared the island itself a prayer mat because it lay oriented towards Mecca. A cave on the island is treated as sacred.