| Summary: | Diversity and abundance of marine invertebrates are crudal component in making sure the
health of reef ecosystem. Nevertheless, some of these marine invertebrates pose some
dangers to humans as well as the coral community. Besides that, some invertebrates are
also enjoyed as delicades for consumption. Research of diversity and abundance of marine
invertebrates induding hazardous and edible spedes were conducted at Sepangar Island
involving four locations and three depths for each location. Data was collected using
invertebrate belt transect with length of 100 m and width of 5 m. A total of 19 species of
marine invertebrate were identified throughout the study. Highest diversity was obtained at
Site 4 (15 spedes) and highest abundance of marine invertebrates was obtained at Site 3
(66 ind/1OOO m2
). Depth of 5 m and 10 m had the same diversity (12 spedes); however
abundance of marine invertebrates was the highest at 5 m (62 ind/l000 m2 ). Out of 19 species, three species were dassified as hazardous and seven species were considered edible. Moreover, abundance of hazardous and edible marine invertebrates was highest at Site 3 and at 5 m of depth. Statistical analysis showed that depths influenced the diversity and abundance of marine invertebrates induding hazardous and edible species, while locations did not affect the diversity and abundance at all.
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