Manamuca Environment Society Newsletter
Added to website: 20 December 2004
Yanuya School’s Prize-giving and Years End Program
The Marine Environment program for the Mamanuca Primary School was a great success! The program was developed by MES and CCC and staff from both MES and CCC visited the school every Wednesday afternoon, conducted lectures and took the children on related field excursions. The lectures covered various topics in marine biology, including basic coral reef science, the coastal zone, land and marine interactions, marine animals, threats to the reefs, and marine protected areas. The kids enjoyed all the field trips; they learned to snorkel, how to survey their mini ‘tabu’ site for changes, how to make a compost, conducted a school, community and beach clean-up, and also acted out “Reef Awareness” skits. The program ended with the School’s Prize giving Ceremony where the students received certificates and prizes. Most importantly parents felt that they too had learned from their own children through the educational program! It was great to finally work with NaMamanuca Primary School as distance has been an issue in the past. Special thanks to the Yanuya School Directors, Master Taniela, Seremaia Nasusu, Tokoriki and Matamanoa Resort, South Sea Cruises, and the staff of the Dau Vei Vueti.
Heliopora coerulea the rare Blue Coral near Tokoriki!
Upon a recent Reef Check survey Dive with Tokoriki Diving, the Blue Coral Helipora coerulea was observed growing on a section of patch reef just off Tokoriki Island. Having dived the Mamanuca Islands extensively and never having observed the coral Di Walker was very much of the same opinion as most experts that this coral just did not exist in Fiji. A segment of the coral was taken for verification to Ed Lovell, one of the worlds few coral experts, who lives in Fiji. Ed was very excited that finally it had been found in Fiji! Low Isles on the northern Great Barrier Reef probably represent the southern-most reported presence of Heliopora and American Samoa the eastern-most, with a line being drawn at the Island of Rotuma for distribution of the coral into Fiji. Reports made in 1985 consider the presence of the coral in Fiji doubtful as it was not recorded in beach sediments or coral assemblages studied in and around the Fiji Islands. The study also declared that the genus was formerly present in Fiji from Miocene fossil deposits observed in the Fiji Island chain of Lau. The coral has a distinct sky-blue skeleton which no other corals have, the polyps using aragonite to make the skeleton. This discovery shows the overall worthwhile of the Reef Check surveys as well as the need to protect the precious Mamanuca area.
Coral Cay Conservation End of Year Two-Marine Protected Area Recommendations
Coral Cay Conservation has been in the Mamanuca area for over two years now. They have been doing fantastic work, surveying the reefs, sending out countless numbers of divers, and gathering a vast amount of data on the biological aspects of the Mamanuca marine environment. Coral Cay was invited in to Fiji by the Ministry of Tourism to collect baseline data on the reefs. The Mamanucas was the first project site, and since then, they have opened a small site on the Coral Coast and in the Yasawas. They have completed much of the Mamanucas but aim to survey the reefs North of Mana next year. The aim is to make recommendations to the Fiji Government on areas that are biologically rich, and assist in steps towards protecting those rich areas as marine reserves. These marine reserves can also potentially provide regeneration to other areas nearby which may not be quite as healthy or rich in life. CCC recently made it’s Year 2 Recommendations to the Ministry of Tourism, Dept of Fisheries, MES, IAS/USP, PCDF, TROA, MFHA and SOPAC at a forum in Suva last month.
Update on Mamanuca Dive Operators Reef Check Network
The Mamanuca Dive Operators Reef Check Network is steaming ahead! 30 Reef Check surveys have been completed and there are still more to go. Most of the dive operators with a stake in the area participated in a 4 week long workshop, learning about coral reefs, marine biology,and also about the current state of reefs and how to begin to monitor their health. The Mamanuca reefs currently receive a variety of pressures and increasingly so with the tourism industry being one of the biggest users of the Mamanuca reefs. From the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network’s annual report about 60% of Fiji’s reefs are classified “at risk”. Thus, the MDORCN is a huge contribution by the local dive operators in monitoring the status of the reefs in this widely used area. The survey method used is Reef Check, a simple monitoring technique used across the world. Reef Check uses divers to check for Indicator Species along a transect line of 100metres. Indicator Species are species that are targeted by a market or industry or cause some damage to the reef eg. COT’s. Sonaisali Diving and the MES found a Crown of Thorns outbreak at Turtle Rock, a popular tourist snorkel and diving site. An outbreak is when a reef has more than 15 COTs in a 100m, Turtle Rock had 20 COTs in the Reef Check 100m transect. This training is a great way at building the capacity of our local dive-masters and instructors who will have learned a valuable to use in village communities for monitoring reefs.
