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Totoya’s Sacred Qio

A cultural view of Totoya sharks written by the high chief. As a young boy growing up Totoya, I recall that there were incidents of shark attacks on some of our villagers. In our culture, this type of incident is an indication that the shark attack victim committed an offense against the traditional protocol of our people – the tabu. (For more about...

MPA Hooray!

In the middle of towing Ron across the local marine protected area (MPA) set up in front of Mavana Village, on Vanuabalavu Island, he popped his head up to shout, “Hey, this MPA is really working! The fish are huge. And I’ve already seen 11 sea cucumbers on this transect.” Holothuria edulis – pinkfish sea cucumbers found in Mavana MPA. Ron recorded...

Local Management to the ‘Reef’ Rescue

Across the world, coral reefs and fisheries are in crisis. In Fiji over the past few decades, increased demands for cash income and material goods, coupled with growing populations and access to markets, have led to substantially increased pressure on coastal and marine resources. Some estimates indicate that Fiji already can no longer meet its food...

Totoya’s Sacred Marine Protected Area

Decades ago on the Fijian island named Totoya, Roko Sau Kubunanavanua and his wife had a stillborn baby. The baby was buried at sea and henceforth the channel leading to the island was labeled as “sacred passage” or Daveta Tabu. The chief imposed a ban or tabu so that the area would be preserved. However, the ban did not last. In the mid-1990’s, the...

Mission Fiji Begins

Departing from Nadi yesterday afternoon, we began our 17 hour transit to the remote islands of the Lau Province for our Fiji research mission. Lau Province is one of 14 provinces in Fiji. It is located in the South Pacific Ocean, due east of the Koro Sea. The Lau group includes a chain of about 100 islands and islets, about 30 of which are sparsely...

Ecological Risk and the Exploitation of Herbivorous Reef Fish Across Micronesia

Nominally herbivorous reef fish play a variety of functional roles that are important in maintaining coral reef resilience, yet are major targets of spear fisheries in Micronesia. Although protection is afforded to iconic species in some areas, impacts of the fishery on the ecosystem are poorly understood. The goal of this study was to locate the major...

It's not just Sand

Collecting and analyzing sediments is a key procedure in the field of Marine Geology. It may seem trivial to give so much attention to “sand”; however, the trained sedimentologist can learn a lot from a sample of ‘sand’, or sediment. We can understand something about the amount of energy coming into an area just by looking at the size of grains in the...

Thriving Alien and Declining Local Invertebrates

The French Polynesian scientists participating on the Society Islands mission took the opportunity to quantify the abundance of a number of French Polynesia invertebrates… species that have, or may have, a commercial and food subsistence role in the near future. In particular, they investigated the abundance of a number of sea cucumbers species,...

Assessment of the Community Structure, Status, Health and Resilience of St. Kitts and Nevis Coral Reefs

Assessment of the Community Structure, Status, Health and Resilience of St. Kitts and Nevis Coral Reefs When we first began this mission in early June, several of the researchers had their first exposure to the rapid assessment protocol we were applying to assess the resilience of these St. Kitts and Nevis coral reefs. They received a compressed one...

Global Reef Expedition Pedro Bank, Jamaica Field Report March 10‐20, 2012

Global Reef Expedition Pedro Bank, Jamaica Field Report March 10‐20, 2012 The coral reefs located off the north coast of the Jamaican mainland are some of the best and most studied reefs in the world (Hughes 1994). In contrast, very few research studies have been conducted on the banks located off the south coast of Jamaica. The first...

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