Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching

My Dear Friends, 

I just returned to Suva from the Motuiki Island site, where the BBC TV and German films of our coral work were filmed.  I am still in shock. I got off the boat and rushed back for the big weekly disaster committee meeting that is coodinating the efforts of the various NGOs. Each org was taking turns telling what they had accomplished. I told the story of the destruction and suffering that I had seen and got all choked up and could not even finish. Houses I had stayed in and where I had eaten lunch and had coral workshop meetings were just GONE, or they only had one or two walls left standing. The waves washed over the three villages and reached far inland and the wind blasted the houses that were on higher ground. We know these people well on a first name basis and know the kids since they were babies and it was just so hard seeing this. Tai and Joe's house in Daku was smashed, Jone and Kasa's house is a pile of concrete rubble, Timoci and Kesaia's house in Uluibau has one standing wall but the kitchen where Kesa made donuts and delicious food for us somehow survived! The fisher woman who used to help us with the coral reef work every time (Lavenia) had her house completely erased by the waves, along with everything she owned.  Fortunately noone was killed- because the storm hit in the daytime. But there are a lot of injuries and with clean water hard to come by, skin diseases and infections are becoming common.

To add insult to injury, the coral reefs are now in serously bad shape with a masive coral bleaching in full swing, and I am afraid that most of the corals are in the process of dying. The coral farming tables are still there, overgrown with incredibly colored blue and yellow and pink corals- but with all the brown colors gone, and with no algae inside ther tisues many or most may sicken and die.  On the positive side, the massive hurricae hit on the high tide and so the waves passed right over the reefs without damaging many corals.

On the land and in the forests so many trees down and brown piles of vegetation and very little rain so the danger of wildfire is inceasing as well. One thing I do know is that this is the site most needy of our efforts, and where we will implement all three projects. We delivered three chain saws and will return next week with some two week old Happy Chickens for the women to care for (good for mental health at this time as many need to focus on somethng positive), sweet potato cuttings, corn and pumpkin seeds, etc.

Another NGO, Global Vision International which focus on coral reef mnoitoring and training overseas volunteers, has set up on the lovely reef island of Caqalai, which escaped most of the damage and they are providing transport to and from the villages and a place to sleep and eat, so we are not a burden on the frail village infrastructure. They also will be head-starting the chickens for us and will only transfer them when the communities have the chicken houses completed (built from the materials of former homes). GVI are very thankful to have me there for the coral and reef work which will begin once the urgent community needs are better met. We removed nine coral killing COTS from around the old coral farm yesterday and they will remove many more soon.... then we will start a new nursery composed only of corals that are not bleached- thermally tolerant corals for the future restoration of the reefs.  It is our hope that the Happy Chickens (see or other GG Projects) will help rest the reefs from overfishing and the healthy corals will give a ray of hope fo the future of coral reefs in this critical time.  

Thank you all so much for helping!