Wildlife Conservation Fiji Project #8383

Long-term protection of Whales & Dolphins in Fiji

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Jul 6, 2012
Moon Reef Survey

By Alice Hawkes | Charitable Trust Team

Last week Candice, GVI Marine Science Coordinator, Dan, Country Director, and Howard, South Pacific Projects Director, volunteered to carry out initial biodiversity surveys of Moon Reef in Dawasamu, home to the Spinner Dolphins and our project. In addition to surveying the site, marking GPS points, and installing marker buoys on the sea bed, the team helped to train two local divers in Benthic Identification and survey techniques. The project was funded by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and part of the overall initiative to protect Moon Reef through local community support.

The team will be returning to the site to conduct further surveys around the entire circumference of Moon Reef and to continue training local divers in Survey techniques and ID. Worryingly there has been a growing number of Crown of. Thorn Starfish sighted in the area at infestation levels. GVI and SPP will be looking into the possibilities of a mass eradication project later this year.

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Apr 20, 2012
Meeting with the High Chief

By Aoife Bulman | Charitable Trust Team

On February 7^th, we met Ratu Epeli, the High Chief of the Takina (kingdom), at Oarsmans Bay lodge to present a Sevu Sevu (traditional ceremony in which an offering is made in exchange for a blessing).

A discussion followed in which Ratu Epeli charted the history of his time as chief and the changing state of attitudes towards the implementation and enforcement of the Tabu zones (no fishing grounds) in the region. Ratu Epeli explained that he was fully committed to the preservation of the local environment and had been engaged in the active enforcement of the Nacula Tabu zone for many years. `

Ratu Epeli Explained that he was on the verge of lifting the Tabu and ending all enforcement of reef protection in the region as it had become too difficult to manage and enforce and most villages had lifted their own Tabu's over the years.

After hearing the strategies presented by us, the community based focus of the initiative, and the intention to interweave our work with the education program, Ratu Epeli happily passed on his blessings and full support of our research in the region and confirmed that with this new support he would continue to enforce the few remaining tabu areas in the district.

In addition to this, Ratu, has offered the research team exclusive access to dive the few remaining tabu areas and use the protected areas to run base line surveys. This will enable us to form a base line from which to compare the difference in fish stocks and biodiversity between protected areas and open fishing grounds.

Ratu Epeli, invited the team for lunch and said that he would look forward to hearing frequent updates from the us as the program progresses and the initiative evolves.

This was an incredibly positive meeting that confirmed the validity of our conservation efforts and the presence of the community support needed to make it successful.

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Jan 30, 2012
Amazing support for the GVI Charitable Trust

By Ross Deans | GVI Charitable Trust Manager

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