Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula sia,

I visited Vorovoro for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Years. I fell in love with the island, the people, and can’t wait to plan my return trip. Instead of gushing about my experience here (which I will probably due later in another blog) I hope to shed some light on Tribewanted’s use of the ocean and its natural resources as I am a marine biologist currently studying in California. From chatting with Ben the sustainability of the sea has yet to be formally addressed – so I hope that you take my observations & opinions listed below as the update on the progress of TW’s ocean sustainability.

Boat Mooring & Pontoon Platform:
After arriving at the island completely drenched on a very adventurous boat ride (Api is a very good boat captain as an aside) I was pleased to see that the boats were moored to a secured line and not dropping an anchor onto the reef every time they moored up. This line helps prevent damage to the coral and since it lets the boats move around with the tide so that no one patch of coral will not be shaded out (and therefore killed) by the boats overhead.

Shading is an issue (either by structures on the surface of the water or by “dirty” or turbid water full of debris or pollutants) to hard corals as they are actually animals (coral polyps) that build their calcium carbonate skeleton and then obtain food by symbiotic algae (called zooxanthellae) that live within their tissues. Like plants and other algae, these zooxanthellae use sunlight to fuel a reaction that produces sugars, which are then used by the coral for food. The zooxanthellae benefit by having a place to live and are the cells that give the corals their distinctive colors. When corals are stressed the zooxanthellae can’t survive – thereby giving the coral the “bleached” effect and killing the animal, some corals may be able to recover but many cannot.

The pontoon shades some coral as well – but again it is not tethered tightly and can move a bit so it isn’t shading out an entire area. Considering the number of people on the island and remoteness of the island – these are small impacts compared to the size of the project. In my mind they have been set up as practically and environmentally-conscious as possible.

Water treatment:
I was also happy with the water treatment on the island. There did not appear to be any waste water (from shower, dishes, toilets, etc.) running off the living area into the sea without treatment (time to percolate through the ground) first. Even at the waterfall there is a little catch basin where our biodegradable soaps and shampoos can be mixed and diluted with the runoff water before entering the sea. The water churning through the passage between Vorovoro and Mali, however, does appear to be more turbid due to discharge from the mainland’s mills. This is a bigger issue that has been addressed in scientific papers and will be a larger task to tackle with help from the local villages.

Trash on beaches:
A lot of trash washes up on Vorovoro’s beach, by the old jetty and the mangroves on the island opposite from the TW village. I worked with Menusi (currently managing the sustainability on the island) to set up a beach trash log so the beach would be cleaned at least once a week and the trash would be logged with type and weights/numbers. This log will provide evidence of the type and amount of trash washing up on Vorovoro and will also prove if the waste washing up was recyclable, therefore enforcing the recycling program on the mainland. I’m excited that this project has started on the island and please help out with the log when you are on the island!

Mangroves:
The mangrove forest on Vorovoro is healthy and thriving. The project has made a good choice by steering clear of the mangroves and leaving them intact. These trees are important as they stabilize shoreline and prevent erosion – but when clear cut they are slow to re-establish themselves.

Sustainable Fishing:
I chatted with Marau for some time during my visit to discuss the fishing on the island. Fishes are caught mostly by spearfishing while free diving and sometimes by hook and line. I started a fish log with Marau that includes details such as the type of fish caught, its length, number and weight of fish caught, method of fishing, etc. This will help keep track of the fishing effort on Vorovoro for fish food for the TW group, and it can be emailed back to me for a check of the sustainability of those species if needed. Marau also listed for me the 30 or so most popular types of fishes that he catches and I will research the status of these fishes including the sustainable size at which to harvest them, and send this information back to Marau so that they can make even more informed decisions about which fish to catch. Considering the amount of fish I observed taken on the island, sustainability is not an immediate issue, but making more educated decisions about certain species will improve the fishing effort. Also I will send back tips like how to tell the sex of a shark so that the possibility of releasing females (often pregnant) is increased. Please add fish you spear on the reef (you primal hunter you) in the fish log book as well!

Information to take home:
One of TW’s stellar goals to educate visitors on the island about green practices they can take home with them should not stop at the shoreline. I plan to write up some pieces for posting around the island or in a hut about ocean carbon mitigation, aquaculture & fish farming, climate change, and sustainable fisheries so they may be posted for reading on a rainy day. I will include websites that folks can write down in their journals and follow up with at home. This is how Vorovoro is really impacting the world – not just on the island in Fiji – but the bigger take home message on how to improve the environment.

Some places to start:
www.reefcheck.org
You can join up with a group monitoring a local reef, or help monitor some while on vacation!

http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp
While geared toward the US this website has lots of information about sustainable fisheries and fish that are suitable to eat or fish that should be avoided. If you are in the US you can download their pocket fish guide for your area and keep it in your wallet to help you decide about which seafood you choose at restaurants and markets.

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521
Another pocket seafood guide that is a bit more global than the one above.

On Island Reef Information:
I will also email over some pages on the ocean environment specific to Vorovoro to be posted on the island. This will include photos and names of common creatures on the reef, a list of endangered species on Fiji, general information about coral reef ecosystems, and something on how to avoid the possibly dangerous animals in the waters. This should help educate the visitors about the local environment and reinforce the Fijian knowledge that reefs are very important and fragile environments that should be enjoyed with care.

The next step:
If you have any burning questions about anything marine – please feel free to message me. If you have any more suggestions about what should happen on the island to protect or monitor the marine life please let me know. The next time I return to the island I will get another group involved in mapping the habitats and checking up on the health of the reef. I am really impressed with the project and the people of Vorovoro and am happy to help in any way that I can from my post in grad school in California until I can get back there.

Vinaka & cheers,
Mariah