Almost our entire office has decamped to Taveuni for our annual Waitabu Marine Park Annual surveys.
We have had the great pleasure to share our annual survey training and actual science with the Nauru Ridge to Reef Project .
The concept of the Ridge to Reef approach is to maintain and enhance Nauru’s ecosystem services such as food, water, timber, air purification etc
Here’s a snippet from their blog:
Introduction to Waitabu Marine Park
In 1998 Waitabu Village requested assistance to initiate a Marine Protected Area for Tourism and to conserve marine resources for future generation.
There has been more than 15 years of marine protection.
Annual monitoring of the area, with the help of the community, has been used to document the improvement of the ecological state of the marine park.
The Waitabu Survey team presented sevusevu to Waitabu village chief upon their arrival, this is a traditional way to gain Chief’s approval of their participation in Waitabu community and their marine park.
Day 1: Helen Sykes (Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Expert) lead the team with a briefing of what the program is going to look like for the day and delegated participants of their duties for the survey.
The team will be focusing on mapping and counting of selected sea animals such as giant clams, crown thorn fish, trochus and sea cucumber.
Team consists of 2 intern students, 3 Nauru R2R representatives, boat captain pita and Waitabu village youths. Team is well versed on their tasks and are ready to go into the water.
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