Study complete on third longest barrier reef in the world

WWF Pacific releases Great Sea Reef survey report

Photo Caption: Divers counting fish in the GSR. Photo supplied by WWF Pacific's Suva office.


By Dionisia Tabureguci

FIJI’s marine scientists have, for the first time, surveyed and documented the marine ecosystem of Fiji’s Great Sea Reef (GSR), the third longest continuous barrier reef system in the world and which is said to stretch a distance of some 150 kilometres along the Northern tip of Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island.
The exercise, which culminated into the launch last month of its report titled: “Fiji’s Great Sea Reef – The First Marine Biodiversity Survey of Cakaulevu and Associated Coastal Habits”, has also provided new insights into the previously lesser understood marine life in the reef system and re-emphasised the need to document Fiji’s relatively unknown marine and reef systems.
With funding support from Vodafone Fiji Foundation, the project was administered by the Worldwide Fund For Nature’s Fiji Country Programme (WWF FCP) and also financially and technically supported by a number of organizations including the University of the South Pacific’s Institute of Applied Sciences, the Packard Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.
“This survey is the first ever systematic effort to document the marine biodiversity of this reef, locally known as Cakaulevu,” said WWF FCP in a statement. “Findings of the survey include the GSR having 55 percent of the known coral reef fish in Fiji, 74 percent of the known coral species in Fiji, 40 percent of all known marine flora in Fiji and 44 percent of Fiji’s endemic reef species.” The 12-day survey expedition was carried out in December 2004 and sets the pace for efforts to document the Fiji Islands Marine Ecoregion (FIME), which experts say remains largely unknown, and which is also being streamlined in an accompanying report titled: “Setting Priorities for Marine Conservation in the Fiji Islands Marine Ecoregion”, also launched last month.
FIME, according to WWF FCP, is “one of the 16 natural jewels of outstanding biodiversity found in the Pacific, comprise about 844 islands and islets with over 10,000 square kilometres of reef and strewn across 1.20 million kilometres of oceans.” The little that is known about this ecoregion has meant that conservation efforts remain a scientifically ill-informed exercise, a situation that inspired a meeting in December 2003 of over 80 scientists, community members, non government organization representatives and government administrators and decision makers who shared current scientific information on the biodiversity of and threats to the country’s marine environment.
One of the important outcomes of that meeting, as elaborated upon in the report, was the identification of “35 priority conservation areas, which try to capture the full range of marine biodiversity, species and communities that make FIME unique”, and whose conservation would “contribute to maintaining the integrity of Fiji’s marine systems.”
Of these, five areas were ranked to be globally important due to their uniqueness, endemism and high level of diversity; 15 areas were considered to be of national importance and 15 of sub-regional importance. The five areas of global importance are the GSR, which is located in Vanua Levu, the Lomaiviti Triangle (Vatuira Channel-Ovalau-Makogai-Wakaya Channel), Namenalala, Southern Lau Group and Rotuma.
In anticipation of it being a costly exercise, the documenting of all 35 areas has been portioned to prioritise the five areas of global importance, according to WWF FCP manager Kesaia Tabunakawai. Of the five areas of global importance, the GSR is on the top of the list, being the “third longest barrier reef in the world, with an exceptional level of endemism and intact systems of lagoons, channels, mangroves and seagrass habitats.” Photo Caption: A clownfish protected by its host, the anemone. Photo by Baravi Thaman, Scientific Survey Team. Supplied by WWF Pacific's Suva office.

“The study (of GSR) is a step forward in understanding our resources and what we have so that we can better plan and manage them,” said Tabunakawai. “It has also helped in decisions making for organizations that work in the areas of conservation or environmental concerns because we now have an idea of what is there.”
Scientists surveyed 23 sites over six major habitats and made some significant findings, including the discovery of new species of a coral and a fish, the importance of the reef as home to a diverse species of marine life as well as breeding ground for some and as home to some endangered marine life. The scientists also noted that aside from the marine biodiversity and conservation status of the GSR being poorly understood, it was also “increasingly threatened by burgeoning human populations, associated industrial and coastal development, and the rising international and local demand for tropical reef products.”
A WWF FCP’s March/April 2006 socio economic survey in Dreketi, Macuata, Sasa and Mali disctricts – part of the EBM initiative – showed that 100 percent of households earn income from their natural resources (marine, freshwater, forest and agriculture). Of these households, 75 percent depend on these natural resource harvests as their main source of income. “Local community residents of these districts traditionally fish two thirds of the Vanua Levu portion of the GSR. The reef is therefore a major part of living their life and sourcing their livelihood,” WWF FCP said.
To the end that this human factor is managed and that the GSR system is protected, the findings of the GSR survey will provide part of the building block to an Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) initiative, a partnership between Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as the lead partner, WWF FCP, Wetlands International – Oceania (WI-O), USP and in association with the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA).
“The EBM area extends from Macuata through the Bua Peninsula to Kubulau. Its aim is to protect the marine environment by addressing land-based threats to coral reefs and other marine habitats.” said WWF FCP.


SOME DETERMINATIONS OF THE GREAT SEA REEF SURVEY:

➢ Populations of 12 species listed on the 2004 IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List of Threatened Species, including 10 species of fish, the IUCN threatened green turtle and the spinner dolphin;
➢ Population of the nationally endangered species of Bumphead Parrotfish (Kalia), previously presumed locally extinct; one new species and one presumed new record, previously known from the Indian Ocean, 44 percent of endemic coral fish species were observed;
➢ Within the hard corals, 43 new records were documented for Fiji. Of these, two were new genera, and three are believed to be geographic range extensions;
➢ Sixteen species were found to be new additions to the flora of the Fiji archipelago. Two possible new species were also recorded;
➢ Unusual distant offshore mangrove island fringing reef habitats were found to be of surprisingly high diversity and productivity. These highly dynamic, tidally influenced systems are considered to be “keystone habitats” of crucial importance to maintaining the ecological integrity of the entire coastline;
➢ Overall, commercially important fish were found to be in low numbers and small sizes. Fish important to local subsistence were found in higher numbers, but this varied greatly from site to site. Fishing pressure, as indicated by discarded fishing lines, was greatest around the vicinity of Labasa.


NOTE: This article was published as "Fiji's Great Sea Reef: What's really there" in Islands, the Complimentary Inflight Magazine for Air Pacific, Fiji's national airline; pp 60-65, Volume 2, 2007 edition.

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