Winston - Message from the Battlefield!

Source.

Just a quick heads up about the SRMR.

The Giant Clams have made it!

Some have been ripped off and thoroughly pummeled, but we have found and repositioned all the strays, and are hoping that they may be able to develop a new byssus before the next challenge.

And the Shark action is fast and furious!

The viz is still sub-optimal but there's heaps upon heaps of big and hungry Bull Sharks, and even the small Reefies are slowly making it back to the shallows.

And finally, the water is way cooler, see at top.

Today it was 26C in 30m, meaning that for now, we've managed to dodge the worst of the bleaching. But having gone walkabout, 5% of our Corals are already toast whereas a further 30% are clearly stressed - and this surprisingly right across all genera including the generally resilient Porites!

But all-in-all,we've been very lucky indeed!

So, what are you waiting for!

Shark Geeks!

LtR: the indefatigable Debbie and Rick, plus young Shark researchers and conservation biologists Kerstin, Tom and Gauthier!

Life is good.

This has been loads of fun.

Shark conservation meets Shark research - with a generous sprinkling of big feisty Fiji Bulls!

Incidentally, the clouds are the outskirts of the bloody cyclone.

Christened Winston and presently rated a Cat 4, it is embarking on a crazy loop south of Fiji and then northward to Tonga, meaning that there is a chance that we down here and especially Kadavu may dodge the anticipated major bleaching event.

Fingers crossed!

Fiji - Fish Kills!

Bloody El Niño!

A friend alerts me to this article.

Our new captain Abo hails from Votua Village (= the home of Fiji's best pizza!!!), and has been reporting about dead Fishes for a while now - but I must say that I would never imagined the extent of the catastrophe!

Alas, the cyclone ain't gonna help.

The latest forecasts have it pass far to the West and considerably weakened, meaning that we're likely to be stuck with the present unbearable heat for quite a while longer, and that the chances for a widespread coral bleaching event are that much higher.

A real shame for Victor Bonito.

He has been conducting great, community-based coral restoration work with his Reef Explorer Fiji - and now much of that hard work is at high risk of being wiped out.

And Shark Reef?

Alas, the reef top and especially the back reef where Coral growth has been nothing short of spectacular may once again be wiped out - either by the bleaching or by the quasi inevitable subsequent invasion of Crown-of-Thorn Starfish.

Not good - and for once I'm not very hopeful.

To be continued!

PS - Pacific Beat interview here!

Coral Bleaching - have we dodged the Bullet?

Temperature anomaly map - you can clearly discern the track of cyclone Pam - source.

It sure looks like we have!

Have a look at the forecasts here and here.

This is quite possibly also the consequence of cyclone Pam having sucked away so much heat from the SoPac - but it sure appears that the area of biggest concern has shifted way North towards the equator where over the next months, it is expected to extend first to Kiribati and then, to the Galapagos and the Gulf of Panama.

Not good.

But I'm sure you can forgive us for breathing a sigh of relief!

But the Fat Lady hasn't sung quite yet - so fingers crossed!

Fiji - Bleaching Alert!

Source.

This is not good news.

So far, on Shark Reef, things look good.

We've very recently commissioned a report, and it attests good to very good Coral cover; and having gone walkabout to check for Fishes in anticipation of an imminent visit by a gaggle of professional Fish geeks, I was actually particularly happy to notice countless buds of Acropora on the frontal reef slope.

We shall see - and no, alas I'm not particularly hopeful.

Normally we get hit by a double whammy as whatever survives the bleaching gets nailed by the Crown-of-Thorns - so fingers crossed.

To be continued.

One more Threat!

This is a Shark Conservation Blog - so why this obsession with Global Warming?

The why is that Species Protection doesn't work: it needs to be Habitat Protection!
That's why we have established a Marine Protected Area, Shark Reef Marine Reserve, and that's why we have established the 30-mile long Fiji Shark Corridor once our data suggested that the area of the SRMR was too small for the Bulls and Tigers. Our present acoustic tagging exercise may well reveal that we may have to expand the area even further.

As if Coral Bleaching, Sea Level Rise and more Extreme Weather weren't enough in terms of threats to the South Pacific, here comes yet another one - and this one is bloody serious: Ocean Acidification.

In brief, the rise of CO2 levels is lowering the pH of the Oceans.
The consequence: increasingly, those organisms who precipitate Calcium Carbonate to build their shells will be unable to do so. Yes, that would mean the gradual disappearance of the reef-building Corals and of Sea Shells, Crustaceans and important planktonic components like the Foraminifera. It has happened before and we can observe the likely consequences around present-time carbon dioxide vents.
And Corals are already disappearing fast!

And on top of the demise of the Coral Reef Habitats, the Ocean would lose, and even reverse its present function as the most important Carbon Sink, obviously with further devastating consequences for the whole planet.

But to get back to what we really do: our Marine Reserve would die and the Fish and our Sharks would have no more place to live in.

Just scaremongering?
Just a Conspiracy by the Liberals and the Scientists (and I may add: the Reptilian Humanoids)? To rule the word, promote a socialist agenda and get more funding - and steal a Nobel Prize and an Oscar in the process?
Really!, who are those people who come up with this garbage?

But granted: may there be an element of hysteria and may some of the predictions be exaggerated?
Sure, most probably! As in all marketing!

But whatever the full Truth: can we really afford not to heed the warnings and continue to waste time by engaging in pointless discussions instead?

Alas, it's gonna get Hot!

As so often, Helen is spot-on.

By the very nature of who we are and especially, what we do, we're sort of situated at the outer fringes of Fiji's Diving Industry.
Having once memorized that If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings" (and "committees"!), I've chosen to be more of an Executive Summary kinda guy and try to avoid those gatherings.

Luckily for us, we're clients of Resort Support.
Nomen being Omen, their dedication extends well beyond the completion of their projects and we would be stupid if we didn't shamelessly take advantage of that.

Stuart is our conduit to the arcane world of Fiji's Diving Politics and Political Correctness (and preternatural experiments involving Hypothermia) and I'm quite content to have him and Andrew handle that in their own Q-Celtic gibberish. DO click that link and then continue, you'll be amazed... I had no idea!

Helen on the other hand is part and parcel of Fiji's equally arcane local Marine NGO scene and keeps me abreast of developments there. Being more of a Hugger, she's also my very own advocatus diaboli and plays an important role in tempering our sharkophilic, and some would say, reckless exuberance. She's also involved with Reef Check and the like and has been coaching our Eroni in several aspects of local Conservation, last of which the Great Butterflyfish Count.

Anyway, Helen was the person I contacted when we were swamped in Crown of Thorns early on this year. Thankfully, the critters have been told to move on but I remember Helen commenting that in her view, this was the harbinger for a bout of Coral Bleaching.
Unfortunately, it seems, she is right. The picture on top, from NOAAs Coral Bleaching Outlook page, bodes ill indeed.

Indo-Pacific Bleaching Outlook:

The area most likely to suffer thermal stress with the potential for severe bleaching during the next 15 weeks is a region spanning Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Far Northern section of the GBR. Less severe thermal stress is expected in a broader region including all of the Cairns section of the GBR. To the west, the model currently predicts a threat of moderate levels of thermal stress from southern Borneo across through Timor-Leste to southern Papua New Guinea and Torres Strait. This level of potential stress then picks up in the central GBR and east extending across Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the east-southeast of Fiji. Some mild stress may be seen around Madagascar. The greatest warming is expected to begin from late January through February.

Weekly maps right here.
Although ENSO predictions are neutral, some characteristics are pointing to a continuation of this year's La Niña. Others have other explanations but the long and short of it is that we're in for hotter and wetter weather in our nick of the Pacific.

Whatever the cause - this sucks!