Posts by MES
Turtle Nesting Season and Turtle Tagging Activities
A Turtle satellite tagging workshop was held at the Tanoa International Hotel from the 1st – 3rd of Feb, 2010. The workshop was organized by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in collaboration with the World Wild Fund for nature(WWF) and MES. The purpose of the workshop was to understand the importance of Turtle Research and Monitoring Database System (TREDS) and how it is implemented in the South Pacific. Secondly, to learn more about turtle satellite tagging with the method used and how we can monitor the turtle movement in terms of their nesting and foraging. The workshop was attended by participants from other Pacific countries,...
Read MoreMana Project – E
Last week (04/11) the Project – e organised an environment day which saw activities such as coral planting, rubbish picking and the release of 3 turtles take place. This week is Mana’s guest returnee week whereby guests who have been visiting Mana island for many years all come together for a weeks stay on the island. During the environment day the returnee guests and current guests engaged in coral planting, rubbish picking along the northside of the island and the release of three 3yr old Hawksbill turtles into their natural home. It was a good day and ended with an emotional goodbye to 3 residents (turtles) of Mana who had been looked after by Mana staff for three...
Read MoreReef Health
We are well into our reef check surveys, surveying only house reefs at this moment. We have covered most of our member resorts with only a few remaining. From our data sheets we can conlude that our reefs are not doing too bad with minimal damage from trampling, boating, and watersports activities. The high hard coral and rock cover on our reefs ensure settlement of coral larvae and continuous reef building. The fish and invertebrate diversity also show positive signs of reef health and we are positive that we will see this on all the remaining house reefs!
Read MoreRefresher Courses
Tavarua and Sonaisali Island Resorts have successfully completed their refresher training on best practice guidelines for water sports activities and snorkelling. Tavarua Resort had its refresher on the 23rd & 24th of September and Sonaisali Resort had its refresher on the 30th of the same month. All participants gained a lot from the training and are looking forward to put to practice what they had learnt.
Read MoreCrested Iguana In Castaway
A crested iguana has been found on Qalito island (home to Castaway island resort). A grounds staff who was working in the area spotted the iguana on a tree. Due to the presence of wild goats on the island, the existence of iguanas were highly doubted. The iguana has since been brought to the resort to be cared for with a special diet of fruit and vegetables developed by Kula bird park attendant and also the plants that it was surviving on in the wild. Staff are keeping their eye out for any iguanas they see and later this year a proper survey will be conducted to obtain knowledge of the population of iguanas on the island and other factors relating to their existence.
Read MoreMouriki Island – Santuary for the Fiji Crested Iguana
Fiji is home to the endangered crested and banded iguana. Yaduataba on Vanua Levu is a well known sanctuary for these reptiles in Fiji. This year the National Trust of Fiji and Birdlife International aim to establish Monuriki island in the Mamanuca region a declared sanctuary for the crested iguana which is found on the island. Monuriki is undergoing some habitat modification to ensure a safe haven for this endangered reptile. The removal of wild goats is the first step to ensuring a safe haven. Goats are a threat as they destroy iguana habitats and the eggs which are buried in the ground. Rats that are also threats will be the subject of an eradication project in...
Read MoreEarth Day Celebration
We celebrated Earth Day again this year with Malolo District School, Namamanuca Primary School and Mana SDA School. Earth Day is an international day set aside every April 21st to raise environmental awareness on a global scale. Activities carried out included beach and underwater cleanups, school compound cleanup, separating rubbish, making compost, poster competitions and quizzes. It was a fun-filled day that raised awareness to all the students, teachers and those who joined in to help out at the school. We applaud their efforts and are very grateful to everyone’s assistance and support during the event. Vinaka vakalevu.
Read MoreNesting Beach Surveys
Turtle nesting season in Fiji falls between October and April. MES has just completed nesting beach surveys at our four indexed sites – Tavarua, Namotu, Navini and Vomo island resorts. Hawksbills and Green turtles are known to nest and forage in the Mamanucas. During nesting beach surveys, teams patrol the beach at night and early mornings in the hope of discovering evidence of nesting turtles. The tracks turtles make while coming to lay their clutch of eggs provide evidence of numbers. Unfortunately no nesters were encountered during this survey.Although no nester was encountered during these surveys, we would like to advise our member resorts to take care while...
Read MoreCOTS Removal
We have started removals again this year and hope to lessen the numbers of these predator starfish on our coral reefs. The main removal methods here in the Mamanuca region are physical removal with metal rods and then burial ashore or drying out in the sun. We go to various sites with the help of volunteers and resort staff for removals and then identify the extent of infestation before deciding to list the site as a control site. Our aims are to assist resorts to maintain a CPUE (catch per unit effort) of 0.1 for control sites before moving to new cites. The CPUE gives an indication of the population of COTS in the controlled area. Scientists have estimated that a...
Read MoreTurtle Tagging For The Future
Mamanuca Environment Society (MES) and Mana Island Resort have started tagging turtle, ready to be released back into the wild for another sperm of life. Tagging of sea turtles is very important in terms of research and science and monitoring their behavior and their movements is a key issues. Through research, Fiji Island have been identified as one of the most important groups of islands in terms of foraging and nesting grounds for thousands of sea turtle. Also through satellite tagging, Fiji seems to be the centre where most of these sea turtles that are satellite tagged goes through, throughout the years, whether during their nesting or foraging. In the Mamanucas...
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