Archive for the ‘Fiji Eco Tourism’ Category
The first time I decided to go out scuba diving was back in 2006 after I began my Marine Science Degree courses at the University of the South Pacific. Blessed with abundant options I travelled down to Nadi, and got my PADI dive certificate from Aqua Blue Surf Dive and Snorkel, Fiji Islands. I got to go out to the Yasawa Islands, namely, Sand Bank Reef and Tui’s Reef to conduct my underwater skills training and open water training.
Quite recently after winning the Miss South Pacific Pageant which was held in Samoa in December 2011, I was once again presented with a great opportunity when I met Howard Foster, the Director of South Pacific Projects. Howard organised a refresher dive for me with Greg Buxton, the owner of the Suva Diving Club. Greg offers professional SCUBA training courses and I accompanied Greg and an adventurous Australian family out to ‘Fish Patch’ Reef to do the refresher course.
Although there had been a 6 year lapse since my last dive, I must admit I wasn’t apprehensive; there was more of a giddiness, to see how much I could still remember; setting up a regulator on the tank? The signs and signals we must know when diving? Conducting all the important safety checks? But most of all I was eager to get back to this underwater world I had not visited for so long. No matter how often you watch it on the Discovery channel, read about it and study it, the wonder and beauty of these underwater monoliths never cease to amaze me and I feel every visit is special. The various species of hard coral, soft coral, the fish species in all their different hues, from the fearful ones darting into their safe crevices to the aggressive ones that swim right up to your mask daring you to move an inch closer. Each holds its own unique beauty and purpose.
The refresher course helped me familiarize myself again with all the skills of diving, it also reaffirmed my belief in the importance of preserving and maintaining this fragile world that is so deeply connected to our livelihoods’ and our culture and so important to our existence, especially in Pacific Island countries. South Paciifc Projects has invited me to participate in some new marine conservation initiatives being sponsored by the SEA LIFE London Aquarium in Fiji and I hope to get back in the water again soon. I only hope that I can in some small way contribute positively toward conserving Fiji’s marine environment, not only for ourselves but for future generations.
Alisi Rabukawaqa, Fiji
Thanks to Global Vision International and their Charitable Trust Manager Ross Deans, SPPs Managing Director has learned that the 3,000+ mile fundraising bike ride for the Spinner dolphins of Moon Reef that he completed in October with partner Zeina Saad has now raised over $16,000FJD for WDCS International. Ross put our cycle challenge information onto the Global Giving website and by doing so, has helped raise $2,447USD for the project at Moon Reef.
This brings the combined fundraising total for Dr. Cara Miller of WDCS International to £5,724, nearly $16,500FJD! Zeina and I are very grateful to Ross and the other guys at GVI who donated a two week Spinner dolphin Research & Conservation Project which raised £660 during our online fundraising auction recently.
SPP is meeting with Dr. Miller tomorrow to give her the great news and is then heading up to Moon Reef to talk to the community about plans for the Spinner dolphin MPA and new volunteer project due to start in February 2012.
The big news this week is that SPP is working with the SEA LIFE London Aquarium and three Resorts in the Yasawa Islands to develop a new shark research and conservation project. The inaugral meeting to discuss the new initiative was held yesterday with the Resort owners and managers. Present at the meeting were Lance Millar, owner of Nanuya Island Resort Niko Bruce, whose family owns and operates Coral View Resort and Justin King, General Manager of the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort
It was gratifying to meet these guys and find that they are all equally pro-active about supporting marine conservation and sustainable community development in the area. Tomorrow I’ll be diving with sharks at a popular local dive site and then working up a proposal for a new research-based shark project. The fact that the three main employers in the region are also all dive operators who collaborate on the recreational diving in the region is a bonus.
Of course it is equally important to engage the local community, especially the fishermen. Community engagement will take priority in the New Year prior to the beginning of the project. Lance, Niko and Justin are already supporting the local community via their tourism businesses by creating employment and providing training, purchasing food from the village and by making a donation to the school for every diver who visits the area to see the sharks.
SPP looks forward to developing a successful shark conservation project with the local stakeholders and will be supplying materials to the SEA LIFE London Aquarium for a new conservation themed display in 2012. SEA LIFE London is working to promote shark conservation and raise awarenes about the global plight of sharks caused by shark-finning. Thanks to GVI Fiji volunteer Andy Schopper for the great images he took on the shark dive!
Howard Foster, Nacula Tikina, Fiji.
This week, South Pacific Projects, Global Vision International and a local community representative had their first meeting to discuss new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for Nacula District in the Yasawa islands of Fiji. Present at these opening discussions were: SPP Managing Director Howard Foster, also representing the SEA LIFE London Aquarium, GVI Country Director Dan Lund, Yasawa Trust Foundation representative Elle Nimacere and the Nacula District community representative, Poni Nakia.
This momentous occasion marked the starting point of a new collaboration between SPP, GVI, The Yasawa Trust Foundation, the SEA LIFE London Aquarium and the local community. This unique project has the goal of assisting the five villages of Nacula District to establish community-managed Marine Protected Areas and enable membership of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network (FLMMA). There will be an emphasis on awareness-raising through community workshops, development of sustainable management plans for the new MPAs and ongoing monitoring of the MPAs to gauge their relative success.
The meeting opened with community representative Poni Nakia giving the attendees a history of MPAs in Nacula District. We learned that there had been some promising work done in previous years, but that the last projects came to an end in 2006. In the subsequent years, Poni made it clear that there had been on ongoing desire in the community to revive the MPA programme and to develop it further with a partner organisation if possible. GVIs representative Dan Lund first explained how the new GVI marine conservation expedition would benefit from having trained international volunteers who could gather crucial data on the marine resources found in local fishing grounds.
SPP Managing Director and FLMMA partner Howard Foster went on to describe the Marine Resource Inventory (MRI) method of data collection that can provide local communities with the most useful information about their fishing ground. The MRI method, which in this instance will employ GVI Fiji volunteers to gather information about specific ‘targeted’ fish and invertebrate species, complements the community’s traditional knowledge of their fishing grounds. Rather than scientific coral reef monitoring, GVI Fiji will provide data that the community consider most useful, i.e. Which species that they catch to eat or to sell to provide income are present in their fishing grounds, in what numbers and at which locations? This information can empower the community to make informed decisions about selecting sites for new MPAs. Howard went on to describe how the SEA LIFE London Aquarium is committed to supporting Marine Protected Areas in Fiji through a sponsorship programme with South Pacific Projects. This programme has already had success this year with the establishment of a community-managed MPA at Moon Reef in Dawasamu District in Tai Levu.
The meeting was a great success, with Poni Nakia stating that he would brief Ratu Epeli, Paramount Chief of the District, about the new plans and the offer of project support from GVI and SPP. The next stage will be for Poni, on behalf of the community, to draft a ‘letter of request for assistance’ which will go via the Provincial Office to be considered by the FLMMA Executive Committee early next year. Once FLMMA acknowledges the request from the community, SPP will provide some sponsorship via the SEA LIFE London Aquarium to help facilitate the project. GVI Fiji marine conservation volunteers arrive in January 2012 to begin the initial phase of data collection which will go some way to assisting the community to decide which areas may be most appropriate for designating MPAs. We are all looking forward to this exciting new marine conservation project in Nacula District and SPP would like to thank Dan and his Fiji team and all the 2011 GVI volunteers for their hard work this year. With the support of the Yasawa Trust Foundation, GVI has made excellent headway in the Yasawa Islands and has already built a reputation for being a well-managed and effective volunteer organisation.
Thanks to the huge generousity of friends, family and complete strangers in the last three months, Howard and Zeina have raised a total of £4,735 for Dr. Cara Miller of the International Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society in Fiji. The fundraising auction added nearly £1,300 to our total. We are now only £264 short of our £5,000 target and we hope to hit it in the next two weeks. Zeina and I were thrilled at the positive response to our online auction and would like to thank the incredibly generous people who donated the amazing trips and artwork:
- Global Vision International for the Spinner dolphin project
- Bruno and Marcos at Baleal Surfcamp for their one week learn to surf trip
- Maggie for her Essaouira apartment holiday
- Sam for his surfcamp in Australia
- Philip Hoare for his Humpback print
- Brown Cannon III for his Spinner dolphin print
- The Old House Home Hotel for the one night 5* accommodation package
- SEA LIFE London Aquarium for their Junior Aquarist Day
Well done to the winning bidders and we hope they enjoy the surfing holidays to Portugal and Australia, the amazing two week holiday to Fiji, the week in Morocco, the 5* Hotel break, the Junior Aquarist day and all the beautiful donated artwork!
Watch this space for updates from Fiji and Moon Reef to learn where the money will be spent and put to good use by Dr. Miller to fnd her cetacean research and conservation projects.
South Pacific Projects partner organisation, GVI, has just won the ‘Best Volunteering Organisation’ category at the Virgin responsible travel Awards in London. We congratulate GVI on this prestigious Award and look forward to a long and successful partnership in Fiji. Our partnership kicks off in January 2012 with a new type of Marine Conservation Project in the Yasawa Islands and again in February with an absolutely uniqe new Spinner dolphin research and conservation project.
South Pacific Projects is excited to announce an amazing auction to raise funds for WDCS International. The auction is ON NOW HERE!
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/whaleofaride
We have gathered together some fantastic experiences, holidays and artwork for you to bid on and we guarantee that you will never see this stuff available on an EBay auction again. South Pacific Projects is raising funds for the International Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society, who we work with to protect Spinner dolphins at Moon Reef in Fiji.
So, what are all these amazing things I can bid on?
- A two week dolphin research & conservation ecotourism experience in Fiji!
- A one week learn to surf holiday in Portugal!
- One week of free family accommodation in the beautiful town of Essaouira, Morocco!
- A signed print of Spinner dolphins by renowned US photographer Brown Cannon III!
- Two places on a surfcamp in a National Park in near Sydney, Australia!
- A signed copy of ‘Leviathan, or The Whale’ by prize winning author, Philip Hoare!
- An exclusively commissioned limited edition print of a Sperm Whale by Philip Hoare!
- Dinner for two and a night in a 5* Hotel!
plus many more lots to bid on!
So get bidding now!
Today Howard and Zeina completed 2,000 miles of their fundraising bike ride across Europe and are about 800 miles from the finish line in Marrakech. We are delighted to announce that Global Vision International has very kindly donated a free place on their new Spinner dolphin Research & Conservation Project in Fiji next year.
South Pacific Projects will be holding a charity auction for this amazing two week dolphin experience, as well as many other exciting donations like a one week surfcamp holiday to Portugal, a PADI Open Water Dive Course, a beautiful signed Spinner dolphin print by American photographer Brown Cannon 3 and much more! Details of the auction will be announced here on the website in coming weeks.
This week, South Pacific Projects sponsor the SEA LIFE London Aquarium held the official opening of their new SPP Fiji Marine Protected Area display tank. South Pacific Projects was there to cut the ribbon and open the display to the public. It was great to meet up with Paul Hale again, Curator of the London Aquarium and a vocal spokesperson for conservation and research. Paul and his team have done a great job with the display and the schoolchildren who were invited to be the first to see the new Fiji display were really excited by all the corals, fish and Giant clams.
The Aquarium is doing a lot of great work to support conservation projects around the world, so please do visit their conservation pages and read about the turtle centre in Greece and some of the other worthwhile projects they support. Later this year when SPP returns to Fiji, we will be working with the Aquarium again to establish the second of what we hope will be a large network of Marine Protected Areas in Fiji. Thanks again to Paul and to Toby Forer, the Aquarium’s General Manager who have both been so enthusiatic with their support for SPPs community-based work in Fiji.
Howard Foster, UK
I’ve been conducting research on spinner dolphins up at Moon Reef for almost 3 years now. During that time we’ve gained some important insights into behaviour, habitat, site-fidelity, and acoustics. Putting these scientific pieces together has led us to consider Moon Reef as a critical resting habitat for a relatively small group of semi-resident dolphins. Additional factors we have discovered through our time at Moon Reef are the important cultural link this pod of dolphins has to local villages – as well as their potential disturbance when boat traffic is increased. It was clear to me that this population would benefit from protection measures and local engagement yet when I considered my job commitments this goal seemed like something that perhaps I wouldn’t have time to work on. This is where Howard stepped in. Through discussions with him we agreed on a plan for South Pacific Projects to assist with data collection throughout the year to provide important baseline information. Furthermore, his engagement with the Fiji Locally Managed Area Network – and the invite (to both of us) to join the newly established local environment group gave significant momentum - and ultimate declaration - of a marine protected area for Moon Reef. Howard’s tireless efforts were instrumental in achieving this significant result. This fundraising bike ride is another indication of South Pacific Project’s commitment to this work. I look forward to continuing to work with both Howard and Zeina in future research efforts, policy initiatives and conservation benefits for spinner dolphins in Fiji.
Dr. Cara Miller – WDCS International
In six weeks time, South Pacific Projects staff Howard Foster and Zeina Saad will be raising money for the International Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society. Their fundraising efforts will centre around a 2,900 mile cycle ride from London to Marrakech. They are starting the cycle ride at the SeaLife London Aquarium, one of SPPs project sponsors in Fiji. Fijian dignitaries and London media are being invited to attend to help raise awareness about whale and dolphin conservation issues globally. They will then ride to Paris and visit the SeaLife Aquarium there and as they travel south through Europe.
Today they took delivery of two bikes to use on their training rides. The bikes were very kindly donated by two of Zeina’s friends, Scott Marinoff and Zeena Fakoury. Scott recently completed a charity challenge fundraiser himself by cycling 545 miles in seven days from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the ‘Aids Life Cycle’. You can follow Zeina and Howard’s progress and make a donation to the International Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society by visiting their blog at: www.whaleofaride.org
Today was the first official meeting of the steering committee for the Dawasamu area. The committee have been deciding on whether to implement a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) at Moon Reef in the North East of Viti Levu at the suggestion of South Pacific Projects and the International Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society. Moon Reef provides a unique environment for a resident pod of Spinner dolphins and becoming an MPA will ensure that the dolphins are left in peace.
The village hosting the meeting is a good couple of hour’s drive from Suva, and started at 9am (Fiji time…). So I travelled over to Suva from Leleuvia the previous day after the morning survey dive. Howard and I left Suva fairly early and got up to Dawasamu in time for the meeting. This meeting was the first time that all of the local Clan Chiefs had gathered together to discuss the proposal, along with representatives from the government and NGOs. It was great to see that all the Clan Chiefs had come along, and that the community was all taking conservation seriously.
After a lot of discussion, and several rounds of Kava (!), the committee announced that they agreed to declare Moon Reef an MPA, which was fantastic news. South Pacific Projects announced that it would provide the necessary funds to support the process of getting the MPA officially recognised. Some of the funding is coming via a kind donation from the SeaLife London Aquarium who have made a commitment to support community managed MPAs with South Pacific Projects in Fiji. After the meeting the community owned Eco-Lodge had lunch ready and waiting for everyone. They had prepared a traditional Lovo feast, including the biggest fish I’d ever seen served up!
It was a great experience to see some of the process in setting up a community managed Marine Protected Area, and how much the local communities were being involved. With MPAs being set up, more of the amazing coral reefs out here will hopefully be protected, and in some cases, restored to their former glory.
David – UK