Outer Island Surveys - Turtles, Birds and Trash!

December through March, outer island surveys are conducted by VEPA staff for the Vava’u Turtle Monitoring Programme, and today was the first day that the weather and swells have been kind enough for us to initiate our annual monitoring. Well the weather was polite but definately not kind as it decided to pour with rain all morning, making visibility quite difficult for navigation. However, thanks to our Captain, Riki Tiki Tours, safety is always considered first. By the time we had finished our surveys the skies were clearing!


The turtles for Tonga, nest between the months of December through March, often the females have migrated from Samoa or Fiji to return to the nesting beaches here to lay their eggs, these nesting beaches are the same for the female turtle as where they were born, so the health of these islands is of major importance to the survival of turtles. This includes the management of invasive species such as rats as well as reducing the amount of rubbish and waste that is left or drifts upon these fragile habitats.

A turtle nest (pit)

Six turtle nests were identified and tagged during the surveys today, sadly many of the tracks had been washed away with the extreme high tides and swells we have had recently.

There has been a lot of sand shift on our outer islands which results in large areas of exposed sandstone, making it harder for the turtles to access the sand areas for nesting as shown in the picture above!

Not only are the outer islands important for sea turtle nesting, but also for sea bird nesting and today we were treated to a variety of chicks. A new one for us today was the very young chicks of the Black Naped Tern (Sterna sp.), a ground laying bird that builds small rock nests upon the beach or lay their eggs in the shrubs just above the high tide mark. As they are ground nesters, these chicks and eggs are extremely susceptible to predators and damage from picnic parties that do not know they are there.

A Black Naped Tern chick being protected by the coral rubble and rock nest.

The eggs of a Black Naped Tern laying along the shoreline above the high tide mark.

 Other chicks spotted were the resident noddy, however only a few chicks were spotted in comparison to other years. Whenever, you conduct outer island surveys on bird nesting islands, you have to be not only careful where you put your feet, but also not to disturb the chicks that are on the low shrubland along the coast.

A noddy chick sits just off the ground in the low shrubs on the outer islands.

Sadly though, the islands were also blighted with plastic waste, diapers, glass bottles and some PVC tubes that we believe may have been used as a float.

Two of these PVC tubes were collected on seperate beaches

Thanks to the hard work of our team today - Lisa, Seini and Kelli, the islands were left much cleaner than when we got there.

The photos above show the team of Lisa, Seini and Kelli cleaning up the two outer islands surveyed today, its always so sad to see the waste discarded on the beaches and impacting upon the marine and terrestrial life that inhabits these islands and the surrounding area.

Introducing Meredith...

Meredith on the right with Lisa.

My name is Meredith Tufunga.

I’m 19 years old.

My parent is Suvenia and ‘Amusia Tufunga.

My favourite subject is Biology and Computer. 

My favourite colour is green.

I come from Olo’ua Island and I stay at Kameli.

I have ten members in my family. There are three boys and seven girls.

I was study at Mailefihi Siu’ilikutapu College for 5 years at end up at Vava’u High School for 3 years.

I’m very glad to take this time so I can share how happy I are when I became VEPA members. When I get the job I’m very happy because it can help me by increase my knowledge not only that but I know that I can fulfil my dream. Most of the time I always dream that one day I can do something so I can help to make our environment clean and not only the clean and green but also to stop the pollution that occur in our environment. So now I join VEPA so i can work together with the VEPA to protect our environment because I know that today problem in our environment can produce a huge concern for us in the future. 

So I think it’s time for us TONGA to stand up and work together for a BETTER ENVIRONMENT in the future. So the REEF OF TODAY IS THE ISLAND FOR TOMORROW. 

Meredith joins in the awareness program with Lisa, Moala and Ofa.

Beach time!

The office has been full on recently with community and business consultations following on from the BioRap carried out in February, however luckily for the team, this week also included a pilot beach restoration project in Talihau community.

The project brought together by SPREP, Joanna Ellison, Senior Lecturer at University of Tasmania, Ministry of Environment and Communication and VEPA aims to reduce coastal erosion through ecosystem based adaptation.

So what is ecosystem based adaptation (EbA)?

EbA uses biodiversity and ecosystem services as an adaptation tool. Ecosystem services are the benefits of the ecosystem to humans i.e food, water, resource, security etc.

Damage by pigs on fragile coastal vegetation.

Looking for sites around Vava'u, it was discovered that many of the beaches were suffering from coastal erosion, caused by both human impacts such as sand mining, burning of vegetation and littering as well as pigs destroying the fragile vegetation as well as wave and storm damage.

The site chosen for the pilot project was Talihau, a coastal community who has moderate to severe erosion along the beach. The road had collapsed in part after Cyclone Ian in 2014, however this area needs considerable work done before an EbA. However, the eastern end of the beach was suitable for a rehabilitation plot.

Beach clean up by the girls.

The fence being built.

A fence is erected around the site to prevent further damage to the vegetation from pigs and human use and in heavily scoured areas palm fronds and vegetation are stacked on the edge to catch sand brought into the beach from high tides, waves and storms.

Palm fronds placed below greenery and then staked down to prevent waves washing them away.

Access path between the fenced area to reduce impacts on vegetation and scoured areas.

Palm fronds are placed along scoured lip of coast to help catch sand.

The community of Talihau has named the project "Ma'ae Kaha'u 'o Talihau" and will monitor the progress of the protected site, the palm fronds will be changed out when needed and eventually beach vines will be planted to increase the coastal security. The Ministry of Environment and Communication and VEPA will continue to assist the community. Signs are being made to show the value of healthy beaches.

School presentation at GPS Talihau by Winnie from MEC and Paul from SPREP.

This is an important step in protecting coastlines and it is hoped that more beaches and communities will have EbA restoration programs in the future.