World Ocean's Day 9th June 2014

Yesterday here in Vava'u we celebrated World Ocean's Day. The event was co-ordinated by VEPA  and Endangered Encounters and sponsored by many of the local businesses in town as well as a large number of volunteers collecting rubbish underwater and along the shoreline.

Marine pollution and marine debris are 2 of the many  issues that are oceans are facing, rubbish thrown both directly into the water as well as rubbish blowing in from the shoreline here our creating issues to our marine environment.

Our poster was made by kids at the Vava'u Public Library Fun Day.

Volunteer diver bringing up tyres.

Hanite working hard.

Lisa and Kat sorting rubbish.

ANZ Bank volunteers.

No clean up should be carried out without a specialist BBQ chef.

Rubbish placed in trees is removed by Brian and Tracy

 We would like to thank all of the volunteers that gave their time to help with the event, both in cleaning up and also making it fun.

Sponsors of the event provided sausages, gloves, rubbish bags, water, tents and all the essentials to make these event successful. Below is a list of sponsors:

Endangered Encounters, Riki Tiki Tours, VEPA, Beluga Diving, ANZ Bank, Seventh Heaven, Pafilio Tangitau Store, Mounu Island Resort, Teisa and Kalolo, Coconut Car Rentals, Trouble in Paradies, Vava'u Shipwrights, Seahorse Power, GIO Recycling, WestPac Bank.

Coral Bleaching event in the Vava'u Group.....

A rapid survey team assessing the reefs on Tonga reports observations of the first stages of mass coral bleaching.  The SPREP (South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme) BioRAP (Biodiversity Rapid Assessment Programme) working in the northern Tonga group of islands called “Vava’u” reports about 1-3% of corals are bleached.  Some corals are white; others partly white, and others are neon colors like light blue or yellow. 

Due to increasing water temperatures, the NOAA Coral Watch program previously announced a bleaching watch for Tonga (February 2014).  The team, recorded seawater temperatures rising in the last week to about 30.5^o C, as well as the appearance of bleached corals.  Most of the bleaching observed was between 10 meters and the surface, however individually bleached coral colonies were observed up to depths of 30 meters in some places. A range of coral species was recorded as bleaching.

Corals bleach when increased seawater temperatures occur over a period of time; the corals, which are made up of skeletons, animals and single-cell plants, are placed under stress. When the algae (zooxanthellae or plant living within the animal), which give corals not only its color but also the ability to photosynthesize and feed, are released by the coral colony, the coral becomes bright white. As the coral has lost the plant component it loses them as a food source and is under extreme stress to survive.  Corals may recover from bleaching events if seawater temperatures decrease to within the limits of coral development. Bleaching events effect many different areas of the marine ecosystem including the reef fish as well as weakened coral reefs provide little protection for shorelines.

Area of bleaching coral within the Vava'u archipelago.

Most days have been sunny, with very light winds and small waves, but February 28th was cloudy and rainy when the team departed Vava’u.  The SPREP BioRAP team was surveying reefs and terrestrial ecosystems in the Vava’u group in support of conservation planning in Tonga.  The Kingdom of Tonga is located north and slightly east of New Zealand, and east of Fiji in the Pacific, and the Vava’u group of islands is at about 18.6500^o S.

The coral reef areas identified as bleaching sites will continue to be monitored and recorded for further analysis.

The marine team was based on the Waitt Institute Scientific Platform to conduct the marine surveys of Vava’u as part of the BioRAP programme with SPREP, Ministry of Lands, Environment, Climate Change,  and Natural Resources, Waitt Foundation and VEPA.

Water Quality Education and Awareness

In late 2012 VEPA was donated a water quality educational pack from Melbourne Water Corporation and Baulderstone Pty Ltd.  The pack is designed to teach students about different water quality parameters, including dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, temperature, nitrates and phosphates.

Since receiving the equipment we have had fun teaching students about water quality, including how to monitor various parameters and what impacts human activities can have on water quality.   The equipment has also been used to assist the ministry of Environment and Climate change to measure water quality at the rehabilitated rubbish dump.

USP Student (Josh) measuring dissolved oxygen

For the first Nature Explorers Club students from the University of South Pacific measured the temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen and Electro Conductivity in the Port of Refuge.   I also did a presentation to the Form 5 biology students at Mailefihi Siuiliku College and afterwards we measured the DO concentration from a water with algae.  Not a scientifically sound measurement, but it taught the students about DO and what role it plays in keeping a healthy ecosystem.   It was also a good example of how algae can reduce the DO concentration. 

Presentation to Form 6 Biology students at MSC

In my previous job I used to do water quality monitoring by just sticking a couple of probes in the water.  Technology has made water quality monitoring very accurate and extremely simple.   Unlike the advanced equipment I am used to the equipment donated uses a modified Winkler method, chemical reactions to calculate the dissolved oxygen concentration.  This is not as accurate as a probe but much more exciting!  The students were mesmerized when the water turned purple (manganese oxide hydroxide oxidizing the iodide to iodine) and then clear again by adding the titration (thiosulfate) to reduce the iodine back to iodide ions. 

Thank you to the Water Resource Alliance for donating the equipment. 

We are hoping to do more presentations in the other high schools over the next two weeks and continue to do the dissolved oxygen exercise to teach the students about the important relationship between oxygen levels and maintaining a healthy aquatic ecosystem.     

Elana Balderstone

VEPA Volunteer (Aus Aid)

Turtle Week in Hunga Pre-School

During August this year Karyn and Sita who run the pre-school in Hunga will be having an environment week. This year, working alongside VEPA we are focusing on turtles. Hunga lagoon has a small population of resident turtles, and our aim of the week is to teach the kids about the turtles, their homes and lives in the oceans.

The week will include education packs, colouring competitions, turtle monitoring with students being given the Turtle warden status. Each kid will receive a certificate and card to take home and to hang in the school. Prizes will be awarded for colouring and participation in the monitoring.

The school is also painting an ocean themed Muriel on the school to promote a healthy ocean.

Many thanks to Sita and Karyn for their contributions and becoming true friends of VEPA and the environment. More to come as the project progresses.

For more information on becoming a friend of VEPA please contact us at info@vavauenvironment.org.