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.

Blog 2: Marine Habitats

Part of our community awareness program for the “Our Ocean” project, funded by the Waitt Foundation, is to further the information to communities on the different marine habitats that are located in Vava’u. This awareness need was also highlighted for critical importance through the "Rapid Assessment of Biodiversity of the Vava'u Archipelago" (SPREP, 2014)

The following is an overview of each habitat, our next blog post will cover the importance of “ecosystem connectivity” and why we have to think big when looking at marine resource management and protected areas!

Mangroves are shrubs or small trees that grow on mudflat areas close to the shore. Mangrove shrubs are a salt tolerant that are able to live in harsh coastal conditions.

Mangroves habitats provide shelter for juvenile marine species to be safe from large predators through using it’s aerial root system and provide suitable habitat for oysters and other mollusks.

Mangrove areas also help reduce land based pollutants from entering the coastal waters by absorbing quantities of nitrates and phosphates through their roots as well as absorbing trace metals into the sediments.

They are also important for coastal communities as they protect our shores from large storms and waves by reducing their potential energy.  

Seagrass are a type of plant that have roots below the sandy bottom, they are commonly found in shallow, clear coastal waters. Seagrass provide shelter for a wide variety of marine species within the ocean and are a favoured food by Green sea turtles. It also helps protect and stabilise the ocean floor sediments from being eroded by wave actions and is a large carbon storage area.  

Intertidal zones, are mudflat areas exposed at low tide, this is  where communities usually do their gleaning activities for invertebrates such as the sea cucumbers, clams and other species. Clams and other seashell organisms help the ocean by cleaning the water through filter feeding.

Coral reefs are formed by tiny sea creatures named polyps that are identical to the families of jellyfish. Polyps release calcium carbonate to it’s base that form up layer by layer for so many years before it creates the hard coral reef system. 

Coral reefs are very significant as they provide shelter and food for various marine organisms and are home to some of the greatest biodiversity in the planet. 

They also safeguard our shores from large wave actions and storm. Coral reefs attract tourists from around the world and are also a very important habitat contributing to beach formation. 

Pelagic seas, are found off the coral reefs and coastal areas where waters may reach thousand of meters in depth. The pelagic seas are home to a multitude of species at varying stages in the lifecycle, as well as being critical for migratory species such as marine mammals, predatory species such as tunas and sharks.

All marine habitats are of great importance to ecological, social and economic benefits, they suffer grave threats from habitat destruction, over fishing and harvesting,  as well as land based activities such as the use of fertilisers and climate change impacts.

Turtle Release 26th October

Upon arriving at work this morning we were alerted to a turtle that was on a local fishing boat, the fishermen allowed us to purchase the turtle for TOP30. Though we do not like paying for turtles as a means to preserve them unfortunately this is often the only way we can secure a release.

Kate Walker with the Turtle 

Monitoring Project

The small green turtle was in a very healthy condition luckily and only had 3 minimal scratches possibly from being in the boat. We brought it back down to the waterfront and Kate came over to take measurements and to tag the turtle with flipper tags.

 47.5 cm in length of the carapace

The green measured 47.5cm in length of the carapace or shell and although the minimum catch size is 45 cm we are currently in the closed season for hunting. The Vava’u Turtle Monitoring Project aims to reduce the illegal catches of turtles such as this one through community assistance and education. This program is running alongside of VEPA and VEPA will continue its work to raise awareness and rescue turtles as we can.

Once the turtle had received its 2 flipper tags, it was whisked off back to the ocean and released near some sea grass beds, which is the main food source for green turtles.

Tagging the turtle's flipper

At 47.5cm this turtle is not yet sexually mature and sexual identification is hard to determine, turtles will disappear from the nest to the open ocean and float around until they come back to shore at approx. 20cm (dinner plate size though I hate using that term as a marker!). The estimates of sexual maturity range between 20-30 years old and this turtle had quite a way to go before reaching that stage.

The tagging of this turtle enables us to monitor if it is caught or seen again, and the information is passed along to the pacific database.

Karen Stone and Langi at Dive Vava'u

The turtles are about to begin their nesting season here and between the VTMP and VEPA we hope to successfully engage communities to recording and establishing data with us. This will work towards the goal of reducing catches and egg taking and turning towards turtles as an income source for communities through eco-tourism.

VEPA would like to thank all those involved in the successful rescue this morning, we are hoping for more successes as the Turtle project comes into full work soon.

For more information on VEPA and the turtle project please contact us by email on info@vavauenvironment.org or turtles@vavauenvironment.org.

Facebook us on: VEPA http://facebook.com/vavauenviro or http://facebook.com/vavauturtle

Blog post by Karen Stone (VEPA Project Coordinator)