Loved it. It was an amazing
experience I will never forget. Where to start? ... VEPA, it is an honour to
have been part (even a tiny little part) of this organization, its strong,
honest, devoted dedication to the community, giving back to the community
asking nothing in return other than cooperation... every time I’ve had to
mention I was a VEPA volunteer, I said it with pride. It is really good that
almost every person I’ve mentioned VEPA to, knew what it was. It’s great to see
that the organization is growing, and more and more people want to get involved
(whether its a little bit or a lot).
And this wouldn’t be possible
without the amazing work of Karen Stone and Elana Balderstone. Of course the
rest of the board members, volunteers, and friends of VEPA are all part of the
success of VEPA, but I will speak of Karen and Elana because I worked with them
the closest. Two amazingly hardworking women that breathe and sweat VEPA.
I keep saying to everyone I’m
the luckiest person in the world for having been assigned the Matamaka Coral
Nursery Project. It involved everything I enjoy... field work, kids, culture,
beautiful scenery... I’m not very good with paperwork and computers, and even
though I mentioned I would have like to help more around the office, I am very
glad I was out doing hands-on work most of the time, and in a stunning place
like Matamaka, who would complain?! I love swimming, I love the ocean... having
it as my ‘office’, I enjoyed the early wake-ups. The most rewarding part was
probably being involved with kids. They are so much fun, always excited to go
swimming and for me to show them the reef. My first week there, I was teaching
them how to use the snorkels and fins. They picked it up pretty fast. Sometimes
there were a few problems with water getting in the mask. After that it was
always “Vicky, are you going Swimming? Can I come with you?” and that way,
every week I’d take a few kids out.
I think they didn’t even know they had that
reef there or what a reef looked like until they saw it through the masks. The
moment we started approaching the first corals (and seeing the first fish),
they would not stop pointing at anything and everything! I would tell them the family names of
the fishes but it was all too confusing in the water with so many fish around
us. We did a little activity in class where they had to colour some black and
white fish and match them to some photos of the common fish I had seen in
Matamaka. They loved that and they were all very artistic. Having spent almost
as much time in Matamaka as in Neiafu, I truly got to experience the Tongan
culture. At first, the adults in the village were a bit confused about who I
was and what I was doing there but little by little I got to know a few of them,
and they got to know me, and then it became a normal thing having me walking
around the village. I travelled on the little fishing boats every time to and
from Matamaka, ate Tongan food (and Tongan portions), ‘showered’ with a bucket
of water, went to church a few times, served kava, went camping, danced, sang, and
laughed a lot.
Building the coral nurseries
was fun, I’d walk around the village looking for the materials, take them to my
little office (the tree by the jetty), putting the ropes and the frames
together, placing them in the water... starting to get the feeling that everything was
finally coming together. Then, finding the right coral fragments and attaching
them to the frame, that’s when it started getting a bit more complicated and
cold (spending maybe 2 hours in the water until I could no longer feel my
fingers). Collecting the corals was not as easy as I thought at first.
Yes,
there were a lot of fragments on the seabed, but as the beach in Matamaka does
not get any wave action, fragments found there have been broken off by past
cyclones. Who knows how long these fragments have been lying there, most of
them have some algae growing on them. I’d dive to collect a fragment, which
looked good from the surface and then turned out that the bottom was covered in
algae. I ended having to replace many fragments week after week.
Another little complication
was finding the perfect location to place the coral frame. Corals need clean
water, with low nutrients and no suspended sediments. The first location chosen
was not good, so much sediment everywhere...after a week when I went to check
on them, all the fragments were bleached and covered by the sediments. I then
decided to move it to the other side of the jetty where there is plenty of
coral and a lot more fish. This turned out to be a much better location as most
of the fragments kept their colour when I checked up on them week after week.
Since we had a spare frame thanks to IMAX donating the materials, the second
one was placed on the right side of the jetty but away from the rocks and all
the sediments. It is a bit deeper but it’s on a sandy area and was placed next
to a bommie with at least 5 different species of corals growing on it. We’ll
have to see if the depth at which the frames were placed has any effect.
Hopefully the coral will grow well on both frames! I’d love to come back next
year (or in a few years) and see the small fragments turned into big colonies!
Hopefully the kids will stay motivated and continue the monitoring to the
point where they see some growth and understand the benefits of the reef. Nevertheless,
I do believe the kids learnt something, even just a little bit about how
important the reef is and that it is crucial to look after it.
My experience as a volunteer for VEPA was truly amazing. I am really
looking forward to coming back to Vava’u and of course being involved with VEPA
again! Thanks so much to everyone in VEPA for giving me this wonderful
experience.
Ofa 'atu, Vicky von Bernard, International Volunteer
G’day! As the new Australian volunteer at
VEPA I thought I should write a quick introduction about myself and what I hope
to be doing here in 2014.
I am a keen environmentalist, and whilst teaching
Science in secondary schools I worked to integrate concepts of sustainability
and environmental issues into the curriculum and students’ lives. I have always
been particularly passionate about wildlife conservation, but I am also known
to be an avid composter, an enthusiastic recycler, and a bit of a green-thumb
in the garden.
