Firstly introductions:
My name is Lucianne Marshall; I am a 21 year old Marine Science student studying my BSc
(Hons) degree in the small (rainy) town of Oban on the west coast of Scotland.
The project:
This summer, with the help of the Alasdair Memorial Fund, I was able to join a project in Fiji
collecting data to help the locals sustainably fish and protect their amazing reef
environments. It has been an incredible 10 weeks from which I have learnt a great deal and
have taken away memories to last a lifetime. But I also feel I can say that I have given my
share back to the Kumbalau district in Fiji.
So what have I been doing during this time???
Week one:
I arrived in Fiji on the 6th of July from which I had 4 days before the project started. I spent
this time on the main land of Fiji, Viti Levu, here I did a few activities to keep me busy and
see a bit of Fiji. I arrived on the Friday evening and I had prior arranged to do the world
famous Beqa shark dive! So early on the Saturday morning I dragged my jet lagged self at
6am out the door to meet my pick up. The shark dive helps to protect the local shark
populations as they are more valuable to the economy as a tourist attraction than the short
term fix that the shark finning trade would supply (much to my relief). What can I say it
exceeded expectations!!
Figure 1 -Bull Shark eating a fish head.
Figure 2 – Bull shark Extremely close!!
Figure 3 – White tip reef shark
It is something incredible to be able to witness these awesome creatures at such proximity. I
feel it is needless to say that such creatures should be protected and not become someone’s
dinner just to demonstrate status! The dive was run completely by Fijians and for first
impressions of the people of Fiji it was great to see that they shared my enthusiasm to
conserve; something I would come to find was true in many areas of Fiji.
Any likeminded divers heading that way round the world I can highly recommend this dive!
http://fijisharkdive.com/
My next little adventure was to head inland slightly and take a trip down one of Fiji’s
beautiful rivers! The stunning gorges, rock features and landscape that I got to see during
this experience made it worthwhile! It was a long day, again I was out of the door for 6am
and didn’t return until 6pm, but it was beautiful!
Figure 4 – Rivers trip gorge and its stunning geomorphology
A little pricey but I used money I received for my 21st (which was during my time away) to
fund the trip and again I do not regret it. It was another fine example of how the Fijian
government and districts have used eco-tourism to protect some of their most
environmentally rich areas. Creating reserves and parks from the influx of money through
such activities, it’s a win win scenario.
To the project
After my few days spent in pacific harbour I then needed to meet the team in Savusavu. So
on the 10th of july (2012) I took the local bus into Suva, the capital of Fiji, during which I
made so many friends and talked to so many different people on all the different connecting
buses to the airport. Initially the friendliness of the Fijians is a little overwhelming, the
generosity and genuine kindness is unlike any other culture I have ever experienced,
something unique and very special.
From Nasouri Airport, Suva I flew into Lambassa, which is on Vanua Levu (the second biggest
island within Fiji). From there I was picked up by Rahj my taxi driver, who took me to
Savusavu ,which took about 2.5 hours.
Finally I was there! All the months of planning and saving paid off!
Savusavu
The first two days consisted of getting gear to take to camp. So off I trundled with my two
new Greenforce buddies, Eleni from Greece, who is studying Biology in Southampton, and
Amanda from California, down the one and only high street to get my goodies! This
consisted of one 3 inch foam mattress ($49), one box mosquito net (at a crazy price of less
than $10 which is like £3.00….madness), my beautiful bright orange Bula dress to be worn at
church alongside my sulu (like a sarong) to be worn when in the village. We also bought the
pharmacy out (almost) with paractamol, ibruprophin, fungal foot powder, tropical strength
mosquito repellent, hydrogen peroxide (for cuts), iodine (for cuts)… the list went on! All of
which I ended up being very thankful for!
The last night before we travelled out to our island where the project is based (Nasonisoni)
we all enjoyed large pizzas and a few cold beers whilst
getting to know each other, both the cold beers and
cheese we would be without for the next two and half
months.
In the Greenforce group there were 6 volunteers, two
from America, one Australian, two from the U.K and one
from Greece, only 3 were there for the full 10 week
duration. Alongside us and staying with us on camp were a
fair sized group of medical students on their medical
electives.
The truck ride to camp was highly amusing due to the road
being more like muddy stone trail meant for… well not
trucks with very little suspension for 3 hours.
Figure 5 – Eleni setting up camp
To say I couldn’t feel my bum may be an understatement.
Everybody’s gear and camp supplies then had to be transported to camp which took a few
runs by our little dive boat. Once on camp we chose our homes for the next ten weeks and
began to clean up and set up camp (somehow Amanda and I got designated the first toilet
clean… not my favourite memory!).
I chose one of the traditional Bures (Figure 6) which I shared with Eleni and Amanda, well
Amanda for the first week until she
got nibbled by a rat… thank you box
mosquito net for not allowing them
to get me!
As we arrived on the Thursday late in
the evening there was still much
cleaning to be done on the Friday
including the building of a new toilet
and tables to eat from, raking and resanding the paths, cleaning of the
kitchen etc.
Figure 6 – Traditional Fijian Bures.
On Saturday some of the already qualified divers went for a fun dive just on the house reef
which set expectations high due to the sighting of a white tip reef shark.
Sunday(s)
On Sunday we had our welcoming ceremony in the village, we were designated to our
families during our period of stay and then proceeded to be introduced to kava. Kava
(otherwise known as grog) is the traditional Fijian drink and is had regularly particularly at
village celebrations and ceremonies. The drink itself is made from the root of a plant which
is bashed down and the mixed with water to produce a chalky muddy water tasting liquid.
Along with its interesting taste it also has mild anaesthetic qualities leaving your lips tongue
and mouth numb and after a few you will need to pee…frequently. Thus making it a delight
which you usually get treated to 10-15+ cups throughout the evening.
Figure 7 – The Kava Circle
Each Sunday from then on we would go to our families and share breakfast with them then
get dressed into our Sunday best and go to church. Church usually lasted for around 2 hours
during which there was a lot of beautiful singing from the choir, but on occasion there
would be different groups of people or the children of the village. It also consisted of some
very eccentric preaching, all of which was in Fijian, but it was great to be so welcomed fully
into their community.
Figure 8 – Ladies in our Sunday best Bula dresses
After church we went and had lunch with our families, which often consisted of some fish
and cassava, which is a root veg and quite starchy. The food was simple and eaten sat on the
floor usually with hands or a spoon. My family always gave me the best of their food, to
which it would be rude not to accept, I would always be served first and fed the most with
constant reminders to “kanna vakka levu, mor levu levu” (spelt very incorrectly) which
means “thank you eat more, eat more”. After our almighty feedings your families would ask
you to rest, often giving you the best bed in the house again it would be rude to decline.
After few hours kip lemon leaf tea was served with cake like snacks and then my ‘tata Nimi’
(dad) would take me to join the kava circle in the community hall for the next few hours
until we would return to camp ‘grogged up’.
Week 2/3
Lectures and Learning
As of Monday we got stuck in. This consisted of roughly 2 lectures a day initially many of
which were based on identification. The first group we tackled was primarily distinguishing
between Acropora and non-acropora hard coral and their life forms. Not only were we
learning identification but actually went into more depth about the hard corals biology and
structure which as interesting. This was done via slideshows, presentations, tests and inwater pointing dives with the onsite marine scientist.
In the water initially matt (the marine scientist) would point to an organism and write out
what it was, which would then develop into us telling him what organism he was pointing
at. This method was applied to most of our identification dives which we were eventually
tested on.
The Acropora hard coral group has a huge number of species each of which are hard to
individually identify past their life forms however non-acropora hard corals can be identified
down to species level. Thus we learnt 30 species of non-acropora coral down to their Latin
names…quite a challenge!
In conjunction with the learning of the corals we started on the 21 species of fish which
were either targeted as a food source or classed as indicators. The list was as follows:
Coral Grouper
Honeycomb Grouper
Bleekers Parrot fish
Bullet head Parrot fish
Bi-colour Parrot fish
Bumper head Parrot fish
Red Snapper
Hump-backed Snapper
Blue stripped Snapper
Thumbprint Emperor
Long faced Emperor
Barred Rabbit fish
Gold spotted Rabbit fish
Dot-dash Goat fish
Morish Idol
Blue fin Trevally
Orange socket Surgeon fish
Hump nose big-eyed Bream
Napoleon Wrasse
Blue Spined Unicorn fish
Week 4
By week 4 we were starting to learn to identify invertebrates and fish families which would
also make up part of our surveys. The invertebrates covered soft corals, bi-valves,
echinoderms, crustaceans etc. Some organisms we learnt down to species level, particularly
sea cucumbers as they are targeted quite heavily for exportation. Other organisms’ were
only down to family level such as Nudibranchs.
The identification of fish families is quite a tricky thing to grasp and record accurately as I
came to find. It is sometimes only tiny indictors you are looking for which will determine
what category it would fall in. This I found came with lots of practise (which we did) with
varying slide shows. Sometimes the pictures that were used to teach were obscure, which is
often in reality how you see them in the water as a diver. Being able to determine at
distance what type of fish you can see, sometimes in less than ideal visibility is quite a skill…
and sometimes simply impossible! We learnt to look for features shapes and colourings for
example the scalpel found on the caudal peduncle on surgeon fish or rabbit fish which have
a narrow caudal peduncle. Thus we also learnt much of fish morphology and applied these
features to identification whether it was tail shapes, singular or two dorsal fins, visible
lateral lines or just markings. All was useful in the survey process but took much testing with
flash cards and ‘pointy dives’ to become astute at it.
Week 5 and 6
It has to happen once in a while in a country with completely different weather, diet and
living conditions… I got ill! Unfortunately for me it wasn’t the 24hour illness it was a really
bad sinus infection which made me feel really rough and unable to dive.
Quite a few days left me in bed just trying to sleep it off and not doing a great deal with
myself at this point I got antibiotics which slowly help me shift it, however I was out of the
water for about 12 days. Towards the end it was mainly due to the fact I simply could not
equalize not because I felt particularly ill so during this time I revised quite a lot with flash
cards and then completed all my written tests (which I am pleased to say I passed). We also
started learning and practising surveying (on land), undoubtedly this must have looked
highly entertaining from and outside prospective, as we navigated the volley ball court full
of ‘marine obstacles’ with our slates, reel, fake surface marker buoy whilst marking down
imaginary fish. The system we used as a team is as below (figure 9), throughout the
different surveys we would rotate roles so as we were all comfortable with the different
survey techniques.
I missed out on the initial in water practice surveys and the in water ID test due to my cold
however I soon caught up as soon as I could equalise. Towards the end of week six I was
back in the water and with all the chance I’d had to revise I soon passed my in water tests
and was ready to survey!
The surveys themselves took place at 12m and 6m and stretched over a 50m reel. When the
weather was at its best we would try to survey the site at 12m and 6m within one dive. The
weather had to be pretty good as it usually meant we would be in the water for over an
hour at which point the cold became a bit of a problem. If it wasn’t ideal we tended to split
the surveys up and so them individually.
50M
Figure 9 – survey technique
During the surveys each diver would be given a role before the dive and they would be
responsible for organising what equipment they needed on the boat and with enough
survey slates to record the necessary data. Diver A would be on Fish species thus recording
any of the 21 target species seen during the dive within a 5m2 radius of the reel they would
also be estimating the size of each fish. Diver B would be recording in exactly the same way
but for fish families. It was important that these were the two surveys done first as at this
point the fish are less disturbed.
As divers A/B (see figure 9) were leading they would set the initial pace (very slow).Whilst
diver A and B were recording diver C would be laying the reel out behind them and in
control of depth and thus direction, as the survey was commanded by depth. For example if
there was a large coral bommy in the path of the survey it would be diver C’s decision which
would be the most appropriate route around the obstacle whiles sticking within a one meter
margins of either 6 or 12m (depending on the survey depth). For this reason the pace had
to be slow so communication between the divers was easier. Diver D initial job was holding
the surface marker buoy (SMB) and noting sight data e.g. Water temp, currents, any other
points of interest aka turtles, sharks etc.
At the 50m cut of point Diver C would tug either A or B’s fin to indicate the end of the fish
surveys at which point the roles reversed C passing A the Reel and D passing B the SMB. D
would be surveying invertebrates thus starting first as this took the longest. The
invertebrate survey was done via a U shaped pattern straying approximately 2.5m either
side of the reel, sticking as close as possible to the benthos so even small inverts could be
spotted and noted with size estimation. Diver C would follow shortly after with the
substrate survey which was taken every 50cm along the reel whether it be Acropora
branching coral, soft coral, dead coral with algae, rubble etc. if there was concavity in
substrate a weight on a 0.5m line would be lowered from the reel to determine what was
exactly at this point, in the case the dip was over 0.5m it would be noted as water. Divers A
and would follow diver B with A collecting in the reel and B staying in close contact.
It roughly took us 40 minutes to conduct one survey although this sometimes varying
depending on the biomass. At which point we would try to conduct a survey at 6m if
required and weather permitting.
Weeks 6-10
( figure 10 is a map of the area in which we were surveying, Navatu is the island where we
were staying (actually called Nasonisoni island Navatu is the village there). Our surveys
ranged within the inner reef and outer reef ranging roughly within the blue box. In total
there was around 20 site specific survey sites within the area all of which needed three 12m
and three 6m surveys. Some of these surveys had been done a recorded this year via
previous phases it was our job to get them all finished. We tried to get two surveys (two
12m and two 6m) completed a day during the week however this was all weather
dependent.
Figure 10 – Map of the Kubalbu district
In the weeks that followed we had some cracking winds which made surge a huge problem
particularly at 6m but also diver safety getting back on to the boat and actually on the boat.
The winds also made you absolutely freezing after being in the water a long time and then
with a 30 minute trip back to camp… quite uncomfortable. Thus occasionally we restricted
to one survey a day or even none during bad storms. When this occurred we concentrated
on getting our data into spread sheets. Alongside our data we had to reformat last phases
data who had only recorded theirs on paper (due to a different lead scientist) quite a
laborious process but an important one to ensure what we were doing was accessible in all
formats.
With all the surveys we had to do we were kept very busy throughout the last 4 weeks,
during which we kept up lectures on different subjects such as marine protected areas
(MPA’s) and the different levels of protection to identification of turtles. Camp life was very
busy with early rises and early evenings to bed as everyone was tired.
Alongside the surveys we had our camp duties (throughout the 10 weeks) which ensured
the camp stayed clean and tidy, raking the paths to keep them clear and occasionally resanding particularly after rain. There was a chore rota for breakfast, which usually consisted
of porridge, then lunch and dinner when you had the opportunity to get creative in the
kitchen. Most days we had some form of fresh bread cooked in our oven which eventually
led to pizzas, minus the cheese due to the lack of a fridge. Food was quite basic with a lot of
tinned food on camp as nothing could be kept cold. Meals included rice, noodles and
potatoes as filler but generally we had a combination of warm generic mush ….Yummy!
Life on camp made you bond with people extremely quickly as we were sharing such a close
proximity to each other with little place to escape for a while. Thus the friends I have made
are also friends for life, all of which I hope to stay in contact with. On camp there was a
volley ball net which we often set games up on or occasional used as the sun bathing patch
(when the sun was shining), I discovered Volley ball is not my forte but good for a giggle. The
snorkelling was also pretty great, if you could brave the sea after being in it already that day
for a long time.
Friday nights were our party night (the only day we could have a drink) if we had a few we
didn’t dive on the Saturday, which was sometimes nice as it allowed you to do other things.
On Fridays we often had fancy dress themes such as ‘Sophisticated Vs. Savage’ or ‘Super
Hero’s’ which we then had
to make our out fits from anything we could gather around camp….highly entertaining!
Drinks on offer were the local beer-warm of course or the local rum, Bounty at 68% it was
like petrol, after one night needless to say I stuck to the beer! We would relax around the
dinner tables or out on the deck where on a clear night the stars were just fantastic!
Figure 11 – ‘The Spit’
We did quite a few different things on Saturdays, there was a beautiful walk around the
coast of the island which on low tide took you to a place we called the spit which was the
personification of paradise (figure 11) where the snorkelling was fab we even took a cricket
set down to have a play, it was beautiful!
I also got the opportunity to visit my family’s farm on the island where they grew there
vegetables such as aubergines, the root veg casava, types of pumpkin, Dalu leef (large green
leaf similar to spinach), papaya, mango’s and of course the root used to make grog! It was
quite far inland and I managed to get eaten alive by mosquitos but it was interesting to see.
After visiting the farm we took their boat out, which consisted of the hull and a pole to push
us along, and we went fishing! It was incredible to see I lent my ‘tata’ some fins and a mask
and snorkel and I took mine, his daughter Va stayed on the boat whilst we duck dived to
spear fish. However this isn’t the traditional spear fishing, it consisted of a slightly pointed
metal rod and a small strip of elastic. But the accuracy and the precision was just incredible
to see I couldn’t believe it. In about an hour and a half we had caught maybe six fish, some
parrot fish and some bristle tooth which are common on their reefs each were put in a split
plastic barrel which was tied to him with a length of rope. My tata explained to me that the
area we were fishing in wasn’t used very often and only for special occasions (this one being
more villagers from the surrounding area coming to Novatu on Sunday for a big church
service). Even when they did fish in this area their fishing techniques are really sustainable,
such as the spear fishing, the nets they used were large and they didn’t take loads of
juveniles etc.
The locals in the district were using our data which was both processed via our marine
scientist but also sent to the local Wild life conservation society (WCS) based in Savusavu.
The WCS completely run by Fijians who then they fed the information to the Kumbalabu
marine conservation comity who held regular meetings in Namalata. Working together they
have created areas that are no fish zones and MPAs’ but also Tambu areas which are no fish
zones for a period of time then rotate to other areas, giving them a chance to recuperate.
Thank you!
I feel very lucky to have been given this opportunity, it has been an incredible experience
from which I have learnt a alot and gained a great deal of insight to the field in which I
intend to make my career. Not only have I been integrated into an amazing culture and
found that Fijians are just as enthusiastic at protecting their local marine environments as I.
On top of that I have also learnt fist hand what it is to be the one gathering the raw data.
There is so much more to it than I anticipated which you can just continue to expand. So
many things are required when a project is in such a remote location with such limited
resources: the organisation behind the projects, the team work, consideration of weather,
the motivation, safety and so much more, particularly when your living in a completely
different environment with little contact with the outside world. It’s the small things such as
foot care or a warm cup or tea after a dive when it’s raining outside and cold that keep
moral up, or considering some others maybe feeling homesick. All these things are
important to make you a good team, make good group of friends and life on camp happy.
Which it definitely was!
Have I gained from it?
Definitely!
Would I recommend it?
Without a doubt!
Would I do it again?
I’m itching to get back!
I don’t think this blog/report does it justice, what I can say it has been incredible! I feel I
have given something back to the local community from which has given me so much in just
allowing the GreenFORCE to be there. The things I have learnt not just by doing (aka the
surveys) but also observing, say if I were the marine scientist on such an expedition in the
future what I would or would not change.
There is no doubt in my mind these will be things I can use in my future and thus all I can say
is a huge thank you to those at the Alasdair Downes memorial fund and those who
contributed, without you this would never have been possible! For that I count myself
incredibly fortunate and very grateful for giving me the experience of a life time!
I hope in the future that I will be in a position to help someone like myself in a similar
situation as I know first-hand what a magnanimous impact it can have. On behalf of myself
and the other young aspiring marine scientists you generously sponsored this year I wish to
give my sincerest thanks!
Gratefully yours,
Lucianne Marshall
NOTE: If anyone has any questions about my summer project please feel free to contact me
via email at: luciannemarshall@hotmail.co.uk