Gau Island, Fiji
Baseline Assessments Necessary for Management
Tikina Sawaieke makes up the largest district or tikina in Gau, an island with land area of approximately 190 square kilometers. Two out of the 8 villages are WWF project sites in which communities are assisted in developing and implementing their locally managed marine protected areas (LMMAs). Prior to any management, an understanding of how much resources and types of resources that exist are essential. Although the focus is on two communities of the district, the overall habitat health and diversity is not bound by qoliqoli boundaries, therefore a baseline assessment provided a broader scale with enough precision on detailed surveys to define existing habitats.
Earlier in February 2005, a team of divers traveled to the island and conducted a week-long community survey training and its baseline biological assessment of Tikina Sawaieke’s I qoliqoli (traditional fishing grounds). Since the initiation of the project, a project officer was based at the community site, Sawaieke. The 4-member marine team which included a Fisheries official, a seagrass watch volunteer, a marine science technical person and a dive master volunteer, both from LäjeRotuma Initiative a community partner in conservation with WWF Fiji Country Program. The team conducted a 2-day basic coral reef survey training for 3 selected community members certified in SCUBA diving previously acquired for beche-de-mer collection.
An extensive 20km barrier reef located 7km from shore protects the deep lagoon which characterizes the entire coastline of Tikina Sawaieke. Scoping revealed a diverse array of habitats ranging from extensive seagrass meadows, muddy shores and mangroves which line the shoreline. The extensive barrier reef is cut by only a few channels, one of which is a known aggregation and popular diving site, called Naigali Channel. The deep lagoon hosts a patch work of inner patch reefs.
Survey results indicate that highest coral cover was found at inner patch reefs. The tabu no fishing areas selected by the communities covered from headland to headland near the main village, making for easy surveillance by community. However, habitats and sites surveyed indicated no significant difference in coral cover and fish abundance when compared with areas under protection. This marine biological baseline assessment of Tikina Sawaieke’s marine resources is the first attempt to map habitat health and is an initial step towards providing information for the establishment and monitoring of protected or tabu areas.
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