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Coral Reef Initiative for the South Pacific

Coral Reef and resource health monitoring

Background

The issues related to this area are, firstly, methodological (developing techniques that are both reliable and user-friendly), secondly, related to using information on habitat (coral reef) health status to advantage and, third, linked to the associated resources, ie fish and invertebrates for consumption. The reef-health monitoring segment is essentially carried out by assisting the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) that has two data collecting and capitalisation nodes for underwater information gathered from Melanesia and Polynesia, the latter being commonly dubbed “Polynesia Mana”. The first node is managed by USP from Fiji and the second by CRIOBE from Moorea with both receiving financial support from CRISP earmarked for training and practical monitoring work. In addition to the financial support provided directly to these organisations, SPREP receives funding under the AFD-UNF partnership to support GCRMN, particularly for extension work with the Coremo software package selected to standardise the simplest to the most complex undersea monitoring data, regardless of the methods used. Finally, the World Fish Centre, which oversees Reefbase Internet portal implementation, is also a stakeholder in developing Coremo and posting GCRMN results on line. Applied research into reef fishery management is being implemented by USP and IRD’s UR 128 CoreUs research unit.

Latest progress

With regard to reef monitoring, all the data capitalised at both nodes were transmitted to the GCRMN officer in late 2007, who then incorporated them into the worldwide report on coral reefs to be published in 2008.

The last exercise of this nature was conducted in 2004. At the Melanesian hub, a training workshop was organised by USP in November 2007 involving the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tuvalu (Yakub 2008). The University also conducted a consultancy to the Solomon Islands as part of a damage assessment exercise following the latest tsunami (Morris 2008).

The resource management support area also made progress, publishing several studies on indicator identification (IRD, Leopold 2007), improved perception of coral habitat characteristics (USP, Roelfsema 2007) and the relationship between fish within the habitat (USP, Saladrau 2008). At the same time, a French student began work at IRD on a thesis covering both New Caledonia and Vanuatu and aimed at improving understanding of the environmental impact of invertebrate harvesting (IRD, Jimenez 2008). USP also began a partly CRISP-funded survey on an unprecedented scale involving a questionnaire covering 1500 households to measure the catch per unit of effort in subsistence fishing.

Brief Review

Since 2005, CRISP financial support has strengthened the Polynesia Mana network with consultancies by the CRIOBE officer to Tokelau, Niue and Kiribati (Vieux 2006a 2006b 2006c). A workshop was held at CRIOBE in 2006 for the widely scattered officers from the Polynesia Mana countries who also received underwater cameras to improve their monitoring performance. At the Melanesian node, the funding was used to enable USP to produce a summary of capitalised monitoring data as at 31 December 2004 and a quarterly newsletter.

In 2006, a coral health assessment was conducted in Fiji (Sykes 2007), as well as temperature data collection so as to improve understanding of the effects of water warming on coral bleaching (Khan 2006). A minor study was also carried out on reef health off the Suva area (Tuxson 2006a). With regard to resource monitoring, IRD concentrated in 2006 on improving fish counting techniques during dives (Leopold and Chabannet 2006) and the possible use of videos for the same purposes (Langlois and Chabannet 2006). A USP student produced a study on subsistence fishing in the Fiji group (Tuxson 2006b). Both these research institutions organised a joint workshop to compare the various fish-counting methods so as better to observe the positive effects of MPAs on Fiji’s fishery resources (Joint 2007).

Bibliography (selection)

  • Bargetto, J. (2008). «Elaboration d’un système d’information sur les récifs coralliens accessible sur internet, Réalisation des modules d’import et d’export des données.» CRISP report 38 pp.
  • Collectif (2007). «Comparison of different UVC methods for assessing the impact of MPAs on reef fish abundance in Fiji». CRISP report 21 pp.
  • Gilbert, A. (2007). «Précision et biais des estimations de la consommation de poisson par enquêtes auprès des ménages. Cas du village de Haapiti, Mooréa». CRISP report 14 pp.
  • Jimenez, T. (2008). «Impacts écologiques de l’exploitation des invertébrés marins dans le Pacifique sud: approche écosystémique de la pêche à pied des récifs coralliens». Thèse de doctorat.
  • Khan, Z. (2006). «Long Term Monitoring of Sea Surface Temperatures». CRISP report 10 pp.
  • Leopold, M. and P. Chabanet (2006). «Indicateurs de suivi des ressources halieutiques, Evaluation de la fiabilité des comptages de poissons en surface». CRISP report 20 pp.
  • Langlois, T., P. Chabannet, et al. (2006). «Using baited underwater video for assessing coral reef fish populations on marine protected areas.» SPC Fisheries bulletin 118: 53-57.
  • Leopold, M. (2007) «Social and ecological indicators for coral reef fisheries assessment». CRISP report 15 pp.
  • Morris, C. (2008). «Report mission (July-August 2007) in Solomon islands for a post-tsunami assessment contribution.» CRISP report 12 pp.
  • Roelfsema, C. (2007). «Cost Effective Mapping of tropical benthic habitats : a study into integrated field and/or remote sensing approaches». CRISP report 18 pp.
  • Saladrau, W.R. (2008). «Examination of the relationship between coral reef fish habitats at Navutulevu (Fiji)». CRISP report. 43 pp.
  • Sykes, H. (2007). «Status of Coral reefs in the Fiji Islands, 2006, Fiji Coral Reef Monitoring Network». 20 pp.
  • Tuxson, T. (2006a). «General Reef health assessment of Suva harbour». CRISP report 16 pp.
  • Tuxson, T. (2006b). «The Status of the Subsistence Fishery Resources of Rotuma Island, Fiji». CRISP report 21 pp.
  • Vieux, C. (2006a, 2006b, 2006c). «Establishment of a coral reef monitoring program in Tokelau, Niue and Kiribati». CRISP mission reports 34 pp.
  • Yakub, N. (2008). «South West Pacific node Reef monitoring training–12-16th November 2007». CRISP report. 11 pp.

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