Final report on the Pilot Dredging Project - Funafuti, Tuvalu : assessment of ecological impacts on lagoon communities

Abstract

In March 1992 the South Pacific Applied Geo-science Commission (SOPAC) implemented a pilot dredging scheme in Funafuti, Tuvalu. The purpose of the dredging operations, which were to continue for most of the easterly season of that year was to collect and move approximately 25,000m3 of sediments from Funafuti Lagoon to fill borrow pits created during the construction of an aircraft runway on the island of Fogafale. In practice, the dredging works continued until the end of August 1993, with a recess during the 1992/1993 westerly season. The Pilot Dredging Project itself was implemented with two main objectives: • to test the feasibility of using lagoon materials for filling the borrow pits; and • to monitor the effects of the dredging and filling programme on the environment.