Rarotonga fore reef community survey for 2009

Abstract

Previous reef surveys on Rarotonga have shown that the crown-of-thorns outbreak in the late 1990s degraded the fore reefs to its current state departure of corals. The 2006 survey indicated that average coral cover at most sites were less than 5%, however it was noted that recovery was occurring. This is consistent with the present survey, which indicated that most sites have doubled their average percent coral cover after three years with some sites showing a greater than three-fold increas.