Rarotonga fore reef community survey for 2014

Abstract

Coral reef monitoring on Rarotonga has been ongoing for around20 years, with surveys conducted in 1994, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011, and this present survey in 2014. Results from these surveys showed that the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) outbreak that occurred from 1995 to 2001,and to a lesser extent storm surge associated with the 2003 to 2005 cyclone sand several coral bleaching events, were the main causes of the degraded state of Rarotonga's fore reef communities for much of the 2000s. While the 2006 survey indicated that mean hard coral cover for all sites were around 1%, it was noted that conditions were set for recovery to occur. Mean coral cover was around 5%in 2009, around 8% in 2011, and 16% in 2014, which clearly showed that coral communities on the fore reef has been recovering since 2006.In support, coral size class data also showed a significant increase of larger colonies in 2014 when compared with 2006.