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Effects of whale-based tourism in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga: Behavioural responses of humpback whales to vessel and swimming tourism activities

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Bollard, B

Fiori, L

Martinez, E

Orams, M B

Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga, is a well-established whale-watching destination in the South Pacific. Between July and October, the waters around the archipelago represent one of the most important breeding grounds for Oceania humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). The Tongan government allows tourist swimming activities with whales and tour operators strongly promote the practice of swimming-with-whales, focusing primarily on mother-calf pairs. However, there is increasing evidence, derived from empirical research on swim-withcetacean tourism, that this kind of interaction affects cetacean behaviour and can lead to negative effects on the cetaceans involved. This study represents the first assessment of humpback whales’ behavioural responses to vessel and swimmer approaches in Vava’u. Fifty-six surveys took place during the 2016 and 2017 whale breeding seasons aboard dedicated research and tour vessels. Whale dive time, number of reorientation events, and respiration rates were documented in both the absence and presence of boats and swimmers. Vessel approach type, swimmer placement, and whale avoidance responses were also recorded

Marine Spatial Planning - The Oceans 7 Process in Tonga

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

The Tongan Government recognized the important of spatial management, including of its ocean, since 2012, with the launch of their National Spatial Planning Act. In 2015, for the first time in Tongan history, three Ministries submitted a joint paper to Cabinet to initiate marine spatial planning for the nation (Ministries of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change & Communications (MEIDECC); Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR); and Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries (MAFFF)). Through this paper, on 22 July 2015 Cabinet decided that cross-sectoral planning and coordination for integrated ocean management was needed. Thus, the Oceans 7 was established (Tonga’s marine spatial planning technical working group). The Oceans 7 is co-chaired by the three Ministries that prepared the original cabinet paper and also includes four other Ministries (thus comprising the Oceans “7”).

New Life for the Ocean - How Marine Protections Keep Our Waters Wild

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Blackledge, S

Horrox, J

Lamp, K

The ocean drives the processes that make our planet capable of supporting life, and contains some of the world’s most complex and diverse ecosystems.1 But these ecosystems are increasingly under threat. Pollution, overfishing, offshore drilling and other human activities are destroying ocean habitat and threatening marine species, with profound consequences for the biodiversity on which the health of our ocean depends.2 A growing number of scientists and conservationists are coalescing around the goal of protecting at least 30 percent of the world’s ocean by 2030 through networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) – protected zones of ocean where extractive and destructive human activity is limited.

Minimizing cross-relam threats from land-use change: A national-scale conservation framework connecting land, freshwater and marine system

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Atkinson, S.

Peterson, N

Possingham, H P

Tulloch, V J D.

et al.

There is a growing recognition that conservation strategies should be designed accounting for cross-realm connections, such as freshwater connections to land and sea, to ensure effectiveness of marine spatial protection and minimize perverse outcomes of changing land-use. Yet, examples of integration across realms are relatively scarce, with most targeting priorities in a single realm, such as marine or freshwater, while minimizing threats originating in terrestrial ecosystems. To date, no study has optimized priorities across multiple realms to produce a spatially explicit integrated conservation plan that simultaneously accounts for multiple human activities at a national scale. This represents a major gap in the application of existing cross-realm planning theory. We present a national scale conservation framework for selecting protected areas using a case study of Papua New Guinea (PNG) that integrates multiple systems and ecological connectivity to account for cross-realm benefits and minimize threats of land-use and climate change. The relative importance of both the forests and inshore reef environments to PNG subsistence and commercial livelihoods emphasizes the importance of considering the connections between the land and sea. The plan was commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority and identifies a comprehensive set of priorities that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. Our national-scale prioritization framework is useful for agencies and managers looking to implement actions given multiple objectives, including watershed management and biodiversity protection, and ensures actions are efficient and effective across the land and sea.

Mitochondrial DMA Profiling to Combat the Illegal Trade in Tortoiseshell Products

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Bell, I P

Dutton, P H

Frey, A

Hof, C A M

Jensen, M P

LaCasella, E L

Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are exploited for their beautiful shell known as tortoiseshell or bekko, making them extremely vulnerable in the illegal global trade of tortoiseshell products. In this study, we developed an effective, standardized method using a commercially available kit to extract DNA and obtain informative mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences (∼800 bp) from hawksbill turtle products in order to trace the sample back to a likely stock origin. We also sequenced additional skin samples from nesting beaches of Milman Island, Australia and Arnavon Island, Solomon Islands to add to the baseline data for hawksbill turtles in the Indo-Pacific. Our results indicate that nine of the 13 tortoiseshell products obtained from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands were from turtles with haplotypes found primarily at the Solomon Islands rookery and did not match those from nesting populations in Australia or SE Asia, with the exception of one haplo type also found in 3% of turtles at Milman Island. We also found that 23% of the market samples have haplo types only documented in foraging populations, which illustrates the urgent need for more extensive sampling of rookeries to fill gaps in the reference baseline database. Nevertheless, our study results demonstrate an effective methodology for obtaining DNA of sufficient quantity and quality from hawks bill turtle products.

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Battie, A

Bradshaw, C J A

Ehrlich, P R

et al.

We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little attention and require urgent action. First, we review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed. The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeform including humanity is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts. Second we ask what political or economic system, or leadership, is prepared ti handle the predicted disasters, or even capable of such actions. Third, this dire situation places as extraordinary responsibility on scientists to speak out candidly and accurately when engaging with government, business and the public.

Battling Invasive Species Session

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB

Available Online

PRISMSS

Invasive species are a key issue for biodiversity and ecosystem resilience in the Pacific. This session will take you on a journey through the Pacific with 28 Invasive Species Battler’s, experts and donors. We will update you on the current state of invasive species in the Pacific, some of their impacts, some challenges and some solutions.

Taveuni Participatory 3D Modelling Exercise, 19-27 October 2016, Somosomo, Fiji: activity report

SPREP Publications, Climate Change Resilience, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

The project fulfilled its brief to produce a 3-dimensional model covering the entire Taveuni Island and surrounding iQoliqoli boundaries. The model demostrates the breadth of Islanders knowledge about protected areas, agriculture, tourism, key species of flora and fauna, and the marine and terrestrial environments. Interesting inclusions were the locations of the tagimaucia flowering plant, several waterfalls and the Taveuni Forest Reserve - all key elements to be considered in the PEBACC process.

SPREP Pacific Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Climate Change (PEBACC) Project Overview (Video)

SPREP Publications, Climate Change Resilience, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

The overview of the Pacific Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change.

Vanua as Environment: Conservation, Farming, and Development in Waitabu, Fiji

Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

Lin, H L

This dissertation examines the relationship between contemporary development projects and the Fijian idea vanua which is commonly translated as “land” but entails meanings of people, community, and custom. Often treated as a rigid cosmological entity with its own cultural order, in this dissertation I argue that when viewed as an environmental framework in which historical actors and ideas are constantly moving in and out, vanua is actually flexible, open-ended, and has the capacity to interact and collaborate with contemporary development projects such as environmental conservation and commercial farming. This capacity is built from the entanglement of diverse historical forces (e.g. indigenous politics, pre-colonial capitalism, colonial policies) which still resonate in the environment today, and is able to affect the realization of the universal values (e.g. environmentalism, development) intended to be introduced. Here I use a small coastal village called Waitabu located on Taveuni Island as the ethnographic setting to demonstrate how these processes are played out.

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