You need to look at this......

I am cross posting this, the pictures are hard to look at, but we need to look at them.

The link is here. The photos are shot in Midway, the parent albatross are bringing home food for their chicks from the ocean, the food is plastics found floating on the ocean. The chicks ingest the plastic brought to them and killing them through choking, toxicity and starvation from the lack of natural food.

Photograph by Chris Jordan

The plastic is not just hurting these birds but all ocean life, the plastics are ingested by many ocean animals as well as the toxins killing and polluting the ocean core.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is another disaster zone twice the size of Texas, consisting of small pieces of plastics.

Please share these images and information, they are horrible to look at but they are real and killing thousands of animals a day.

Try and lessen your plastic use, reuse and recycle properly, this is not nature causing this. Its purely us!

Freezing corals..... for the future....

As a child I grew up dreaming of an ocean full of life and fish, when I started diving, I was amazed at the life that inhabits the ocean and the coral reefs. Even so I will never see the oceans as rich as what they should be.

My worst nightmare is to see the ocean get so depleted that it is destroyed. Coral Reefs recently have been put as between 60 and 98% by 2050 will be gone, now with the new Climate Change meeting in Denmark to start in December, scientists from all over the world, have large decisions to make.

For coral reefs, it may be too late, so some consensus to freeze species is being looked at. Already in Europe there is a huge shelter which is becoming the frozen home to many plant species, corals may soon be joining them.

Is it too late? Its so hard to know, there are so many conflicting stories around the world about the effects of climate change. I believe this, climate change is happening, species are being effected and we as humans need to help protect their existence. Even if you change one small thing in your life, it could be enough to help. You don't have to live near the ocean to make a change.

New Website with Information on Species affected by Climate Change

A new website "350 reasons" has been put out by the Centre for Biological Diversity to highlight the 350 species of flora and fauna that are at risk of extinction due to climate change. I found this on RTseablog.

In December in Copenhagen, Denmark, there is a large Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. There is always a scepticism about climate change, and this website offers a chance to see some direct effects on your hometown areas as well as individual species and how they will be affected.

Sharing information and knowledge is one of the ways that we can become aware of what is going on to the planet.

Mangrove update

This week, we visited the area for the proposed Mangrove Pilot project to asses what area we are going to replant the mangroves.

The village of Koloa and Holeva are our first areas, I have attached some photos of the area that we will be restoring as well as some photos of the terrible damage done to an area in Holeva. The Beche-de-mer (sea cucumber harvesting) involves the taking of mangroves for the drying process, these photos below show how the mangroves have been cut down for this process. The villagers of Holeva are very unhappy about this and we are again working to repair the damage and prevent further losses.

Below is the large area where mangroves have been removed, the area itself measures approx 100m wide and 40m deep from the tide level. For the pilot project we are looking at a smaller area, where we will build a small protecting wall around to stop the pigs from accessing the area. Next week we have a community meeting to discuss the project and to form a small group that will be working to restore their areas.

This will be an on going project, and we hope to have many communities looking at ways to improve and maintain their mangrove areas.

Our conservation group will be getting its new website up and running soon, and we are looking forward to many community projects and awareness campaigns........

Good to see....

Two years ago this beautiful brain coral outside one of the famous snorkel caverns in Vava'u was graffitied with the name David in it.

The coral head is hundreds of years old, and am happy to report is looking healthy, and the damaged area has grown back again.

Pilot Mangrove Project to start this week

A mangrove project that I have been trying to get off the ground, has got the go ahead from VEPA, Vava'u Environmental Protection Association and Tonga Trust.

VEPA is a new committee of teachers, government officers, peace corps and me, in its infancy but starting with some amazing projects, our aims are biodiversity and conservation, education and knowledge sharing and sustainable livelihoods.

Tomorrow, 3 of us will go to the proposed mangrove area and begin mapping and studying the area, the proposal includes replanting mangroves, education, and protecting the communities from natural disasters such as Tsunami and cyclones. The community project will be our pilot project and we are all very excited to get this off the ground and support the village in their goal.......

Mangroves are of huge importance both culturally and environmentally, protecting areas and sustaining use will be of huge benefit to coastal communities and to the species that inhabit them.......

VEPA will soon have its own blog up, and we will cross link the projects and achievements......

Last days

Our whale season is drawing to a close, the whales have been amazing this year. Yesterday we had a sub-adult female flirting with us and the boat. Photos will be posted tomorrow.
Thanks to all our guests, and crew.