Something to make you smile

This was sent to us by a friend, if nothing else, it will make you happy for a while......

First Mum and Calf

What a wonderful sight it is to see a Mother and Calf, 15th July was for me the first one this season. The calf was very small and stayed very close to its mother, we left them alone after a few minutes, so that they can settle down into their new lives together.

For us the bond of a mother and calf is very special and we take great means not to intrude on the behaviors that are needed for survival. Calves will feed on and off during the day, to gain approx 100kg in weight per day. The mum as she is not feeding loses a lot of her body weight whilst she is here. 

Watching mother and calves is a very special event, to see the interaction and communication that mother and calf share is something that stays with you for the rest of your life.

A Beautiful Day

The South Pacific Humpback Whale have arrived back in the waters of Vava'u, we had a few glorious whale day last week (the weather was not so co-operative), but what a show.

Breaching, tail slapping, singers and curious juveniles made the week a wonder.

Lots more to come as the season winds up.

Tonga National Whale Day 2008

This year IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) launched the National Day for Whales with the new report on Whale Watching in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Despite some rain we had a great day with string bands, dancing and kids activities. The National Day for Action is a prelude to the IWC which opens in Chile soon. We hope that all our actions go together across the world to save the plight of the whales worldwide but closer to home our beautiful South Pacific Humpback Whale.

Over 60 towns are running whale days all across the South Pacific, but as always Vava'u in the Kingdom of Tonga was one of the first.

Photos to come.............. well done to all.

Times are changing...............

Our new boat DevOcean has arrived in Vava'u and kept us busy putting the finishing touches too her.

Our clean up on the 19th went very well, we pulled out a full truck worth of rubbish including chandeliers, kids bikes and lots of pvc pipe.

The reef check day which was carried out by Claudia, Karyn, Bruno and myself gave us a baseline structure for continuing surveys. We hope to get out there in a week or so to take another one.

Most importantly the Reef Awareness Day was a great success, we had over 20 children turn up to join in the activities.  Presents were donated by local operators, many thanks to all of them and each kid walked away with a prize.

Andrea Soole passed her Junior Open Water at the end of May, my head is still spinning from all the forward rolls. A great new diver to add to our club.

More coming soon, busy at BTFE BULA in Fiji...........

Sorry, time flies.......

Time seems to slip away from me recently, and before we know it we are a quarter of the way into 2008.

What have we been up to? A lot of diving which has been great, Brad Davies passed his Divemaster course and Paul Bragg recently passed his Open Water course, so well done to those guys.

What is coming up? We have a busy couple of weeks, Monday 14th we are taking Coral Reefs studies, in conjunction with Coral Watch, to monitor the health of the reefs here in Vava'u. Our avid Dive Group members are assisting with this, and we are looking forward to the event.

19th April, we are planning a big underwater clean up of the harbour.

26th April is our  Coral Reef Awareness day - aimed at kids and parents alike, the day will be filled with art competitions, colouring competitions and quizzes all to do with the coral reef.

In case you are wondering, 2008 is the International Year of the Reef, our projects are not limited to one time but will be on going through out 2008. Coral Reefs are a vital and important ecosystem to not only the ocean but to our lives here on terra firma.  

Sad Day

The attachment to this page displays some very graphic photos of a mother and calf Minke Whale, which were hunted down and killed by the Japanese Whaling ship last week.

With the Sea Shepherd Vessel "The Steve Irwin" and the Greenpeace vessel "Esperanza" out of Antarctic waters, the Japanese Vessel, Nissin Maru, has had no opposition, only watched by the Australian customs boat "Oceanic Viking:, as they slaughtered 5 whales within a week. These graphical images show how there is no remorse in the whalers on these boats.

Greenpeace has launched a campaign to ask Fujio Mitara, the CEO of Cannon, to step forward and speak on behalf of the whales and against the whalers. Cannon has always been noted as supporting conservation, and lets hope that some people speak up from inside Japan about what is going on. I know many Japanese people, who avidly follow whales, who care for the ocean in the same way, and who want nothing more than to protect the magnificent mammals. Let us all, hope and continue with our goal to protect and defend these mammals, as well as many other species that are threatened by human impact and killings. For those people that can and will speak up, please do, and for those that are unable, continue behind the scenes, doing all that you can to help.