Establishing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is a common strategy to conserve marine ecosystem and to enhance the recovery of degraded systems. Large MPAs have been shown to be very effective, while the effectiveness of small MPAs (here <1km²) is still discussed. Small MPAs might not be sufficient in size to …
The REPICORE team headed back out to the Pacific in mid-June, only this time the final destination was not a Melanesian island but a Polynesian one – Oahu in Hawai’i. Instead of fieldwork, the purpose of this trip was to attend the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Honolulu, …
Coral reefs are a food source for millions of people in the tropics, but many do not deliver the expected catch any more. What influences fish abundance in these environments? An international team of 39 researchers explored this question on 2,500 reefs in 46 countries and collected a tremendous amount …
So it seems that Fiji has been unable to escape the extreme water temperatures of the 2015/2016 El Niño after all. Two of our team members (Steven and Ryan) last week reported temperatures in Savusavu (on the south of Vanua Levu) rising to over 35°C in shallow reefs. Further west …
The transition from fieldwork into a laboratory is an interesting one; from days baking in the sun (or soaking in the rain) filled with carrying tanks and diving gear, spending hours underwater and living in a wetsuit to days sitting in a lab, wearing a lab coat, dealing with corrosive …
Tiles at our deeper site within the tabu (closed to fishing) area fixed onto pavement and secured at an angle to prevent sedimentation. One of the tiles which was adjusted to contain a microstructure, with 196 holes (1mm deep) on both the top and underside. A coral recruit from within …
After drilling 18242 (!) 1mm deep holes into 140 sandstone tiles, several methodological discussions, an unknown number of trips to hardware stores and many dives, we have finally completed the tile installation at Namuka Reef, near to Suva. We are interested in three different questions here; (i) how do locally …
The first short village stay has just been completed by the benthic and fish teams of REPICORE who have just returned to Suva following a brilliant nine days at Dakuibeqa village. Together with our compressor, dive tanks, gear, fuel, and gifts of Kava, we loaded …
