Click here to download our brochure as a pdf file.

The Tabu committee inspecting the material for the marker buoys. They were sponsored and fabricated by Tony and David Philp of Trade Winds Marine, thanks a lot!

Roko Tuni made the cement weights for the buoys.

Last week we brought out the buoys marking the no-fishing zone with Tuni and Maikeli.

We visited the schools in Makadru and Yaroi village to raise awareness for sustainable use of resources.

On November 3 the minister blessed the zone: “We were put on this earth to cultivate and guard all that God gave to us…”

We’ll keep supporting the Tabu, so the villages can maintain and patrol it. A big thank you goes out to all our friends and supporters who helped this project with donations!!!

This week we’ve been running around in Suva organising things and there’s great progress. Thanks a lot to all those who have supported us here:

Vinaka to Tony Philp of the Tradewinds Marine Group (including the Yachtshop, Vuda Marina and Coprashed Marina) for sponsoring buoys and ground tackle as well as fuel barrels, so the islanders can mark the Tabu area and patrol it!

Vinaka to David Philp from the Fibreglass Shop for building these buoys!

Vinaka to Liti Mariravula for translating our info brochure about permanent no-fishing tabu zones!
Vinaka to Isabell Derenthal for designing those brochures!
Vinaka to Tiki Waqanivere for taking the brochures along and spreading the word about sustainable fishing in Ono-i-Lau!

And we would also like to thank the crews of SY Vesper, SY Dash, SY Sugarshack, and SY Marcato who are sending medical supplies, second-hand clothes, sunglasses, ropes, etc. along

Why are Tabu (no fishing) areas necessary?

Communities in the Pacific Islands have successfully managed and protected their coastal marine areas for many hundreds of years.
But nowadays the oceans and their fish suffer from global changes like
- increasing human populations
- climate change
- pollution
Also the local fishing around the islands has changed:
- outboards
- flashlights for night-time fishing
- freezers to store fish
As soon as the fishing is no longer meant to feed the island population, but to export for profit, reef fishing is not sustainable, because the resources of a reef are very limited!
When implemented successfully, tabu areas have the potential to ensure fishing remains sustainable and will provide marine resources for future generations. For communities, a key motivation is that tabu areas will result in improved catches of seafood in nearby fishing areas. However, tabu areas must be carefully designed and managed to achieve this aim. They should implement a variety of habitats and be big enough to allow the fish to move without leaving the boundaries immediately. When the numbers of fish have already substantially decreased it is also difficult to reverse the process.
The key is to protect early enough while there is still a healthy reef with a variety of fish!

Why a permanent Tabu?
Research shows that only complete, permanent closures are successful. They provide the time species need to grow, breed and in some cases, recover to benefit the region. This can take many years for some species. The benefits of an area closed for several years can be eroded after only one day of being re-opened to fishing. Effective tabu areas need permanent closure to protect big fish that are much more reproductive than small fish (super breeders) and guarantee overflow around the protected zone.

The Tabu zone must be big enough
The size of tabu areas is also critical to their success. Tabu areas on fringing reefs should protect from the shore across the reef flat and out past the reef crest to ensure all species in the area are offered protection. The size of the tabu area will depend on the life cycle and natural range of movement of the protected fish species. If the tabu is not big enough to cover all endangered species it makes sense to protect these species even outside the tabu! For example no shark fishing all around the island, no grouper fishing during the spawning season, etc.

Tabu area location
Coral reefs, seagrass and mangroves provide critical habitat for many marine animals, for spawning (e.g. reef fish), feeding (e.g. turtles) and as nursery areas (e.g. for reef fish and sharks). Tabu areas should include habitats that support different life cycle stages. For example many fish babies need the protection of mangrove forests to grow up, later they spend their adult lives on coral reefs.

So why are coral reefs so important?
They protect the shoreline from storms and surge water. Barrier reefs reduce waves, buffer the shores and prevent erosion.
They form a protected habitat for a huge variety of fish.
Most corals and sponges as well as clams are filter feeders, so they contribute to enhanced quality and clarity of our near shore waters.
Communities can achieve a sustainable income from eco-tourism and dive tourism if they have a healthy reef with many attractions (big fish, turtles, sharks)
But all around the world reefs are damaged and dying because of
• Global warming
• Pollution
• Overfishing
NO REEF NO FISH!

Reefs need a balanced eco-system
Coral reefs support an incredible diversity of fish. Everything from lobsters and octopus to sea turtles and dolphins depend on the reef for food, habitat and protection. Each animal plays an important role in the reef ecosystem, by filtering water, consuming prolific algae or keeping a particular species under control. These balanced relationships keep the marine ecosystems diverse and abundant with life.
Sharks eat sick fish and prevent the spreading of diseases.

Turtles eat dangerous jelly fish and keep seaweed under control.

Parrot fish and other herbivore fish are the cleaners of the reef: They eat seaweed and algae, keep the rocks clean, so that coral can grow back.

If there is overfishing, there are not enough fish to clean the coral, so damaged coral cannot recover…
A reef can only recover from damage if it contains a balanced eco-system and if there are enough fish to clean it!
NO FISH, NO REEF!

During our second visit in Matuku we started raising awareness for sustainability among the villagers, starting with the kids (drawing colourful parrot fishies and talking about their role in the eco-system) and finally doing presentations for the chiefs and headmen about the problem of overfishing. We found that the fishermen were already concerned about dropping numbers of fish and eager to hear solutions for sustainable fishing. We explained our experiences among Pacific Islands and suggested installing no-fishing areas.

Returning to Matuku in February, we were happy to hear that some villages were planning to implement no-fishing-zones, but then we had a horrible boat accident while scouting out a possible location for a tabu on the Southern side of the island, that left me with serious injuries and ended fatal for Maikeli Tamani, the headman of Makadru village…

A week after the accident we managed to sail back to Suva and only after having x-rays and a CT scan done, did we finally realise how serious my injuries were. 5 broken ribs, a pneumothorax and a partially torn triceps tendon…

Spending my days on the sofa in Pitufa’s salon without being able to move around, I started contemplating how we could turn the accident into something positive. My idea of buying medical equipment for the hospital in Matuku failed due to bureaucratic hurdles, but we wanted at least to help the villagers implementing their marine protection area.

We tried to raise local interest in Matuku and the planned Tabu by giving an interview to the Fiji Sun newspaper

We kept in touch with “our island” and are now happy to announce that the final decision to install 3 big, permanent no-fishing-zones! has been made!

The villages of Matuku will need some financial help installing and patrolling their Marine Reserve.

It may sound presumptuous to ask for money for our little project here in times of war and crises, but maybe you’d still like to help us out. You can either do this on the spot by anchoring your yacht in Matuku to enjoy the wonderful snorkeling on the pristine reef and put your donation straight into the “Marine reserve boxes” that will be with the headmen of the neighbouring villages Yaroi and Lomati. Or you could press the “donate button” below this entry and do a paypal transfer. We’ll publish all sums and the names of donors as comments here on the blog (unless you mention in the paypal transfer that you’d rather stay anonymous)

We have seen so many reefs here in Fiji that have been fished empty, either by locals trying to make a short-term profit with exporting fish, or even by visiting fishermen (many of those who have emptied their own reefs now raid remoter islands…), but some islands in the Lau group still feature pristine reefs, where overfishing only recently has started (mostly with the arrival of electricity, thus freezers and a way to export). When we first visited Matuku last year in July, we were impressed by the healthy reefs there, but talking to fishermen we found that they had already noticed a decline in fish. We started sharing info, explained the good and bad examples we had seen on other islands (e.g. empty, dead reefs in Tahiti, thriving fish and coral on the permanently protected side of Rapa Iti) and tried to raise awareness for the problems they would face if they kept overharvesting. We sailed to Matuku again last October and yet again in February this year and each time the plans to install Tabu areas became more concrete–visiting the planned protection area on the S side of the island we then had our terrible boat accident that cost Maikeli Tamani (the headman of one of the villages) his life and left me with injuries that are still healing.

Until recently Matuku had no internet and we only kept in touch with occasional phone calls on a landline with a very bad connection. When we heard that all the headmen and chiefs would travel to Suva for a conference that would lay down fishing rights (among lots of other things) we decided to head to Suva as well–to find out details and to maybe help with finalising issues. Meeting the headmen of Lomati (the village next to the pass) and Yaroi (the main village) we were hoping that they had agree on a little Tabu and were prepared to bring some more arguments for a permanent fishing ban, instead of a (more common) limited protection. Imagine our surprise when Tuni (the young, ambitious headman of Yaroi) outlined a huge area on the satellite pics we had prepared on our laptop. He almost seemed offended that we had doubted them. “You showed us the facts, so we did what’s necessary”–if only the world leaders had that much common sense, then global problems like climate change and pollution could be tackled and solved efficiently (instead of promising measures until 2030 or 2040…)

So this is a big success for the people of Matuku who will have sustainable fishing on a long-term basis (if climate change and pollution won’t wipe out all reefs) and hopefully more islands of Fiji will follow their example. It’s easy to lose all hope for the environment when you read the daily news about yet another catastrophe and yet another regress in legislations concerning protection as the people are still striving for short-term profit instead of thinking of the future and realising that we’re all doomed if we keep mistreating our planet like we’ve been doing for too long. “A further rise of soil sealing in Austria”, “Norway allowing deep sea mining”, one deliberately done catastrophe in Ukraine after the other–and that’s just an abstract of what we read on the news while having coffee this morning. I hope that the good news from our little corner of the world will make your day!

So what can we do?
- Parrot fish are the most efficient cleaners of the reef, so if you are spearfishing (which you shouldn’t as most reefs are overfished already) please don’t kill any parrot fish!
- Don’t buy parrot fish from locals and make sure it’s not in the dish you order at the restaurant.
- Explain to the local fishermen and women why these fishies are so important for their reefs. By fishing them out they are actively destroying their future income… Most locals don’t know about the importance of parrot fish!

Coral reefs provide shelter for an enormous biodiversity and supply the islanders with sustainable food (if they don’t export reef fish and make sure not to overfish key species). Make it clear to them: NO REEF, NO FISH!
Most people don’t know that the coral reef relies on herbivore fish to keep it clean and healthy. Explain: NO FISH, NO REEF!

Here are two links that summarise the impact of el Niño and the role parrotfish have in the eco-system pretty well and help you arguing in favour of our colourful cleaner friends.

1. We went out with Maikeli to take pictures of the pass in order to include them in a government report to get funding for the installation of a tabu non-fishing area. To be honest, we kindled that idea with the headmen and chiefs of Matuku during our last visit–they still have areas with wonderful coral and a healthy fish population, but the signs of overfishing are already there. We convinced them that protecting early means securing the future of their subsistence fishing and were happy to see a wildfire of planned tabu areas going through all 7 villages. At the risk of sounding theatrical, Maikeli basically died for the idea of sustainable fishing for the future of the island–he wanted a night-time ban on spearfishing in a permanent tabu area and a smaller core zone with no spear-fishing at all. We would therefore like to organise funding to help them with the Tabu. It’s not much money probably, just to buy some buoys to mark it, a ceremony to start it off so people will know about it and respect it and fuel to do occasional patrols with a longboat around the island to ensure the night-time tabu is observed once installed.

2. We experienced how dreadful it feels to have seriuos injuries and no way to diagnose them. Matuku has a hospital, doctor and nurse, but no medical equipment apart from some hospital beds and a small pharmacy. Talking to the islanders we found many who had suffered fractures during a fall or similar accident, which went untreated and only were diagnosed too late when they eventually made it to Suva. E.g. our host Jiko, the chief of Lomati, broke his jaw once, survived drinking milk for a month and when he got to Suva finally (he was already to chew soft things at that point) the doctors told him they could either leave the jaw, or break and reset it–of course he took the first option… We are wondering whether we could get a used x-ray machine for the hospital to help the doc with diagnoses. This would serve not only Matuku, but also the neighbouring islands of Totoya and Moala. Dr. Etuwate was thrilled about our idea and has approached his superiors about it.

If you would like to help us organise these projects for Matuku,
if you would like to support the funding,
if you have contacts with companies of medical equipment,
if you know doctors/medical centres who might want to donate a used x-ray machine as they are upgrading their equipment,
please get in touch!

Europe is struggling to help the victims of the dreadful war in the Ukraine and with the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, but hopefully we can still raise interest in the hardships and problems of the little islands of Fiji…

Here’s a picture of Maikeli and me working on the Tabu report just 2 days before the accident…

We usually try to raise awareness for local environmental problems, so we started with the kids, watched some videos about parrotfish, explained and let them draw a poster and many colourful parrotfish while some adults were watching and listening. A start.
Next there was a first-aid course held by the red cross and not just nurses, but also some chiefs and headmen were there, so I seized the opportunity, told them about our experiences in other Pacific countries, showed them some shocking pictures of dead reefs and much to my surprise they were eager to hear more and learn about the causes to avoid the same happening to their island.
We were invited to do a presentation at another assembly and now Matuku will get several “tabu” areas (like the rahui in Polynesia) where fish will be protected to ensure a sustainable use of the resources (like islanders must have traditionally done for hundreds of years anyway, or they would have long starved to death).