Environmental monitoring on Pukapuka Tuesday October 07, 2014 Written by Amelia Borofsky Published in Outer Islands Marine resources staff on location for their lagoon survey in Pukapuka. 14100607 Three representatives from the Ministry of Marine Resources are on a two-week visit to Pukapuka as part of an EU-funded project. The project is entitled “Environmental Monitoring to Enhance Community Livelihoods and Build Resiliency to Climate Change in Low Lying Atolls of the Cook Islands.” The project has three main components – first to survey the lagoon to see the baseline resources and explore the possible economic value of sea cucumbers, second to put up sheltered notice boards, and third to look at the ava supply. The three marine representatives, Kori Raumea, Ngare George and Manoko Amosa have been working alongside Tai Lavalua and Movingi Maia to survey the Pukapuka lagoon. For the last week the group dove and recorded the invertebrates in the lagoon. Before the survey, they held a pule, cleaned their snorkels with noni leaves and marked findings on underwater recording paper. The work went relatively quickly because they found so little. “They told us there was hardly anything in the lagoon,” said Ngare George, “and it’s true.” Overall, the lagoon in terms of coral, water quality and species was “not the best.” Ngare George said the coral life, which feeds so much of other life in the lagoon, “was mostly bleached and broken coral. It is slowly recovering with a little bit of new coral forming, but there are no big live branching corals.” In five days of surveying specified areas, they found only three paua and a few rori. They found one large invertebrate, which Kori Raumea remarked he had never seen before. Tai Lavalua said, “It’s called an ulunga wonu, a turtle pillow.” The brown and white speckled shell looked fit for a turtle to sleep on. Members of the local fishing association remarked, “we already know there is little in the lagoon and the paua died out. We want solutions and action.” Kori Raumea said that Pukapuka is known for having excellent traditional management in place and that “the best way to see how to help is to see what is out there.” Or in the case of the Pukapuka lagoon, to see what is not out there. While the Ministry of Marine Resources planned to investigate possible sea cucumber species along the lines of food security, everyone in Pukapuka focused their concerns on the diminished payua or paua. “Where have all the payua gone?” asked members of the fishing club. A number of local fishermen and the team had various speculations about the death of the once plentiful paua in the Pukapuka lagoon, which began to decline in the early eighties. Kori Raumea said, “It’s a combination of a lot of different factors.” Outboard motors, over harvesting, the blasting of the American passage into the reef, the changing current, two shipwrecks and oil spills, not enough oxygen in the water, the lack of seaweed, included some of the reasons for the death of the highly-prized and delicious paua. While climate change could also be a contributing factor, it has not adversely affected the supply of paua in the Manahiki and Penryhn lagoons. “The question remains,” said vice-president of the fishing club Pati Lavalua, “why do the other islands in the northern group still have paua in their lagoons and we don’t. We need an answer and to find a way to bring it back. If you want to talk about food security instead of just surveying that is what we actually need.” To questions of bringing the paua back Kori Raumea shared his experiences from Aitutaki of bringing in juveniles and spawning them in a paua hatchery. “It’s a long-shot,” said Raumea, “but it’s possible.” While the team investigated sea cucumbers, locals focused on paua. No conclusions were yet reached regarding the improvement of the once plentiful ava supply. The Ministry of Marine Resources called it “a very fruitful visit with surveying, community meetings, and notice boards.” The local fishing club members said they appreciated the visit, but wanted answers as to why there was so little in the lagoon and to move towards follow-up action of how to improve the coral and the once plentiful paua in Pukapuka lagoon.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 23:05:56 +0000