Expedition Log: May – July, 2007

Our voyage from Papua New Guinea to Fiji was a challenging one as we headed into the steady blow of the south east trades.  For the first few days, we all struggled with the strange angles caused by Infinity’s motion against wind and current, but eventually our life settled into the rhythm of a glorious one month voyage, with a weekend stop in Port Vila, Vanuatu to assess the standing rigging and avail of the delights of a heavily French-influenced city. 

Gaie and Laser from Los Angeles and Heather from Northern Ireland joined us upon arrival in Suva, Fiji and within days a plan had emerged for our three month stay in Fiji that included a full study on the reefs of Gau Island and several cultural exchange events both in Gau and Suva. We met with many scientists both at the University of the South Pacific Islands and Oceans Faculty, and at local conservation agencies while in Suva and were delighted to form a long-term agreement to collaborate with Joeli Veitayaki, Head of the School of Marine Science, and Dr. Epeli Hau’ofa, Head of the Oceania Centre.

During the month of June, we were joined by friends (Andrew Beath, Bill Walker, and Caryl Cadigan) who arrived laden with luggage filled with new film equipment! Studio of the Sea is now going high definition with a new camera, underwater housing donated from Gates Underwater Products and lighting system!  And our science and education programs are taking on an entirely experimental project in collaboration with Immersive Media to use their 11 lens immersive camera to film coral reefs and island cultures. Weeks were filled with technical discussions and familiarization sessions with all the new equipment, plus a little woodworking to ship shape it all securely.  By July we were logging gorgeous high definition film of reefs and immersive 360 degree images of coral reefs, sailing, and highlights in Suva City!

 
Immersive Media 360 degree view of a coral reef!

To ensure our welcome at Gau Island, Joeli introduced us to the primary of the island’s three chiefs and we held a sevu-sevu ceremony with him where he embraced our imminent arrival at his island with ‘welcome to your home.’  The reefs of Gau Island were a mixture of abundance and loss. In the staggering Nigali Pass, grey reef sharks circle around schools of barracuda and walls of big eye trevally; yet the barrier reef, on the other hand, appears to have taken a huge beating in years gone by.  Much of the reef was gone.  Inside the lagoon, sedimentation, disease and no doubt increased water temperatures have decreased the vibrance of a diverse and pretty fringing reef.  Our study at Gau will focus on the barrier reef on the north side of the island to try and understand what happened to these reefs. The study site will include both an area in the recently declared Marina Park where fishing has been band, and another just outside that area in order to create a baseline data set which will assist in the future monitoring of the Marine Park.  Dr. Veitayaki’s student, Rachel Nunn, joined us onboard during the study in order to jointly analyze and publish the research.  To view the research online please click here!

While in Gau, we also rehearsed songs and dances gathered during our Pacific travels, from Mbambanga in the Solomon Islands, Manus in Papua New Guinea, Banda in Indonesia and Nukufetau in Tuvalu, readying ourselves for a cultural exchange event with the ladies of Somosomo village.  The event occurred at evening and stretched on into the late night as we performed dances and music for each other with increasing levels of mirth as the evening progressed and the amount of kava (“grog”) receded.  Their meke dance was almost surpassed by the intensity of the song that accompanied the dancers. 

We then weighed anchor to visit Namena Island, with Cynthia Lazaroff and her daughter Mackenzie who joined us on board for ten days.  In 2005 we had conducted a very thorough study of the Namena reef system and were thrilled to find the waters still full of life, including a sighting of one hammerhead shark at approximately thirty meters depth.  Namena is a Marine Park and the work that has gone into protecting this incredible piece of Fiji’s underwater heritage is paying off. 

   
  

Come the end of August, the ship and crew will return to Suva for two events with Dr. Joeli Veitayaki and Dr Epeli Hau’ofa.  When all will be completed, we will relish sailing with the magnificent trade winds behind us, bringing us almost effortlessly back to Vanuatu. 

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