Pele and Nguna islands are off-shore islands of Efate, Shefa Province, with the distance between their closest points about 100 metres. Pele with a population of 400 has a land area of 4.3 square kilometres, highest point of 198 metres and with four villages. Nguna is a bigger island with a population of 1,300 (2009 […]
Tag: Oceans
Living on the Edge of Climate Change
The sinking island of Fanalei STANDING outside his home at Fouele settlement, Fredrick Maeaba gazes across the calm waters of Port Adam passage in the southern region of Malaita. His eyes were fixed on Fanalei Island, located some four kilometres across the waters. He was once a resident on that island. But six years ago […]
Rebuilding a strong and resilient Vanuatu
Rebuilding lives was a challenge for the cyclone-prone country where people rely on their coast and land for livelihoods. Crops and fish stock may takes years to recover.
Tilapia and prawns: Sources of income face climate change
In Vanuatu, the number of well-managed fish and prawns ponds is currently still small in scale, but could become an important source of income in the future.
Women and climate change in Solomon Islands
Women in Solomon Islands are caught between their traditional social responsibilities as the increasing impact of climate change erodes heavily upon them. Ms Clementine Vuisi, from a small village called Panarui, South Choiseul, Choiseul Province, said food security has been a huge concern as constitute staple diet is now gone, replaced with introduced root crops […]
Village faces new climate-related challenge
A DECADE after building adaptation measures to ensure the rising sea level did not claim its land, villagers of Daku Village in Tailevu are now facing a new challenge. Development committee chairman Olota Rokovunisei said the village of about 400 people had continued to experience first-hand the effects of climate change. “Our challenge now is […]
Calls for studies into decreasing catches of palolo worms
Over the weekend, dozens of people spent hours at sea to catch a much sought after delicacy known as palolo worms or Samoan palolo worms. The palolo worms (Palola viridis) rise to the surface once a year in the last quarter of the moon in October and November and in the early hours of the […]
Satellite technologies and the fight against illegal fishing in Easter Island
Easter Island is best known for its mysterious Moai statues, which dominate part of the hilly coastline and stare at the horizon like ancient watchmen of the once bountiful ocean. Just beyond the reach of their gaze lies a large stretch of open water, known as the high seas, that provides a vital spawning ground […]
Monitoring changes under the sea from the sky
When Hawaii experienced an unexpected coral bleaching event in the fall of 2014, reef managers went out to see the hardest hit reefs. A response team was sent to Kaneohe Bay, Oahu to survey the effects of thermal stress. Since Hawaiian reefs had only bleached once years before, little was known about how the relatively […]
Underwater Earth and the XL Catlin Seaview Survey
Making impactful, visual indicators of our changing climate isn’t an easy task. Climate change is a gradual process, so it’s difficult to visibly show people what’s happening. Our oceans are changing, but we don’t notice the centimeter waters have risen or the amount they’re acidifying. But coral bleaching and reef decline are capturable: There are […]