Waitabu Marine Park Blog

This year the Waitabu Village celebrates 10 years of managing the Waitabu Marine Park .  In 1998 the community worked to stop all fishing and poaching by protecting their coral reefs for future generations.  Along with the New Zealand Overseas Development Agency (now NZAID) Waitabu Village , Wai and Vurevure settlements set aside the fragile reef habitat and became founding members of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas network (FLMMA).   The Coral Reef Alliance and Resort Support Fiji have worked to support the community of Waitabu to protect this pristine coral reef ecosystem.

Fiji's guardian of the sea looks after village marine protected area by ALUMECI NAKEKE The love for his fishing ground and a request from his dying mother prompted 23-year-old Okostino Apao to put his studies on hold and look after the village marine protected area in his home, Fiji. Apao is originally from Rotuma but grew up in his mother's village of Waitabu on Taveuni. As Apao grew up, he never really understood the importance of the work his late mother Sala did, which is to manage the village marine protected area, now known as the Waitabu Marine Park as it is frequently visited by tourists. Sala was the force behind the setting up of the park with the help of Marine Ecology Fiji Consultant, Helen Sykes. After completing Form Seven on Taveuni, Apao enrolled at the Fiji Institute of Technology, but had to return to help his sick mother with her work. Sadly, she died in 2006. Since then, Apao said, he has continued to do the work his mo

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 ALUMECI NAKEKE Elia (right) with CORAL 's Heidi Williams after receiving snorkelling equipment Elia Gasaiwai still reminisces about the days when men and women from his village would go to the reef in front of the village and return with their catch in just a few hours. They would return from fishing every day with enough for the whole family and there was not a day they would come back home empty-handed. He is now 64-years-old and said those were the good old days when everything was in abundance, especially fish. They never used fishing lines but women would go out to the reefs with their small nets and the men with their spears. The spears were often made of a long thin bamboo stick with several sharp, short iron rods tied with a wire at one end. "It was also fun to go with other boys and look for fish. When we see a school of fish gathered we would take a stone and throw it towards them and they would swim towards their own fish holes wher