Waitabu Marine Park Blog

February came and it was time again for the Marine Ecology team to head out to Waitabu village for their annual biological monitoring of the Waitabu Marine Park. This year’s survey was both fun and quite successful. Despite the slightly few wet days at the beginning of the week, spirits remained alive through the week and we completed all surveys as per schedule. Helen and I were joined by Rosemary Dautei from Reef Safari’s , Rachel Dacks, Nic Turrentine, Natalie Parker, John Leonard, Leslie Currie and Grace Yeung (posted in the village) of Peace Corps Fiji. To be part of the week long activities was an experience for them and an opportunity for us to exchange ideas and share experiences.  The village team of 11 volunteers were disciplined; excellent surveyors who definitely knew their stuff. Together we made a really dynamic team out of the Peace Corps , village surveyors and me, most of the time making sure we were doing it right. All this went on while Helen counted fish and s

This is going to be short.....pressed for time. John and I are back from our trip to Taveuni Island for the Reef Monitoring workshop we participated in. We had a great time with Grace, Rachel, Natalie, Nic and the local volunteers. In total we spent four days in the water practising various reef monitoring techniques . We spent an additional day at Nic's village, Waitabu , checking out the village-based tourism project he working on. We jumped off of a 50 ft waterfall. In fact, I was the first FRE-6 Peace Corps volunteer to take the plunge :) I still hurt from the jump. I am pretty sure Natalie will never be the same. Expect pictures and maybe even a video soon. Leslie & John in Fiji: The Update