At the South Pacific’s first PADI Eco Center, the staff at Sau Bay Resort & Staff take PADI AWARE WEEK seriously. During this year’s AWARE week, we are performing a series of activities that demonstrate our resort’s commitment to sustainable tourism, while giving our guests the opportunity to partake in our reef monitoring and restoration programs.
Beach and Mangrove Cleanups
For the second time in 30 days, Sau Bay Resort worked with the elders and kids of Nawi village on a beach cleanup activity. This time, though, our beach cleanup involved 27 kids and 7 adults. We started with a briefing about how plastics kill animals, showing the kids pictures of birds killed by being entangled in, or ingesting plastic. Based on the lesson, the school kids quickly took ownership of the assignment and worked in distinct teams to collect trash from the beach. A lead student in each group was tasked to record the various categories of trash recovered using the Ocean Conservancy trash collection form. The data from the beach cleanup was uploaded using the Clean Swell App. In total, 70 kilograms of trash were removed with this activity. It was truly incredible to see the kids 100% engaged in the activity even though it was at the end of the day when it was about time to go home. Furthermore, our guests also got to partake in a rewarding experience.
We also completed a Mangrove cleanup at our resort, involving our local staff, who donated their free time to participate. Mangroves are an incredibly important part of the reef ecosystem, and keeping the mangrove forests free of plastics is a high priority for us, considering that mangroves take up approximately 50 percent of our waterfront in Sau Bay.
Reef Monitoring
As part of our Adopt the Blue initiative, Sau Bay Resort & Spa adopted The Great White Wall as our flagship Adopt the Blue site. We also adopted Sau Bay Sanctuary, a nearby dive site due to the proximity to our resort (only a 5 minute boat ride) and the incredible hard coral formations and health of the reef. A part of AWARE week, our divers are conducting coral reef monitoring at these two sites using the Coral Watch system. Data from this monitoring program are uploaded to the Coral Watch website, where the data are evaluated in the context of nearby reef systems in response to regional ocean temperature conditions. In addition, we monitor the general condition of the reef, as “over-diving” the Great White Wall in particular, is becoming a concern. Due to the popularity of the Great White Wall, and the nature of the dive as a vertical swim-through, this dive site is particularly susceptible to damage from divers practicing poor buoyancy.
Dive Against Debris Dives
In support of PADI's Dive Against Debris(DAD) program, Sau Bay Divers took our guests on three dives where we set out to recover underwater trash or fishing lines. Thankfully, only a small piece of metal debris was found on one of the dives. We are happy to report that we rarely find underwater debris/trash during our dives. We also make a point to make EVERY dive a DAD dive. We explain the importance of the DAD program to our guests, and give our guests the opportunity to participate in our conservation activities.
Crown of Thorn Starfish Monitoring and Population Control
Recently, we have seen an increase in the abundance of the Crown of Thorn (COT) starfish in the vicinity of the “inner reef” system of the broader Rainbow Reef. The reason for the population increase in not known. At Sau Bay Sanctuary in particular, we have seen a population outbreak of COT and we have started some culling activities to reduce their abundance, while recognizing that COT are actually indigenous to Fiji waters and do not require eradication.
Promoting Green Fins
We have just started implementing the “Greenfins pledge” for our guests during their dive orientation. The idea is to go through the various Green Fins “do’s and don’t” with our guests and to ask them to “take the pledge” to abide by the set of Green Fins recommendations.
Exploration of New Dive Sites
Because of the “over diving” of the same dive sites on the Rainbow Reef, our dive team has been working to identify new spectacular dive sites along the Rainbow Reef in the Somosomo Straits including both shallow and wall dives. In fact, our newly discovered dive and snorkel spot, was dubbed the Sau Bay Sanctuary for its incredible coral formations and diversity. This week we discovered a beautiful site characterized by underwater canyons and "swim throughs" with a healthy coral population.
Finding Nemo Movie Night at Nawi Village
To educate our next generation of Fijians about their own reef system, Sau Bay Resort & Spa staff are hosting a special movie night for the kids of Nawi Village. Stewardship of our reef begins with an understanding of the reef ecosystem, and what better way to get our kids vested in the importance of reefs than holding a “movie night” featuring a movie about coral reefs. Movie night will fall on the heels of our recent beach cleanup involving children in the 6th, 7th and 8th year of school.
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