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Rarotonga fore reef community survey for 2014
Although coral reef monitoring has been on-going for around 20 years on Rarotonga, it has been
inconsistent in terms of methodology, intervals between surveys, data collectors, and also the government
ministries involved. The first monitoring was undertaken by the National Environment Service in 1994 (Miller et al., 1994), and subsequent monitoring by the Ministry of Marine Resources in 1999 (Ponia et al., 1999), then the National Environment Service in 2000 (Lyon, 2000), 2003 (Lyon, 2003), 2006 (Rongo et al., 2006), and 2009
(Rongo et al., 2009). The survey in 2011 was carried out privately (Rongo and van Woesik, 2013). The present
survey was a collaborative effort between the Climate Change Division of the Office of the Prime Minister
(Climate Change Cook Islands) and the National Environment Service to continue this monitoring effort. This
information will help quantify spatial and temporal changes in the benthic and fish communities on the fore reefs of Rarotonga to provide managers the information they need to make informed decisions.