The ability of a government to provide useful and appropriate services that support and guide sustainable coastal resources development, management, protection and conservation is determined largely by three factors: (1) the clarity of the institutional roles and mandates given to the various government agencies concerned, (2) the appropriateness of the structure created to fill those roles and carry out mandates, and (3) the human and other resources that are applied to the required tasks.
Available electronically
Call Number: 333.917 17 MCC (EL)
The climate of Niue is hot and moderately wet in the summer months (October to April), and drier and cooler in the winter months (May to September). Annual rainfall averages around
2000 mm but varies widely from year to year (from a high of 3175 mm in 1924 to a low of 1070 mm in 1931). Maximum daily temperatures vary seasonally from 27°-31° C. Niue lies
well within the tropical cyclone belt and significant cyclones have occurred with an average 10-year frequency. More recent cyclones include Ofa in 1990, with recorded wind speeds of
The Marshall Islands are critically dependent on the health of their coral reefs: every rock and sand grain on the islands are the remains of coral reef organisms. Only actively growing coral reefs can protect the islands against ocean waves and global sea level rise, and provide fish to feed the people. These crucial services are rapidly deteriorating because global warming is
Rarotonga and Aitutaki form the summits of separate
volcanic masses rising from depths of 4000 m, at which depth
the cones are 45-55 km in diameter (Summerhayes and Kibblewh
1966, 1967).The lower slopes of the cones average 15-25
increasing to 30 in the upper 750 m and becoming very steep
the surface reef is approached. The Mauke-Aitutaki line of
islands is thought to be of early Tertiary age: the surface
volcanics are much eroded, with a subdued topography, or are
capped with limestones (Wood, 1967; Wood and Hay, 1970). On
The very productive lagoon fisheries of Tarawa atoll changed greatly in recent decades as human development and intensive harvesting increased. Tarawa typifies the increasingly common condition of resource depletion and marine community structure change with expanding human activities and population growth. Fisheries-dependent reports have documented the change in fisher landings for nearly two decades. A comparison of fisheries-independent data collected during 1992-93 with data collected in 1977 allowed for documentation of large changes in important finfish resources in Tarawa Lagoon.
The realization that local aspirations, livelihoods, conservation and inshore fisheries management should be integrated has seen an increasing emphasis on collaborative and participatory approaches worldwide. In many respects the Pacific has taken the lead with hundreds of communities in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Micronesia now proactively managing their coastal resources. Approaches range from the customary or traditional to complex multi-stakeholder co management.
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Call Number: [EL]
The Tefisi community was concerned of the possible adverse effect of soil being eroded into their coastal environment affecting the marine lives in the areas. In Tefisi, the surface soil is washed away from land development sites, farmland and the settlement areas in every significant rainfall. The fine soil particles flow into the coastal marine environment unchecked, causing the otherwise clear marine environment to become turbid. The outflow of soil not only destroys the ecosystems of the coastal environment, but seriously impacts the local fishery.
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Guam, the southernmost island of the Mariana Islands, is likely to encounter a significant typhoon every seven years. During the last thirty years two typhoons have passed directly over GuamKaren (11 November 1962) and Pamela (21 May 1976). Pamela had maximum winds of 120 kt (145 estimated), minimum sea level pressure of 930 mb, a speed of movement at 7 kt, a diameter of 20 nautical miles, and 33 inches of rainfall during the typhoon passage.
This consolidated report, for the first semester of 2007, comes out one month late because of the programme coordinator participation and involvement in the preparation of the Towns- ville Forum co-organised by Australia and France in September 2007 (see CRISP Enlightnings and CRISP Partnerships chapters further in this report).
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Call Number: [EL}
Physical Description: 24 p.
The Western Samoan Turtle Hatchery Project is, as the accompanying documents will show, a low-input, high-potential stock-reviving programme aimed primarily at increasing the amount of fresh protein currently available to the local population.
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 13 p.
Sea temperatures in many tropical regions have increased by almost 1°C over the past 100 years and are currently increasing at 1 ~ 2°C per century. Satellite and compiled in situ observations of sea surface temperatures have greatly increased the ability to detect anomalous and persistent warm water and are being widely used to predict climate change, coral bleaching and mortality.
The Coral Coast, Fiji, was one of the areas included in a South Pacific Marine Resources Energy Programme commissioned, by the Marine Resource Department of the University of the South Pacific. This present survey formed part of an overall exercise embracing similar work in Tonga and West Samoa, and the period spent in Fiji covered March 22nd to April 11th.
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Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 52 p.
Fishing has always been an important subsistence activity in western Samoa. Referring to Samoa's marine fish resource Kramer (1888) wrote naturally,there are fishes throughout the whole year,for the sea is as inexhaustible as the land'.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are generally characterised by their relatively small land area in comparison to their large ocean space in their respective Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
In the South and North Pacific, SIDS account for a large percentage of ocean space, but very small land areas. The percentage of land/sea area was calculated for twenty North and
It is becoming clear that there is a fair amount of small plastic distributed in the oceans and on beaches worldwide, not surprising given its durability and floatability. Marine debris is often ingested by animals such as sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds. Items such as lighters and small plastic pieces may look like food to an animal, or have an animal's natural food attached to it. Debris may also be ingested accidentally with actual food items. Exactly how many of them die each year due to marine debris ingestion is not
known.
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Highlands Pacific Limited is currently seeking finance for the development of a Nickel-Cobalt mine in Madang Province. Papua New Guinea. The mine will be located near the Ramu River, with processing facilities at Basamuk Bay on the Rai Coast. Basainuk Bay is a small embayment of the larger Astrolabe Bay. Highlands Pacific plans to dispose of mill tailings through a submarine outfall into Astrolabe Bay. Oceanographic conditions in Astrolabe Bay make this practise inadvisable if consideration is given to the ecological health of the Madang region.
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The plastic demijohn
Origin: streets, streams, beaches and boats.
Behaviour: can cause serious, even fatal intestinal
blockages in marine animals if swallowed.
Average lifespan: 400 to 600 years.
In common with other Pacific Island countries, the Government of Vanuatu has pursued a policy of developing small scale artisanal fisheries to improve the supply of fresh fish and to provide
Vanuatu's involvement in trochus research commenced in the early 1990s and its in involvement in the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) trochus funded project spanned over 10 years. This encompassed 3 phases of the
ACIAR trochus funded research project, with phase 1 of the project involving nutritional aspect of trochus, phase 2 concentrated on hatchery seed production and reef reseeding and the final phase concentrated on broodstock enhancement using a
community-based management approach.
Available online|Including Bislama Version)
The Republic of Vanuatu is an archipelago of some 83 islands in the southwest Pacific with a population of 221,000 predominantly Melanesian people with over 110 different cultural-linguistic groups. It remains a UN LDC with a per-capita GDP of US $1500 that lias been increasing 5-7% per annum over the last 3