On 2 April 2007, a large earthquake and tsunami hit the western Solomon Islands causing varying degrees of damage and disruption to coastal communities. This assessment is focused on immediate damage to and needs of the coastal fisheries, including environment and infrastructure, though the opportunity was taken to assess more general damage and threats to the long term, sustainable recovery of coastal fisheries.
The MACBIO project classify the entire marine environment within the MACBIO participating countries to inform, in particular, their national marine spatial and marine protected area planning efforts. The draft outputs are marine bioregions that include reef-associated and deepwater biodiversity assemblages with complete spatial coverage at a scale useful for national planning. Results for the Solomon Islands have been presented to the marine experts and government of the Solomon Islands for review.
This paper highlights the seriousness of the “biodiversity crisis” on atolls and the need to place greater research and conservation emphasis on atolls and other small island ecosystems. It is based on studies over the past twenty years conducted in the atolls of Tuvalu, Tokelau, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. It stresses that atolls offer some of the greatest opportunities for integrated studies of simplified small-island ecosystems.
SPREP is leading the charge to make the Pacific Games in July in Samoa go plastic free in an awareness and outreach initiative aptly called Greening of the Games.
This dataset holds a draft report and a raw baseline data collected from a clean-up at Mulinu'u executed on the 11th May 2019 by the the Team Samoa Va'a, to contextualize solutions and interventions to address marine litter and plastic pollution.
Direct links to chart visualizations generated by the Inform portal based on data collection are also included.
This list of indicators was developed through the Inform project at SPREP for use by Pacific Islands countries (PICs) to meet their national and international reporting obligations. The indicators are typically adopted by PICs for their State of Environment reports and are intended to be re-used for a range of MEA and SDG reporting targets. The indicators have been designed to be measurable and repeatable so that countries can track key aspect of environmental health over time.
Maps and associated data from the Turtle Research and Monitoring Database System (TREDS). A summary of the database can be found below.
The Turtle Research and Monitoring Database System (TREDS) provides invaluable information for Pacific island countries and territories to manage their turtle resources. TREDS can be used to collate data from strandings, tagging, nesting, emergence and beach surveys as well as other biological data on turtles.
Map of predictions of relative probabilities of species occurence in a global grid of half-degree latitude and longitude cell dimensions.
Map of predictions of relative probabilities of benthic marine species occurence in a global grid of half-degree latitude and longitude cell dimensions.
Map of predictions of relative probabilities of pelagic species occurence in a global grid of half-degree latitude and longitude cell dimensions.
Map of artisanal fishing intensity based on data from the global map of human impacts (2008) (https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/globalmarine2008/impacts).
Map developed by MACBIO for the bioregions workshop 2018. Chlorophyl-a concentration is an important proxy which is routinely measured and is considered a "core" parameter of global physical-biological oceanic models. Map is based on data from NASA's Aqua satellite.
The map contains the global distribution of habitat suitability for seven suborders of cold water octocoral found deeper than 50m. Map is based on data from Yesson et al (2012) Global habitat suitability of cold water Octocorals, Journal of Biogeography 39, 1278-1292.
The map displays the number of coral species that are expected to be found in each grid cell that contains coral reefs as identified by the Millenium Reefs project. The map is based on a spatial data base of geographic range boundaries compiled by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies compi
This map was developed by MACBIO as resource for the bioregions workshop 2017 and shows ocean surface currents based on data from NOAA Ocean Surface Current Analysis (http://www.oscar,noaa.gov/).
The map depicts paths and intensities of tropical cyclones in Solomon Islands EEZ from 1980 till 2015. Data of tropical cyclone best track data is provided by IBTrACS (International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship).
The map shows the diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd490) which is an indicator of the turbidity of the water column. The grid is derived from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer) images from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites (http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov).
The map shows the domestic shipping routes in Solomon Islands EEZ. Data is based on information from Harbour Master of Ports Authority. The map was developed by MACBIO as resource for the bioregions workshop in Feb 2018.
Eddies are circular shaped or elongated rotating vortices of the sea surface, 300 - 500km wide. They are the oceanic analogy to storms in the atmosphere, and are clearly seen in maps of sea surface anomaly from altimeters. Positive anomaly features indicate the presence of anticyclonic eddies where the sea surface is doming upwards and causing downwelling. For downwelling features, strength and persistence are key determinants of increased primary productivity and thus aggregations of bioty.
Map of Upwelling Eddy Frequency within Solomon Islands EEZ. Eddies are circular-shaped or elongated rotating vortices of the surface of the sea. 50 - 300 km wide. They are the oceanic analogy to storms in the atmosphere. For upwelling features, strength and persistence are key determinants of increased primary productivity and thus aggregations of biota.
Ocean mesoscale eddies account for a major portion of the ocean kinetic energy and exert profound impacts on large-scale ocean circulations. Satellite altimeter observation provide a unique opportunity to examine the mesoscale oceanic processes and their associations with the large-scale oceanic circulations and the climate.