My first stop in Fiji was in the Yasawas, working with the Barefoot Collection on a range of their marine programs. Barefoot Manta Islands, traditionally called Drawaqa Island is renowned for the ‘manta Chanel’ just north of the island. From May-October each year, an abundance of reef mantas visit this channel, giving people the unique opportunity to swim with these majestic animals! They visit this region for a couple of reasons each year: With the tidal change each day, strong currents are generated in the channel, and with a high abundance of plankton during these times of year it makes an easy meal for the mantas to swim through the channel and eat as much plankton as they can. The manta’s also come to this area for mating behaviour each year! When Manta’s mate, it starts off with a beautiful female swimming through the water column, and a ‘train’ of males following her every movement, mimicking every turn she makes. Eventually the males begin to lose interest, and one by one they stop following her, until there is one left!
Manta and Mobula rays are in trouble world-wide, with their gills being highly sought after for traditional Chinese medicinal practices. It is becoming increasingly important to understand as much as we can about these animals, where they migrate to at different times of the year and why. We need this sort of information so we can create national marine reserves in these waters to prevent fishing practices from taking this beautiful species. The Barefoot Collection work closely with the Manta Trust, and each year when these Manta’s are around, they work to catalogue the individuals that are showing up each day throughout the season.
Photo-identification methods are used to distinguish between individual mantas. Each manta has a unique pattern on their underside that is like a human fingerprint- no two mantas have the same pattern. I was able to work with the Manta Trust during my time on the island and was responsible for taking majority of the identification photos. We also recorded things like the number or remoras on the animal, the time of day relative to the tide and how much plankton was in the water. All this information is used to catalogue the number of individual mantas that are visiting this site, and to try and discover if there is a pattern to their appearance each day.
The waters surrounding this island are in the process of becoming a National Marine Reserve, which will place a high level of protection status on the area, limiting activities such as fishing and anchoring in the channel. While we know the mantas are frequenting this site between May-October, every manta is not there every day, and they are all somewhere else between November-April each year. New research is needed to better understand where these animals are migrating to at different times of the year so those waters can be protected as well. The Barefoot Collection and the Manta Trust are raising money to buy some satellite tags to help with this. Just by visiting this island and swimming with the mantas, you help raise money towards that!
As I mentioned before, this organisation runs a range of other research programs, which I was able to participate in! Coral planting is becoming increasingly more popular world wide as we are realising that much of our coral reef ecosystems are being destroyed from destructive fishing practices and pollution. Coral planting helps rebuild reefs. Small fragments of coral are taken from larger colonies and grown, usually on small cement blocks or on mesh grids. Once the small fragments grow and reach a certain size, they are relocated to areas within the reef that need more recruiting corals. I was able to view the coral planting station and help maintain it! I was even able to distribute a few larger fragments to areas on the reef that needed them!
Pack for a purpose is a non-for-profit organisation that Barefoot also participate in. It gives people traveling to these islands a chance to make huge impacts on the local communities, simply by using a small amount of space in your luggage to pack basic supplies needed by the community projects. If you are visiting the Barefoot Collection, or even just coming to Fiji you should definitely participate! Muaira Village is the village that owns Barefoot Island. The Barefoot collection employ the majority of their staff from this village to help them provide incomes for their village and families! The village library is small, but used by over 300 people! It needs new and up to date literature for the children to use. Every school day, all the children from the village must read for 1 hour in the library, no exceptions! This is a great way to help contribute to their education.
Here is a short video I have made that shows what an average day on Barefoot Manta Island looked like for me!
