David Obura discusses going back to the Phoenix Islands

The long crossing from Fiji to the Phoenix Islands leaves plenty of time for reflection, and this is the roughest yet for my land-lubber coastal non-sea legs (reminder: while I love coral reefs and coastal seas, perhaps the big ocean is not really my thing). This is the fourth trip for me. The first eye-opening trip was in 2000; the second was in 2002 to expand on the idea of a protected area; and the third was in 2005, in trepidation at how much damage the coral bleaching of 2003 may have caused.


Dr. David Obura (left), director of CORDIO East Africa


It's amazing to think how after nine short years, we have gone from a group of scientists and interested divers exploring some little-known islands in the Central Pacific to an expedition motoring back under a huge umbrella that includes interest from the top levels of government and the public in Kiribati, the largest Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the world, time and effort from NGOs and individuals around the world, and soon potential recognition from the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as one of the world's outstanding places. In a world that I fear is passed the point of having any remaining wild places untouched by man, this is one of the few that may, at least, be among the least-impacted.


Table corals seen in the 2002 expedition (Photo by David Obura)

As the chief scientist for the coral reef component of the expeditions, my mind is awhirl with all the questions we are trying to get at. The first few trips were focused on just finding out what was there, starting some long term monitoring and getting the basic information needed to start up the MPA. Now we are heading out with a more high-powered scientific team with diverse interests and experience, and a long wish-list of questions to address. Les Kaufman, Stuart Sandin, Randi Rotjan and I make up the core reef researchers on the trip, plus assistance from the various other team members with other primary interests. We have a lot to work on.

Firstly, from my own interest in coral bleaching and climate change, there is the tantalizing question of how quickly the reefs are recovering from major bleaching in 2003. In most other parts of the world where we track recovery from bleaching, there are other major human impacts, such as overfishing and pollution, which seriously undermine a reef's ability to recover from major disturbances. Already when we came out in 2005 there was intriguing evidence of a very rapid recovery process, with young corals already growing on clean coralline algae. The most vulnerable communities we saw suffered almost 100 percent mortality of corals while the most resistant suffered less than 20 percent mortality--how will these different communities look now, 4 years later?


The coast of Kanton Island seen during the 2002 expedition (Photo: David Obura)

The answers to these questions, and understanding what factors drive reef recovery, will help identify what we need to do to maximize the recovery potential of coral reefs facing many other human pressures to make them more resilient to climate change. This would buy them time while the world's people learn to emit less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In this regard, PIPA will serve as a global observatory, or reference site, for understanding what climate change does to ecosystems and what we might be able to do to minimize negative impacts.


Kanton Island

Secondly, between the 2000 and 2002 expeditions, shark-fishing occurred at 4 of the 8 islands, and a second vessel visited Kanton in late 2005. I'm hoping that our data will show some recovery from these impacts. Sharks reproduce and grow slowly and it is well known that once they are fished out of an area they do not recover with continued fishing effort. Now that the protected area has been gazetted (outlawed), such fishing should be a thing of the past. Hopefully we will be able to show some timeline of recovery from 2005 to 2009.

However the remoteness of the islands, while being their saviour from major exploitation to date, is also a huge obstacle to enforcement, making it easy for illegal vessels to spend some time in the islands unobserved, and escape with their bounty of shark fins. Agreements among countries in the Pacific Islands Forum that include surveillance by aircraft from New Zealand backed up by patrol vessels from multiple countries have already resulted in impounding of vessels operating illegally in Kiribati waters and extraction of fines worth millions of dollars. Will all this be enough of a detriment to future shark-finners?

Beyond these two major questions, we also will look into-

McKean Island Shipwreck
We visited McKean island, one of the smallest and the most remote of the Phoenix Islands, in 2000 and since then a ship wrecked up on the reef. Iron enrichment can poison the waters of remote atolls, where iron is severely depleted in seawater, killing corals and other invertebrates close by. With many wrecks of different ages being known in various other parts of the central Pacific, it will be interesting to see how the reefs on McKean are being affected, by such a 'young' shipwreck.


McKean Island

Microbial Communities
In all ecosystems the microbial community is a 'hidden guest' at every meal, and they often are much more abundant than the more familiar herbivores and carnivores that we focus on. We'll use a new gadget to give preliminary estimates of the numbers of bacteria and viruses in the pristine reef waters of the Phoenix Islands.

Direct Feeding on Corals
With untouched fish populations, the Phoenix Islands can give insights on natural levels of interactions between fish and corals, in particular direct feeding by parrotfish and others on corals.


Parrotfish near Kanton Island seen during the 2002 expedition (Photo by David Obura)

Meanwhile, the bumpy ride continues, though now, thankfully, the waves and wind seem to be dying down. Fingers crossed this will persist into tomorrow!

-David Obura