Background

Reef Surveys have been carried out at two sites (the Great White Wall on the outer face, and the back of Blue Ribbon Eel Reef / Jerry’s Jelly on the inside of the Rainbow Reef) in the Somosomo Straits since 2002, with the exception of 2005 (Rainbow Reef only), 2008 (no surveys), and 2015 – 2017 (no surveys due to poor weather and time constraints).

Surveys have been carried out under the Fiji Coral Reef Monitoring Network(FCRMN) and supported by Coconut Grove Beachfront Cottages, Rainbow Reef Divers at Garden Island Resort and Taveuni Ocean Sports at Nakia Resort.

Figure 1: Map of survey sites on the Rainbow Reef

In 2000 and 2002 Fiji reefs suffered extensive hard coral death from coral bleaching due to exceptionally high water temperatures.

However, coral cover recovered to pre-bleaching levels by 2005, much faster than originally predicted. In the Somosomo Straits, cyclones had some impact around 2006 and 2007, but once more the corals recovered very quickly.

High water temperatures threatened coral health in shallow waters in parts of Fiji in 2014 – 2016, but the Rainbow Reef was unaffected.

A Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) outbreak in 2014 caused widespread coral death but stopped after Cyclone Winston in February 2016.

The cyclone caused extensive coral breakage on exposed sites, while others were relatively unscathed, and large numbers of new coral colonies were seen on damaged sites in 2018.