Cast Away Peace Corps : September 2015

Scuba diving in Fiji is one of the biggest tourist attractions, and we have some of the best diving in the entire world! One of the top dive destinations in the world is right in my backyard! It’s called the Rainbow Reef or Somosomo Straight.

The amazing colors of the corals and fish are exactly the reason why this area is called “The Rainbow Reef”. It’s full of so many colors and different species of fish and corals. The reason why this area as so much life is because of where the Rainbow Reef is located, between Taveuni and Vanua Levu. One either side of the straight, you have about 30 miles of Open ocean, where the narrowest part of the straight is about 7 miles wide which creates an hour glass shape. When the tides change, there is an incredible amount of volume of water funneling its way through the Somosomo Straight, which feeds all the coral and many fish of the Rainbow Reef.

Fiji alone has over 2300 species fish and over 400 species of corals! This is because we are part of the Western Pacific. It is believed by scientists that this area of the world is where all oceanic life began and originated from. Indonesia, the Philippines, and parts of Micronesia and Australia are part of this group. They think that during the last ice age, this area of the world stayed warm, and that is why it holds the highest marine assortment in the world. Just to compare the difference in marine life here, Hawaii only has 400 species of fish and only about 20-30 species of coral. The Caribbean only has 10% the amount of species that we have here in Fiji. The reason for this is because this area of the world is referred to as the center of dispersal, aka the farther out you get from the center, the less species of fish and coral will be found.

Soft Coral of the Rainbow Reef

Table Top Hard Coral

Fiji is considered the soft coral capital of the world. We have “Tree Corals” because when they open they look like bouquets of flowers. We also have lots of hard corals, such as “Table Top Coral” and “Big Staghorn Corals”. The biggest difference between soft and hard corals is that hard corals are the reef builders. Their entire life cycle contributes to the growth of the reef. When they die their skeletons are still used to building the massive reefs. Hard coral also photosynthesizes, or getting food from the sun. Most soft corals do not photosynthesize, or even help contribute to building the reef.
Soft corals need to rely on the currents to bring them food, which is why the Rainbow Reef is so rich in soft corals. The currents here are extremely strong and bring an abundance of food for the soft corals. Every piece of coral is an animal. The living animal is in the form of a coral polyp, which looks like little itty-bitty sea anemones. Corals are extremely delicate animals, which is why you should never touch coral!

Now how about some of the cool fish we got here!

Clown Fish:

Clown fish live with sea anemones, also called a symbiotic relationship. Both animals rely on each other for survival. The anemone provides a home and protection for the clown fish, where the clown fish will help feed the anemone. If the anemone is not eating enough, divers have seen the clown fish leave the anemone and go hunt for food for it’s host. Clown fish are coated with a special mucus membrane that helps protect it from the tentacles of the anemone.

In the clown fish world, the female is the queen and she is the boss, which we call a matriarchal society. The queen is the largest of the fish in the anemone. The rest of the clown fish are the males and are slightly smaller. Only one of these males are sexual active and will reproduce with the queen. However, if the queen dies, the sexually active male will change sex and will then become the dominant female.

Puffer Fish:

Puffer fish are the slow awkward members of the reefs. They only blow up when they feel threatened by something, and inhale water to inflate themselves. However, this can only be done a few times in their lives so you shouldn’t try and make a puffer fish inflate. The largest species here in Fiji is the Mapped Puffer (3 ½ feet long). Another common species is the Black Spotted Puffer (Dog Face Puffer).

Lion Fish:

In Fiji, we have about a dozen different species of Lion Fish. They are found naturally and do not cause any damage to the environment. Here in Fiji, they have naturally predators so we do not have the problem like the Caribbean does. Giant Moray Eels, Octopus, and some reef sharks will hunt the Lion Fish. These fish hunt at night making them nocturnal hunters and are also extremely venomous.

Nudibranchs:

These are fancy sea slugs. The Latin translation is “Naked Gills”. They call them this because their gills are on the outside of its body. The majority of nudibranchs are very colorful, which warns other animals that they are toxic and shouldn’t be eaten.

Giant Clams:

The giant clam is considered an endangered species here in Fiji. It’s because of over fishing. Here in Fiji, we have all 5 species of giant clams, which includes a species that is only found here and nowhere else in the world! Giant clams are filter feeders. They filter out sediment that can harm the reefs, but they also remove harmful eggs from the waters. They are considered one of the largest predators of the Crown of Thorns Star Fish. One giant clam can filter the amount of water in a Olympic sized swimming pool every 24 hours.

The Feather Star or Crinoid:

This species is considered by scientists to be a living fossil because they have been on this earth for around 450 million years, so before the dinosaurs. From their studies, scientists have also found that they have not really changed all that much over time. These crinoids have feet that grasp onto the reef and their sticky arms catch plankton. When there isn’t enough plankton, they simply let go and go find another place to have lunch.

Moray Eels:

Fiji is home to the largest species of moray eels, the Giant Moray. It can get as big as 8-10 feet long! However, it is virtually harmless as long as you don’t harass or tease them. When you see a moray opening and closing it’s mouth, they are only trying to breath better by pumping water through their gills. They aren’t trying to eat you, so don’t worry!

Garden Eels:

Some places on the Rainbow Reef have 100’s of these guys. The eels will burrow in the sand and will face into the current to feed on plankton, unlike the moray eels who hunt other fish.

Sea Snakes:

Only one species of sea snakes exist here, the banded sea snake. They are extremely docile and are harmless to divers. However, they are 10x more poisonous than a cobra. They also are air-breathing reptiles, so they need to come up to breath every so often.

Turtles:

Unfortunately there are not huge populations of turtles here in Fiji. This is because there is not enough algae for them to feed on. Also, many villages hunt turtles, which have also caused the numbers to stay low. The most common types of turtles are the sea hawksbill, and green sea turtle.

Pelagic Animals (Open Ocean): Click on links for pictures!

Bait Fish

Sharks:

In one year, approximately 100 million sharks are killed. They are mostly hunted for shark fin soup for Asian markets. Sharks are slow to reproduce, 9-12 months to give birth to only a few pups at a time. The most common type of shark is the white tip reef, which are completely harmless to divers. Gray reef sharks (slightly bigger than white tips) are considered on of the most social sharks. We also have Bull sharks, Hammer Head, and Tiger sharks. Sharks are not dangerous, as long as you are not hunting them, baiting, or chumming up the water. Here is a link to some YouTube videos of the Beqa Shark Dive that I did twice. It was incredible! Videos

Grey Reef Shark

White Tip Reef Shark

Tiger Shark

Bull Sharks

Hammer Heads

This is only just a glimpse of what is “under the sea”! There are so many more species and I encourage you to look up more of them! All this information came from my good friend Julie Kelly who is the owner of Taveuni Ocean Sports located on Taveuni and Kai Wai Ocean Sports located in Nadi. Her dive shop is top notch and her crew is by far the best dive crew I have ever met. She trains each of them to be the best divers, to be the best hosts, and also to be knowledgeable about the environment they are taking you diving. If you ever find yourself in Fiji diving, you need to get up to Taveuni and go diving with Julie and her crew! Don’t go anywhere else in Fiji to dive except there! Here is their reviews on TripAdvisor.

As always, here are the links to my photo albums!

Pre-Service Training

Health Posters & Boards

Hawaii Trip

Mom/Johnny/Shana Visit Dec 2014-Jan 2015

Jan-March 2015

Liz Visit May 2015

May-July 2015

Aug-Oct 2015

Instagram name: tdoak08

Masi or tapa

Masi is a very traditional artwork here in Fiji. The art is completely done by women, while men typically do carving or woodwork. Masi is made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. In the South Pacific, there are many different styles of tapa. However, here in Fiji we call it Masi and we are known for our finely detailed and geometric ornamentation's.

To give you an idea just how special this piece of artwork is, let me give you some details about how it is made. First the artist (usually women) must choose and cut down the mulberry tree. The women then use their teeth, and then a sharp knife to separate the layers of the bark from the tree. They use the core (the lewena) of the tree for the cloth. Once they have the inner core, the women must beat the masi for hours and hours. It almost sounds like an orchestra of natural drums, even as the sun is rising and you just want to sleep. This process of beating the cloth is done several times to give layers to the prints.

Women beating the tree bark into cloth

All the colors of the masi are natural and come from the environment. Brown dyes are from the inner bark of the mangrove tree, the deep brown color comes from umea which is a type of clay and soot is used to create the black color and is mixed with a little umea and kesa juice. Kesa juice is from the bark of a Kesa tree.

Traditionally, unprinted pieces of masi would hang down from the ceiling in the village Chief’s bure (hut). This piece was extremely sacred because it was the way the Chief and the High Priest communicated with the gods, and it was known as the cloth of the gods. In traditional ceremonies, chiefs (or chief guest) will wear a deep rich red color masi. During a wedding, the bride and groom also wear Masi and is also worn for special birthdays such as the 1^st, and 21^st birthday. Masi is also used to wrap a newborn baby, while at the other end of life it decorates the room where the body lies before burial and also covers the coffin within the grave.

Draped over the coffin

Masi being worn during a traditional wedding

Each symbol has its own meaning and derivatives, mostly from the natural environment. Before Christianity, Fiji used to worship nature and all its glory. So the majority of the designs actually represent animals, plants, or traditional Fijian customs.

If you want to learn a little more about masi or tapa go here!

As always, here are the links to my albums of pictures :-) Enjoy!!