In February, eighteen REEF members traveled to Fiji on a REEF Field Survey Trip. The survey results from this trip were recently processed into REEF's Volunteer Fish Survey Project database which contains more than 250,000 total surveys. During the Fiji Field Survey Trip, the group conducted 210 surveys at 29 sites and recorded 617 different species. You can view the full species report for the Fiji Field Survey here.
The trip consisted of 10 nights on the NAI'A liveboard, known for its fantastic and professional crew, many of whom are Fijians themselves. Throughout the trip, the group dived the Fijian islands and barrier reefs near Vatu-i-ra in Bligh Water and Namena, Wakaya, and Gau in the Koro Sea. The famous dive site Nigali Passage, known to attract huge schools of barracuda, jacks, and sharks, was a hit with the group. Surveyors enjoyed exploring the shallow coral gardens at the end of the passage as well. Jungle Jig was another favorite dive site beause of its high species diversity and variety of habitats. The site consisted of a sloping reef system facing open water and a separate, deep pinnacle within swimming distance from the reef. Surveyors found several interesting species on the pinnacle including Black-breasted Pipefish and Yellow Pygmy Angelfish.
A very special thank you our NAI'A partners for being wonderful hosts for our trip. We also want to thank everyone who participated and all of the citizen scientist volunteers who conducted surveys on their dives. Did you know that REEF creates "batch reports" for all of our Field Survey Trips as well as some other special projects? You can search for and view reports for past Field Survey Trips and other projects here. Click here for more information about REEF Field Survey Trips and how you can get involved in Volunteer Fish Survey Project.