FIJI, Oct 17: It had been decades since sharks last patrolled the reef off the coast of Fiji's Naidiri Village, but they returned this year following a community-led effort to protect the fishery and plant thousands of corals.
Manoa Duwai convinced his village in 2009 to create a protected area within their customary fishing grounds on Fiji's Coral Coast after concerns over the small number and size of fish he was catching.
At the time, he was lucky to catch a fish as big as his palm.
"Man, imagine 10, 15, 20 years to come, what we going to have," Duwai said after a fishing trip one night yielded only tiny, juvenile fish.
"What type of species are we going to have left in our customary fishing ground? We have to do something," he said.
Duwai approached village elders with a proposal to protect part of their fishing grounds, originally a 30-by-40-metre area within the reef.
It didn't take long for the plan to bear fruit, with larger fish finding a home in the protected area and then spreading into the neighbouring waters.
In time, the village increased the size of the protected area to 280 by 240 metres. It is now flanked by a similar-sized area they call "the fridge", which they temporarily closed as a way to build up fish stocks.
Duwai's vision for a plentiful marine habitat that would sustain his village of 147 people has now received global praise, with academics and charities seeking his insights.
- Youth ownership -
Joseva Kunagado, 21, leads the youth of Naidiri Village in preserving the health of their protected area.
The village formed a youth group in 2011 to manage what they call the "tabu area", and the group leads the effort to plant corals and encourage a healthy ecosystem.
In 2023 alone, the group planted 18,000 corals and 10,000 mangroves.
"When we started this we were small kids," Kunagado told AFP.
"We used to take some barrels, cut it in half, tie the rope on it, and we pull it. We have to walk for maybe 20 minutes to get corals, come back and plant.
"From that to today, we can say that we are very happy on the work that we have done because we've seen big changes."
The protected area Kunagado and his friends have cultivated is bursting with corals and is now home to hundreds of heat-resistant "super corals" that may protect the village from the impacts of rising sea temperatures.
Sharks have started returning to the area.
Far from being scared, Duwai said he shed a tear when they came back this year.
"When things started to come back, different types of fish species, invertebrates, all back, I'm like the most happiest person in the whole village," Duwai said.
Kunagado said he'd seen sharks the morning of AFP's visit. He smiled with pride at the state of the fishery.
"We didn't see this coming, like having tourists coming, having researchers, students from universities coming. So we're proud of the work."
- Super corals -
Researchers are interested in not only how Naidiri Village has protected their marine ecosystem, but also specific corals showing extraordinary heat resistance.
Duwai said water temperatures reached up to 39C during a heatwave earlier this year, and there was widespread bleaching of the thousands of planted corals.
At those temperatures, most of the coral should have died, but Duwai said 20 percent survived and are considered "super corals".
"The only corals we have here now are the ones who survived this 38, 39 degrees."
Duwai said Naidiri is now transplanting their heat-resistant corals to deeper, cooler waters close to the capital Suva to further protect from future heatwaves.