Megafauna Monitoring Initiative (MMI) - August 2019

The second month of the MMI has now concluded and so throughout August 2019

the Tokoriki Diving team encountered;

79 x White Tip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus)

35 x Black Tip Reef Shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus)

22 x Grey Reef Shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos)

2 x Tawny Nurse Shark (Nebrius ferrugineus)

1 x Zebra Shark (Stegostoma fasciatum)

132 x Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

24 x Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricate)

3 x Bluespoted Ribbontail Ray (Taeniura lymma)

3 x Coral Sea Maskray (Neotrygon kuhlii)

15 x Whitespotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus ocellatus)

13 x Narrow-barred Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson)

7 x Humphead Wrasse (Cheilinus undulates)

3 x Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda)

10 x Brown Marbled Grouper ( Epinephelus   fuscoguttatus )

To recap, the MMI aims to quantify and monitor the local population of shark, ray,

turtle and commercially valuable fish species many of which are vulnerable,

endangered or critically endangered.

The purpose of this initiative is firstly an attempt to assess current population

abundance and biodiversity levels, highlight seasonal changes in such levels, and

observe if populations are increasing, decreasing or remaining constant over

extended periods of time; but also to accurately inform our guests; past, present and

future, of what we are seeing and how often.

We achieve this by having the professional dive team to collect data on a daily basis

from multiple dive sites within the Mamanuca group of islands.