SHARKS!
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2006
1
21
24
Trip End
Jun 2006
Beqa, Fiji
Monday, May 8, 2006
But first let me speak of my class 'field trip' to the coral coast.... ;o)
Well Thursday morning started off pretty early near 5:00 AM with our house lady, Quinny, waking us up because people's parents had been calling our house. When we get upstairs to find out what's going on, we find out that there is a tsunami warning for Fiji and New Zealand! WHAT?! Well, we luckily have a house that's way high up, so we just all hung around upstairs listening to the radio to keep us updated. It was such a scary thought that there was a possible tsunami coming because a) half of the people in Fiji didn't know about it because they have no warning sytem and no TV's and b) Fiji has never had a tsunami so they have no real plans on how to deal with it. Plus pretty much all the villages would've been devistated and there would be no water supply, which is already a constant problem here in Fiji. But fortunately the warning was cancelled and we all got to go back to bed for a bit.
Around 11:00 my marine biology left from lower campus to go to Tubakula Resort for our field trip. The bus ride was nice and peacful, as always, and when we stayed in dorm accomodations. I stayed with Yashika, Prerna, and Liane. For our field trip we were doing LITs (line intercept transects) and we were to do four different sites in front of the resort. From the results we could tell how eutriphication (over-nutrients) had affected the now non-existent coral reefs in front of the resort, and how this is a common problem in Fiji. That night I sat around with a few of my Fijian friends and my Tongan friend, Olivetti, and we learned a lot about the Tongan culture. Apparently a lot of things are reversed in their culture- the women have the higher status on the totem pole, the women serve the kava (but they don't drink it), and they even have a say in their brothers' life, like who he marries! Pretty cool!
Anyways... Friday morning we got up pretty early and get on the bus. Our first stop was the Fijian, the biggest resort in Fiji. We then went to Natadola Beach to see the current development there. At both of these places we learned of many of the pros and cons of tourism in Fiji, and some of the simple things that can be done to fix them. It's very unfortunate because the way things are in the government here, a lot of the developers can get away with things that they couldn't anywhere else in the world.
Friday night was a blast because everyone stayed up pretty much all night drinking kava and socializing. I got to know a lot more people in my class so much better, and we had lots of fun. I learned a lot of Fijian phrases from one guy, and we did a little bit of dancing :o) Then I finally went to bed only to wake up pretty early so Nick, John and I could catch a ride back to the Pearl where we were going to go shark diving!
We suited up at the shop and signed our release forms, and then we took the boat out to a channel near Beqa Island where we were to descend to the shark feeding area. Well surprisingly the second I got in the water any anxiety I had went away. It's always just so peaceful in the water. There were reef sharks everywhere when we dove in- they are only about a foot long. Then we descended down to 90 ft where we swam over to a rope that we were to stand behind while two of the guys emptied the bags of fish heads and brought out the bait balls. Instantly hundreds and hundreds of fish starting swarming, taking their pick of their meal. There were HUGE parrotfish, tuna, etc along with lots of smaller species of fish. Then a few moments later we spotted our first bull shark! It was so surreal, like I was watching the Discovery Channel or something. I wasn't scared at all, and to be honest I don't even think I would've been had it been in my face. haha... Well, there ended up being around 4 bull sharks that were HUGE and we just sat back and watched them rip off pieces from the bait ball. I looked up and around towards the reef crest at one point, where I saw a lemon shark waiting to snatch some grub. It started swimming towards me at one point, and I think I got a pretty cool picture!
We had an hour interval on surface where we all just talked about travelling, etc. and then we went back down for our second dive to see a few more sharks. I still can't believe that I did it, and I am even more surprised how not scared I was once I was in the water... I guess it's because the whole 'fear of the unknown' factor isn't really in play when you take out the unknown :oP
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In other news, I haven't gotten to say much about Fiji's political sutuation here. ( but no worries, I will still try and be brief :o) ) First of all, there is a lot of tension and racism between Fijians and the Indians here. The Fijians were the original inhabitants of Fiji, so they consider it their country. However, the Indians (who were originally brought here for slavery) have lived here hundreds of years and are really as much citizens of Fiji as anyone else. Well, in 1987 and 2000 there were elections, and following both elections there was a coup d'etat because Indian leaders were elected into office. Now, one would wonder why the coup? if it was the people that voted for the leader and he won fair and square? This is the way things are in Fiji. Sooo...( I don't want to get into too much detail because it's rather complicated, and I don't want to get anything wrong..) basically the elections started Friday and they end this week, and the results come in the 22-23 of this month. If an Indian is voted into office, the chances of there being a coup are extrememly high, even though the military has been demonstrating their power the past few weeks. If a coup happens, lots of Indians will get beat up and probably killed, along with there being shops and looting in downtwon Suva. No worries though, if this happens there is an evacuation plan for us whities, and no one will want to mess with us because we're not involved. If it gets bad enough we could be evacuated out of the country, but that's highly unlikely.
Well, I guess that is it for now.... only a few weeks of the semester left!
