We arrived in the Cook Islands, and had just begun to explore the hills of
Rarotonga, its island dancing and encounters with the humpback whales when
a passing weather front took us by surprise. The reefs here were
devastated and devastating to dive on - what was once a beautiful
landscape is now just bare limestone rocks, but still revealing the
structures that used to thrive here. See our
reef report.
Nan Hauser, who has instigated the Cook Islands Whale Research Centre,
became a great friend of the Heraclitus - she would call on the VHF
radio and play whale songs to us live. Several times the whales
surfaced close to the ship. We mounted a small exhibit at her centre
on Coral Reefs and the work of the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation.
Michel and Orla with Nan
In the Cook Islands, 'island nights' are an event - traditional dancing or
slightly modernised versions, sometimes with feasts. It was
interesting to compare the energies of the dancers and the gestures
themselves with all that we had just seen in French Polynesia.
Aitutaki, Cook Islands
25th August -16th September 2004
Island night fever continued to rage in Aitutaki - our first night there
we spent at what was to become a Heraclitus favourite - the Blue
Nun - where we saw almost every dance group on the island. The
feasts here included all kinds of seafood delight, plus pig cooked in a
ground oven, taro, sweet potato, arrowroot, the best raw fish salads we
have yet tasted.
We spent our days diving, investigating the reef and joyfully finding it
to be in a much better state than Rarotonga's. And our nights making
friends on the island - Lawton Storey, his brother Richard, and wife Aisne
were especially good to us during our stay in Aitutaki. And our days
off strolling on the white sand beaches, snorkelling in one of James A
Michener's top three lagoons in the world, and exploring the backroads of
this very peaceful island.
Nicole in the lagoon
The humpback whales would pass the ship and then travel along the
reef's edge, allowing us just enough time to load the boat and follow them
for a while. They surfaced close to us several times. They
also sang at night, their haunting sounds resonating through the hull, or
amplified through Nate's hydrophone. (listen)
Michel gathered every fishing tip possible to increase our chances of
eating raw fish salad as much as we could ever want! And with great
success - giant trevally, queenfish, mahe mahe, rainbow runners - nearly
all caught from the stern of the Heraclitus while its bow was
gently tethered to the mooring buoy that held our lines for our stay here.
On our last weekend, we gathered for a party on the land with Lawton and
co. - a true Cook Islands style party with a pig given to us by one of our
friends, Junior, cooked to perfection in an 'umu' - hot rock oven, covered
with tarps and weighted down with coral stones.
Nicole and Starrlight help prepare the feast
Michel carves the pig when it's cooked
It was a perfect send-off for our next steps through Polynesia.
Palmerston Atoll, Cook Islands
20th - 22nd September, 2004
A flying visit to Palmerston Atoll on our way to Western Samoa - only two
nights anchored here but the days were packed with diving on the very
beautiful reef, listening to the humpback whales that sang one night
continuously through the hull and making friends on the island with
Edward, Peter, Kai-Sue and a flock of laughing children. We visited
their home, they visited ours and it was hard to believe we had only been
here 48 hours when we lifted anchor and sailed on to Apia.
Our first encounter with the reefs of Rarotonga was a dive
off the ship. As we set our eyes upon the reef, the hopes of
conducting a coral health and vitality study in Rarotonga were
quickly diminished. About 98% of this once magnificent reef was
dead.
For more detail on the state of the reefs of Rarotonga, see
our
reef report.
The visibility here was amazing but after experiencing the
warm waters of French Polynesia, the 74°F water of Rarotonga
seemed rather chilly.
Here lay the remnants of what was once a beautiful formation
of reef. We found approximately 95% of it to be dead. There
were a few species of live coral including Porites .
But there was still life in these waters. Despite the state
of the corals, there was plenty else to admire. At this site we
saw a Hawksbill turtle, parrot fish, surgeon fish, groupers and
a moray eel.
A spotted eagle ray glided past us as we observed the
struggling reef. There were also some crown of thorns seastars
present.
Diving here in Rarotonga showed us once again just how much
trouble the reefs of our planet are in. But in seeing the new
growth here, we were reminded of the resilience of corals and
the diverse ecosystems that they can create when given a chance.
We found the reef here to be healthy and very beautiful
although in a few places we found corals that had been damaged
by dragging anchors. The people of Aitutaki are keen fishermen,
plus there are many sailboats that stop here as they cruise the
South Pacific. We assessed the state of the corals here, see
our
Reef Report for further details.
Divers:Heather, Lindsey, Keely,
Starrlight, Nicole, Eddie
Date: Sept 6th
TI: 1430
TO: 1502
MaxDepth: 43m
Divers:Michel, Nicole Keely, Nate,
Hannah
Every dive around this site included at least one turtle
sighting. We were also continuously treated to seeing them
surface right beside us on the ship. The topography of the reef
gradually sloped from 3m down to about 20m and then dropped off
into the deep blue. We took a lot of science data on this
section of the reef. Below 30m, Porites rus and
Galaxea became more prevalent.
There were a few crown of thorns present on this area of the
reef and many soft corals.
Just east of Dive Site B, this was also a good place for
coral studies, although the current from the passage affected
visibility at times.
Four sailing boats anchored next to this site. After three
different sailboats became stuck in the passage, other sailors
did not want to follow in their footsteps and decided to stay
outside the lagoon.
The extent and vitality of the reef allowed for us to cover a
large area in our Vitareef study. Most dives presented at least
one new coral to identify.
We were lucky to see many clams on a couple of our dives. The
population of clams, at least inside the lagoon, is struggling.
In response to the declining populations, the Aitutaki Marine
Resources is maintaining a clam farm within the lagoon.
The formation inside the lagoon was a sandy bottom with
numerous bommies. There was a good level of diversity and the
corals were for the most part healthy. There was a very high
number of sea cucumbers, especially along the shoreline. On the
Northwest side of the lagoon, there was a 100m wide strip in
which fishing is prohibited - this is to allow fish stocks to
replenish themselves and is part of the traditional Cook
Islander 'rau'i' method of reef management.
The reef that makes up the atoll of Palmerston was incredibly
healthy and the coral growth was extremely dense - coral
colonies were crowded one on top of the other, something we
haven't seen for a while. This part of the reef close to the
ship was a shelf at 8-10 metres, with a gradual slope down to
about 20 metres and then a drop off to about 60 metres. There
was a very rich fish life, also reflected in the amount of
fishing activity that the islanders live off. On every dive we
encountered at least one turtle. A few divers spotted eagle rays
and white tip sharks. We also heard humpback whales while
underwater and at night their sounds reverberated through our
hull. There were signs of impact on the reef from the anchors of
yachts and the supply ship that visit the island.
This dive site was murky due to large waves that break nearby
but there was still an abundance of life. The divers saw many
white tip reef sharks, six sea turtles and one large unicorn
fish. In general, the reefs of Palmerston are in an excellent
state of health.
