I went on about The Shangri-La Fijian hotel in my blog last time I was there. There are many reasons why I keep coming back that you can read about there, but now I have new reasons to return!
After years of people like me walking on the reef that fronts part of the resort, the local chief put a tabu (taboo) on it. The reef needed to be protected and preserved for the local villages who use it for a food source, and tourists with their sandshoes had contributed to the depletion of fish stocks due to their destruction of coral – but hey, it was the 70's and 80's. We didn't know about that stuff then!
Thankfully, many of us do understand that now, and for those who don't there is a fantastic environmental program that has begun at The Fijian, educating the children and willing adults too!
I was so thrilled to hear about it – the Marine Centre at The Fijian runs programs as part of the kids club, and it's just gorgeous.
Hands on, and interactive, we all learned things!
Below, coral cookies in the Marine Centre…
…and here, out on the reef.
We wanted to get involved, and the kids started by building a fish house to be put out on the reef
It was really lovely, on our last day gorgeous Oni (pictured below, in floral shirt), from the Marine Centre, took us on a guided snorkel over the shallow reef, where we planted coral and got to see the fish houses in action. Better than watching television, seeing all sorts of fish darting in and around these structures, and just fantastic to see the results of the reef renewal in action!
Mission complete
Still keen to help out further, we also managed to plant 85 mangrove seedlings – I'm sure we would have done if it had not been for the rain!
We are all looking forward to going back to The Fijian to help some more in the, hopefully not, too distant future.
Leave a reply