Manjula goes blogging...

It was with great relief that we read the below email message from our colleague Peter Ramohia, a leatherback researcher in the Solomon Islands, informing us that the research team and beach monitors on the various islands were all safe after the recent earthquake/tsunami:

“The earthquake hit when I was in Kia this morning. There wasn't any damage in Kia but I noticed sea level rising above and below normal. The warning put in place for Honiara was now lifted and no major damages, injuries or deaths are reported here in Honiara. The regions mainly affected are Shortlands and Mono, Gizo town and surrounding Islands, Munda and surrounding islands and parts of Choiseul and West Isabel. Most residents of Gizo are now evacuated to the hill tops and higher ground”.

The Solomon Islands do not usually make a news splash on the international sea turtle scene, but some exciting events and research have been initiated in these islands in the past twelve months. I was first acquainted with the Solomon Islands in February 2006 when we participated in a landmark occasion to draft a tri-national agreement among Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to protect leatherbacks in the region.

Since then, Peter Dutton and Scott Benson from the NOAA lab in California have partnered with researchers from WWF and The Nature Conservancy to assess the leatherback nesting population in the Solomon Islands (from left to right): Ernest, Peter Ramohia, John Pita, Joe Horoku

Some of the exciting work on a recent expedition has been captured very effectively on video by filmmaker John Dutton, and can be viewed at the following link:
http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=PRD&id=1226&ParentMenuId=212

With the Solomon Islands being so remote, very little news that isn’t related to civil unrest or a natural disaster ever gets out – the video montage below by John Dutton shows life in a typical remote village. As far as we know, this village, Baniata on Rendova Island has not been affected – but many like it have been.
http://web.mac.com/johnkdutton/iWeb/Solomon Islands/Baniata Village.html

Our thoughts go out to friends and their families in the Solomons...