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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 8, Issue 10 (Suppl)
J Earth Sci Clim Change, an open access
ISSN: 2157-7617
Climate Change 2017
October 19-21, 2017
CLIMATE CHANGE
October 19-21, 2017 | Rome, Italy
4
th
World Conference on
Coastal erosion in the Yasawa Islands, Fiji: Human error - Not sea level rise
Pamela Matlack Klein
1
and
Nils-Axel Morner
2
1
The Portuguese Sea Level Project, Virginia, USA
2
Paleogeophysics& Geodynamics, Sweden
W
e studied several sites of coastal erosion in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji. Before arriving in Fiji, we examined satellite images
on Google Earth and identified specific sites for investigation. From the day of our arrival on Navotua Island the local
residents were curious about our activity and wanted to know if they were in danger of a rising sea. We were told of three
isolated instances of severe erosion that was being blamed on SLR. We were subsequently able to investigate NanuyaLailai
and Long Sandy Beach, both on Matacawalevu Island, and Yagetta Village on Yagetta Island.The reasons for the erosion at
NanuyaLailai and Long Sandy Beach were obviously due to sea walls and jetties. At NanuyaLailai there is no beach at high
tide and the new sea wall was still under construction. Long Sandy Beach is located across a short, narrow channel from Goat
Island. Long Sandy Beach has both a sea wall in front of the main lodge and two rock groins projecting into the channel. The
groin to the west caused a gyre of the current to form that cut into the beach, washing away much of the sand. The second
groin, to the east, blocks sediments from depositing on the beach. As at NanuyaLailai, there is little to no dry beach at high
tide.Yagetta Village presented a totally different problem as there are neither groins or sea walls on the beach. Yagetta Village
is in a small cove and from the satellite images we could see a large, unconsolidated mass of sediments to the NE of the village.
There was no obvious cause of their beach erosion, which occurred very quickly and several years prior to Cyclone Winston
in 2016. During interviewing the village chief, he happened to mention that they used to have thousands of sea cucumbers
(
Holothuriascabra
, sand-fish) carpeting the shallow offshore waters. Their beach began to vanish after they began wholesale
harvesting of these animals to sell to Japan and China. We concluded that the sand-fish, which secrete a sticky substance from
their skin that causes sediments to adhere to them and which burrow into the sand at night, were stabilizing the offshore
sediments and preventing beach erosion. In their absence, there is no longer anything preventing the sediments from being
entrained and moved away from the village
beach.Weconcluded that the erosion we investigated had nothing to do with SLR
but everything to do with human error in either trying to barricade the beach with rock structures or through ignorance of the
importance of
H. scabra
to sediment stability.
Biography
Pamela Matlack Klein received her MS degree from Oceanographic Center of Nova Southeastern University, Dania, Florida, in 1983. She subsequently assisted
in the founding of the Coastal Education and Research Foundation and the
Journal of Coastal Research
. Currently she writes a weekly newspaper column and is
part of the Portuguese Sea Level Project and the Fiji New Sea Level Project.
pmkdragon@gmail.comPamela Matlack Klein et al., J Earth Sci Clim Change 2017, 8:10(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7617-C1-037