Photo: Iñigo San Félix/National Geographic Pristine Seas.
Despite Ailuk Atoll being an inhabited location, its reef system is in immaculate condition, according to the National Geographic Pristine Seas visit there earlier this month, the first stop on a three-month survey of numerous northern islands, both inhabited and unpopulated.
“Ailuk is not an untouched atoll,” said Marshall Islands expedition science lead, Juan Mayorga. “A community of roughly 250 people has been fishing these reefs, but it is clear they have cared for them for generations.
“Every piece of the reef ecosystem puzzle is here: sharks, groupers, humphead wrasse, giant clams, schools of parrotfish and snappers and very healthy corals.”
The Pristine Seas expedition is being conducted in partnership with the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, which has several of its Coastal Division staff on board the vessel.
“What’s more,” said Mayorga, is that “the ecosystem is interconnected. We spotted a dogtooth tuna, an open-ocean predator, inside a lagoon patch reef. This sighting demonstrates that the lagoon, reef, and open ocean are one: Fluid, connected, and alive.”
A journalist on board the Pristine Seas expedition commented about the rarity of the health of Ailuk’s marine system.
“In the clear waters of Ailuk Atoll in the Marshall Islands, underwater cameras are picking up something rare in today’s oceans: Large numbers of sharks and Napoleon wrasse moving through healthy coral reefs,” said journalist Aui’a Vaimaila Leatinu’u with PMN News.
“But for scientists and communities in the Pacific nation, the discovery is only part of the story. The bigger question is whether these ecosystems can survive the growing pressure facing the Pacific.”
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