2009-2010 CORL Update July 1 2009 June 30 2010 By Mike King At the beginning of CORL s 2009-2010 fiscal year (July 1 to June 30th) we had two funded projects underway. Funding for both was provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through NOAA. These projects were; Community-Based Coral Farming in American Samoa Project Number: 2008-0061-012 and Marine Debris Reduction in American Samoa Project Number: 2008-0066-003. Both Projects have now been completed and their project reports will be posted on the NFWF website soon. In addition to the information found on NFWF s web site both project s reports will be posted on CORL s website that is currently being updated (www.corl.org). Photo 1: Collecting Marine Debris in Pago Pago Harbor In June 2009 both projects had been started and progress was being made at reaching their objectives. The Coral farm in Alofau had been expanded to 18 trestles in two areas of the lagoon. Corals were being propagated and planted into the targeted coral reef restoration area. The Land based coral farm located in Amouli had been set up and was full of corals for sale to the Marine Ornamental Industry and for scientific research. A second coral farm for raising zoanthids and corals was set up in Nu uuli village s lagoon area. The Marine debris project was underway and we were actually ahead of the proposed time line, having started to test the towable net to collect
floating marine debris in the upper areas of Pago Pago harbor. By September 28 th 2009 several marine debris collection trips had been made and we were loading up the Alia boat with the equipment to conduct another collection run later that week. On Tuesday September 29 th 2009 at about 7AM American Samoa was shaken awake by a 8.2rs earthquake (now confirmed to have been two 8.2rs earthquakes that happened at the same time about 80 miles apart) followed by a set of Tsunami waves that reached 32feet at some areas. The Alofau coral farm was completely destroyed and Nu uuli coral farm badly damaged. The Alia with all the marine debris collection equipment aboard was sunk to the bottom of Pago Pago harbor and unrecoverable. Immediately after the waves subsided the magnitude of this disaster started to set in, the electric power was knocked out and would most likely take weeks to months to be restored, hundreds of sea side homes were damaged or destroyed and 32 lives had been lost in American Samoa. #2
#3 Photos 2 & 3 Pago Pago Village 9/30/2009 Tsunami Damage CORL s Amouli coral farm was only slightly damaged by the earthquake and we had a backup generator for power, but the immediate needs of community outweighed that of the coral farm and the generator was taken to the only intact gas station on the east side of the Island so gas could be supplied to the emergency and other vehicles bringing injured people to the hospital. While we tried to keep the coral farm operating using our gas powered water pump, the effort failed on the fourth day when its constant use running 24 hrs a day caused it to fail. At that point all the corals that were surviving were placed in the ocean in Amouli village and the land based coral farm shut down.
Photo: 4 Amouli Coral Farm 650 gal stock tanks The marine debris project was centered at ground zero, Pago Pago village, which was one of the hardest hit areas. The amount of Marine Debris deposited in the projects targeted area was thousands of times worse than what we had started to work on. CORL volunteers joined the people of Pago Pago, along with FEMA, US ARMY, and American Samoa governmental workers in one of the largest cleanup efforts ever done in American Samoa. About one week after the earthquake FEMA generators arrived on Island and were put in place at different locations where there was no power. The Amouli coral farm received power on the second week post tsunami but the power was unreliable and power outages were common. The numerous power outage and brownouts caused the loss of the Amouli coral farm s main water pumps and destroyed our computers and other electrical devices. The damage and loss of equipment was almost the end for CORL, but the same disaster that did so much damage also provided a lifeline. Immediately following the earthquake, I went outside to see if my neighbors were all OK. What I saw then was a series of small super fast waves coming ashore; I then realized that a Tsunami was most likely on its way. After yelling warnings to my neighbors I went back into the CORL office and grabbed the video cameras to film the ocean. Just as I got outside there was a roar and the first Tsunami wave can ashore as people were fleeing the village below. The Coral farm / office in Amouli village is fortunately located near shore but at 45 feet above sea level so I did feel a bit safe until the water started flowing up the stream next to the coral farm!! Even then I held my ground and kept filming knowing I
had another 30 hill behind me that I could retreat to. The video of the first wave and some of the aftermath from the waves can be found on YouTube, just search under American Samoa Tsunami. The footage I shot of the initial first wave coming ashore is said to be the only footage of the actual first wave from the Tsunami on 9/29/09. I kept the cameras with me for the next several days recording the damage done to as many of the villages, coral reefs and our coral farms. I then compiled a 1 hour video and brought it and 50 copies to Cost U- Less a major shopping store on island where they started playing it on their display TVs. I expected a few sales and priced it low to help boost the numbers sold so CORL could generate needed funds for cleanup supplies. The video I feel is one of the worst productions I have ever done, but as luck would have it it s also had the greatest number of copies purchased. In the next three months 2,000 copies were sold at $10.00ea more than enough funds were created to buy all the cleanup supplies, and to replace most of the lost Marine Debris equipment. The Video is no longer available but we do have a few copies of the 1year 9/29/10 Tsunami Disaster Anniversary video left, it has some of the original footage and some from KVZK TV station in American Samoa if interested send me an email at mike@corl.org. While we were able to minimize our losses and replace the equipment needed to finish our two grant projects, there s still much work ahead to recover fully from the Tsunami for both CORL and the Island. CORL has been able to get things back up and running at the Amouli coral farm but the ongoing electrical supply problems caused by the tsunami have caused a continuing problem with our pumps and computers even when hooked up to uninterruptable power supply backups. It could be another year or two before the power plant in Satala village is rebuilt until then we never know when the power will go off. While coral farm in Amouli was left intact and only pumps lost from the undependable power supply, a major problem did develop, that not only affected the coral farm but the coral reefs around many villages. The earthquake and Tsunami damaged a large number of septic tanks and drain fields and resulted in massive amounts of nutrient pollution being deposited into the coastal areas, this has caused many algae blooms in the coastal areas. At the coral farm we had to continuously clean the stock tanks otherwise the algae would quickly overgrow our corals. Disease outbreaks inside of the tanks were also an ongoing problem. While this problem has subsided in the many months post disaster it still returns during any heavy rain and afterwards, we are now in the process of upgrading our filter system adding a commercial UV sterilizer and Protein skimmer. Sea Grant has also offered to help us acquire a commercial Chiller system that will allow the year around operation of the Amouli land based coral farm. In January of 2010 we did reach a recovery milestone for the Amouli coral farm when the first aquacultured corals were shipped off island.
Photo 5: A colorful Zoanthid sp. colony for future MOI aquaculture
Photo 6: Aquacultured Corals for Scientific Study In the next few months both project reports will be posted on our website at www.corl.org along with information on the new projects and further recovery updates as we repair the ocean based coral farms and restart our coral reef restoration activities. CORLs other projects have all been put on hold for now, we expect to restart a few at the beginning of 2011 but with donations at all time lows many projects will have to be shelved for now. The Tsunami video and the determination of CORL s Staff and Volunteers has kept CORL afloat and here today. We Thank all who purchased a copy of the video and a Big Thanks to all the CORL staff and volunteers. Fa afetai Lava! Another Special Thanks to The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for their support and understanding as they granted the extensions needed on both projects. Photo 7: American Samoa s 1 st Public Recycling station Courtesy of CORL and NFWF at the Malaloa Marina run by the ASG Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.