What a great trip we had on the Indies Trader. Unlike the two months previous, we experienced glassy calm conditions during the travel periods and good weather at anchorage. Several excellent surf spots were discovered and swells at the beginning and end of the trip made for a successful voyage. One particularly hollow wave was described as a mini-Teahupoo after the now famed Tahitian super hollow break and two others with very long barrels. As luck would have it, the weather only deteriorated on the day before leaving the boat.

The Reef Check exercise was successful in terms of both surveying selected reefs and creating awareness of the general nature of coral reefs among the surfers. It is a credit to Quiksilver to allow the Reef Check program aboard, as this particular area has been inaccessible due to its remoteness and restricted entry. Though the trip visited many of the reef areas only briefly, this was sufficient to obtain that snap-shot which is sufficient for an overview. Inspecting reefs where urban and industrial impact is nil and the village impact low provided a valuable comparison to the more populated or tourist-use areas of Polynesia.

In summary, the coral reefs varied within the range expected for the various environments. There was minor coral bleaching apparent at two sites. With an abundance of Acanthaster (coral eating Crown-of-thorns starfish) at some sites, this probably accounted for the few isolated bleached corals. The minor bleaching observed in other parts of Polynesia was not evident. If the only uninhabited island visited was representative of unfished populations, then all of the other reefs observed were impacted, despite the low village populations. On one reef, the numbers of coral trout, sweet lip and large parrotfish were exceptionally abundant. The presence of the crown-of-thorns was pronounced at four of the areas, with evidence of previous infestation some period previously (12 months).