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Will Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai reefs recover post-eruption?

By
Kaniva Staff
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By Sam Olley of RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission. 

Ecologists are reviewing research on reefs around the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, to see how biodiversity may fare following the latest eruption.

Underwater research at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai.
Underwater research at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai. Photo: Supplied / Patrick Smallhorn-West

When it erupted from December 2014 to January 2015, water temperatures temporarily changed by up to 5C and masses of ash fell into the sea.

The crater created an 185 hectare landmass – the newest landmass on earth – connecting two islands.

Scientists went there four years later to see if surrounding coral and fish populations survived the explosion.

The research was part of reef ecologist Dr Patrick Smallhorn-West’s PhD.

Seeing the latest eruption had been “surreal”, but Smallhorn-West was optimistic coral populations could recover around the caldera, and said it was just a matter of how fast.

“If some have survived, then you’d probably get decent recovery happening pretty quickly. If the whole thing has been annihilated, then it might be a bit longer … I hope to see actually pretty decent recovery around there, in the next five years or so if there are no further eruptions.”

Patrick Smallhorn-West.
Patrick Smallhorn-West. Photo: Supplied / Patrick Smallhorn-West

He and fellow scientists found that after the last eruption “in some places the reefs were completely annihilated, kind of the worst thing that can happen to a reef, it’s like a nuclear bomb”.

But another section “had been completely undisturbed” with “reef growth there that was probably 40 or 50 years old”.

“It was the healthiest we’d seen in the whole country.”

He believed that was due to the reef’s isolation – there is less pollution and fishing – and healthy, older parts of the reef have helped the damaged parts recover quickly.

“There was really high recruitment, lots and lots of coral babies growing back where it had been destroyed. To an extent that was quite surprising, actually. So now with this eruption, the satellite footage is showing some of the reefs that we dove on in 2018 look like they’re actually out of the water now or just gone,” Smallhorn-West said.

“So those ones probably don’t have a good chance, but the outer edge of the northeastern island, that’s where it had been totally protected from the earlier eruption. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens there.”

Smallhorn-West said the volcano was “an incredible part of the world”.

Researchers walked around the volcano during their field work.
Researchers walked around the volcano during their field work. Photo: Supplied / Patrick Smallhorn-West

“There’s two pre-existing islands, and hence the name Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai and then in 2015, this whole thing came up in the middle and joined them together.

“So there were lots of plants, recruiting and there was whole colonies of seabirds starting to nest there in all the cracks. And it’s kind of sad thinking a lot of that’s probably not there anymore,” he said.

“I think these islands, Tonga’s volcanic archipelago, has a wonderful chance – or it should be considered for – a UNESCO World Heritage listing.”

The 2018 research team spent days diving the reefs, and a few hours exploring around the crater.

“It was pretty cool, pretty stark, and some pretty massive cracks that you wouldn’t want to fall into, and it’s all kind of on consolidated ash and rubble.”

Smallhorn-West said there were “all kinds of reasons to keep studying these places” and he hoped to do more research on the volcano’s reefs.

But he said disaster recovery was the immediate priority and the primary concern was the safety of all those affected by the eruption.

Flourish logoA Flourish data visualization

Flourish logoA Flourish data visualization

Flourish logoA Flourish data visualization

American embassy denies Youtube report; No US troops or aircraft carrier fleet for Tonga

By
Philip Cass
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The American embassy in Auckland, New Zealand has denied a report circulating on Youtube that the US army is sending 3000 troops to Tonga.

The report has been widely circulated on social media.

Leslie Núñez Goodman, Country Public Affairs Officer for the US Mission in New Zealand described the person who posted the Youtube as an “impersonator.”

“Unfortunately, it is not an actual U.S. Military account and the information on the video is not correct,” Goodman told Kaniva News.

The video claims the US is sending the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and five other ships.

According to a US Navy press release, the Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on the west coast of America on January 3.

The video also claimed the USAF sent reconnaissance flights to Tonga on Monday. There is no record of this happening.

The amateurishly edited eight minute video is padded out with military public relations video and images of what appears to be flood damage in the Caribbean and a refugee camp in Afghanistan.

The Royal New Zealand Navy has despatched HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Aotearoa to Tonga.

The Aoteoroa is carrying 25,000 litres of water.

The HMNZS Canterbury was due to leave Auckland for Tonga today with more supplies.

The  HMAS Adelaide left Australia with aid and supplies today and is expected to reach Tonga in about five days.

Meanwhile the UK has despatched the HMS Spey, which is expected to sail from Tahiti today.

UK-funded supplies are also being carried on the Adelaide.  Supplies requested by the Tongan government include 90 family tents, eight community tents and six wheel barrows.

An RNZAF Hercules and an RAAF C-17 have delivered water containers, kits for temporary shelters, generators, hygiene supplies and communications equipment.

King Tupou VI offers hope to families who lost relatives in deadly tsunami

By
Kaniva Staff
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King Tupou VI has offered sympathy and prayers to all those who lost relatives in last weekend’s Tongan volcano eruption and tsunami disaster or are still waiting for news about their families.

King Tupou VI

He said the whole of Tonga was devastated by the tsunami and it wiped out some of the islands, homes, plantations and possessions.

His Majesty’s first speech to address the nation following last week’s volcanic eruption has been delivered in Tongan in a video clip which was shared on Facebook last night as New Zealand and international aid programmes have stepped up.

The tsunami on Saturday killed three people and injured many. Waves of up to 15 metres flattened houses and caused extensive damage to Tongatapu’s western district.

It wiped out the islands of Mango, Fonoifua and ‘Atatā.

The king mentioned some biblical texts in his attempt to encourage his people to stand together to rebuild the nation.

“Let’s start with Jehovah as Jehovah is our refuge”, the king said referring to Psalm 91 of the Bible.

Facing new challenges
He said he could not say whether the natural disaster’s damage itself was less than the damage it caused to the environment and the evacuation of the people “as there was supreme over all in nature”.

“But it is astonishing, and I am grateful that the death toll was at a minimum,” the king said.

“While we feel and sympathise with immediate families and relatives of the deceased, we have been facing new challenges,” the king said.

He said the Armed Forces’ boats which transported people from the islands were affected by the pumice stones from the volcanic eruptions.

He said the people of ‘Eua valued their wharf more than their airport. And that was because that was what they mostly used for transportation and trade.

Standing together
“In times of trouble, people stand together so they could withstand the consequences,” the king said.

“It is not who have much money or assistance from overseas but the will of the people

“It is the determination to live on top of believing in God and show love, helping each other, have patience and be self-possessed”.

“In the aftermath of the disaster, we have to all stand up and work,” he said.

“It is our nation and the place where we grew up and it is only you and me who would treasure that”.

The king congratulated people from other countries and various partnerships, churches and businesses for helping Tonga.

Aid is coming from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States. New Zealand’s Defence Force continues to coordinate with its partners.

Inequities in lung cancer treatment focus of $6M funding boost

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

Stark inequities in treatment and survival rates for Māori and Pacific patients diagnosed with New Zealand’s biggest cancer killer are the focus of $6 million in new research funding.

Doctor (file image)

Doctor (file image) (Source: istock.com)

Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in Aotearoa, killing 1700 people every year, a disproportionate number of whom are Māori.

Patient advocates have welcomed the funding shared by six university and public health teams, but also want better drug funding to help people battling the disease now.

Health Research Council chief executive Sunny Collings said there were entrenched disparities in lung cancer care.

“Māori are four times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-Māori, an unacceptable disparity that has remained unchanged for at least the past 20 years,” Prof Collings said.

The research council, Cancer Control Agency, and Ministry of Health are jointly funding the research.

University of Otago associate professor Jason Gurney has received funding for a project designed to achieve equity in lung cancer survival rates for Māori by 2030.

“At 300 deaths per year, about the same number of Māori die from lung cancer as [those who] die from the six next most common causes of cancer death combined,” he said.

“Our own recent research shows strong survival disparities across all stages of lung cancer, suggesting that access to potentially curative treatment is not equal between Māori and non-Māori regardless of the stage.”

While the funding was welcome, Lung Foundation New Zealand chief executive Philip Hope said patients also deserved better access to publicly-funded therapies.

“If we’re guided by an equity lens, we would not be putting all of our effort into research right now, we would be putting it into reimbursing treatments that would be life-changing for patients who have been diagnosed right now,” he said.

“They no longer find it acceptable to be told to go home and die quietly.”

Lung cancer sufferers want Pharmac to reverse a 2020 decision to freeze plans to fund a drug that could help at least 1400 patients a year.

Keytruda is available in New Zealand but patients must fund it themselves at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

Hope said people were dying prematurely, partly because of a “thrift culture” at the drug-buying agency Pharmac.

“In Australia, Māori have access to 17 different drugs that are available to treat lung cancer. In New Zealand, they have access to five. If they want access to any one of those other 12, they’ll need to pay for it,” he said.

“There are many treatments sitting at Pharmac right now, the evidence is indisputable, they will extend life, they will reduce burden in the health system, but for whatever reason there’s not the appetite to seek reimbursement, to seek the budget to fund those medicines.”

Hope said 45 percent of patients diagnosed with lung cancer were diagnosed at hospital emergency departments, a figure he attributed to a “wait and see” approach and people in disadvantaged parts of the country not going to the doctor.

Fiji man living in NZ convicted of murdering family in Fiji

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

A Fiji-born New Zealand resident has been found guilty of multiple murders in Fiji.

Mohammed Raheesh Isoof of Christchurch was convicted of five counts of murder and one attempted murder.

In the Lautoka High Court, Justice Thushara Rajasinghe ruled the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Isoof had killed the family of five in August 2019.

Police officers escort the murder suspect Muhammed Raheesh Isoof to the remand centre from Nadi Magistrates Court on September 18.
Isoof being taken into custody last September Photo: Fiji Times/ REINAL CHAND

The judge said it was evident the accused had lied in his evidence before the court.

Isoof will be sentenced on Friday.

Isoof had murdered three adults and two children and attempted to murder an 11-month old by abandoning her in the Nausori Highlands, Nadi.

The bodies of a 63-year-old carpenter, Nirmal Kumar, his 54-year-old wife, Usha Devi, their 34-year-old daughter, Nileshni Kajal and her two daughters Sana aged 11, and Samara, 8 were all found near a cliff.

Tongan ‘real life Aquaman’ survives 27-hour swim after tsunami

By
Kaniva Staff
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This article appeared on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

A 57-year-old Tongan man says he swam about 27 hours to get to shore after getting swept out to sea during Saturday’s devastating tsunami.

A P-3K2 Orion aircraft flies over an area of Tonga that shows Ash on homes and surrounding vegetation.
A P-3K2 Orion aircraft flies over an area of Tonga that shows ash from Saturday’s volcanic eruption on homes and surrounding vegetation. Photo: New Zealand Defence Force. Licenced under Creative Commons BY 4.0.

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on Saturday killed at least three people, sent tsunami waves rolling across the archipelago, damaging villages, resorts and many buildings and knocked out communications for the nation of about 105,000 people.

Lisala Folau, who lived on the small, isolated island of Atatā which has a population of about 60 people, was swept out to sea when the waves hit land at about 7pm on Saturday, he said in a radio interview to Tongan media agency Broadcom Broadcasting.

Folau said he was painting his home when he was alerted about the tsunami by his brother, and soon the waves had gone through his lounge.

He climbed on a tree to escape but when he got down another big wave swept him away, he said. The 57-year-old said he was disabled and could not walk properly.

“I just floated, bashed around by the big waves that kept coming,” he told the radio station.

Folau said he kept floating, and slowly managed to swim 7.5km to the main island of Tongatapu, reaching the shore 27 hours later at about 10pm on Sunday.

Reuters was unable to contact Folau or verify the events.

Lisala Folau. Photo/Supplied 

The story of Folau’s heroics went viral among Tongan groups on Facebook and other social media.

“Real life Aquaman,” said one post on Facebook, referring to the comic book and film chracter.

“He’s a legend,” said another post.

Atata, which is about 8km northwest of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, or a 30-minute boat ride, has been almost entirely destroyed in the tsunami that hit the islands.

Tongan naval boats are still surveing the smaller islands and evacuating people to the main islands.

-Reuters

Tonga eruption: Airport runway cleared of ash, WHO representative says

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission

A World Health Organisation representative in Tonga says the international airport has been cleared of volcanic ash which will allow humanitarian aid flights to arrive.

Fua'amotu International Airport has limited damage but a layer of ash covers the runway making it unusable. An aerial photo taken from an NZDF P-3 Orion on January 16, 2022
Fua’amotu International Airport seen with a covering of ash in an aerial photo taken from an NZDF Orion earlier this week. Photo: NZDF

Hundreds of volunteers, workers and Tongan defence force personnel have been clearing the debris from the runway by hand.

WHO liaison officer in Tonga Dr Yutaro Setoya, who is in Nuku’alofa on the main island Tongatapu, told RNZ’s Pacific reporter Eleisha Foon there had been a thick layer of ash on the runway preventing planes from landing.

“The runway, I understand, was cleared to be able to be used from outside [the country]. I understand humanitarian flights are coming in,” Setoya told RNZ by satellite phone.

A New Zealand Defence Force C-130 Hercules is on standby and will be able to to take off once the all clear has been given, bringing supplies of water, hygiene kits and other goods. Two Australian Air Force Hercules are also ready to depart.

One of Tonga’s main communications providers, Digicel, said it had restored international calls to Tonga via satellite.

But until the undersea communications cable is restored its network services will not be fully operational, it said.

It is expected to take at least a month to complete repairs on the cable that carries the bulk of internet and phone communications to Tonga.

Digicel Tonga is giving out free sim cards from Thursday morning, with the company saying it knows how desperate family and friends overseas are to connect with relatives.

Three people are confirmed to have died after Saturday’s massive volcanic eruption and tsunami. Houses on the island of Mango in the Ha’apai group were destroyed, and the majority of structures on Atatā on Tongatapu, about 6km north Nuku’alofa, were all but wiped out by the tsunami.

There has been extensive damage to Fonoifua and Nomuka Islands. Evacuations of residents are underway. Western parts of the main island of Tongatapu are also badly hit, with dozens of houses destroyed.

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New Zealand Defence Force ships HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Aotearoa are due to arrive in Tonga on Friday, carrying water and other immediate supplies, as well as engineers and helicopters.

Their first task is to offload desperately needed water, but distributing supplies will be complicated by the need to maintain Covid-19 protocols.

Tonga is free of the virus, and Tongan and New Zealand officials are still working out how foreign assistance can be done in a contactless way.

A second New Zealand Defence Force P3 Orion surveillance flight was carried out on Wednesday and also included Fiji’s southern Lau Islands, at the request of the government of Fiji.

The Tongan government has begun a huge cleanup operation in the capital.

Setoya said Tonga needed access to emergency funding and immediate humanitarian supplies from overseas, but he believed most of the response to the devastating volcanic eruption could be handled domestically.

He said people affected by the volanic eruption were resilient and strong and were helping others clean up.

“Tongan people are strong and very quick to react,” he said.

“People are cleaning ashes from the ground and the roof … hand in hand, cleaning the houses together. So I think there’s a good energy in Tonga.”

He said Tonga needed rain to wash away the ash.

“Because ash is everywhere and has to be washed away before we get clean water [from roofs] … many people depend on rain water in Tonga.”

Tonga eruption: Waves up to 15 metres possible – Scientist

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

An expert in natural disasters says it’s absolutely possible Tonga’s volcanic eruption could have sparked tsunami waves reaching 15-metres high at their peak.

Press conference in the bunker at Parliament. Bill Fry from GNS
GNS principal scientist Bill Fry. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Five days on from one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the past 30 years, more details are emerging about the destructive tsunami triggered by Tonga’s Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, and the damage it caused.

In the first official update from the island kingdom, the Tongan government said the eruption generated waves of up to 15m, that hit the west coasts of a series of islands.

GNS seismologist Bill Fry said while 15 metres is an enormous height to imagine, it’s likely the waves splashed up to that height in some places, rather than rushing in as a wall of water 15m high everywhere.

“It’s quite possible that the 15m is a maximum height that the water reached inland when it was coming in and sloshing around. It had a lot of force. If you think about throwing a bucket of water out onto a deck, if it hits a wall or it hits your fence, that could splash up a bit.

“The same type of thing can happen with a tsunami, and I expect that 15m is probably the maximum extent at which it splashed up.”

Fry said it would not have reached 15m everywhere.

“When we look at point measurements of the wave amplitude or the wave height, with a coastal run up, we’re always seeing something that’s both the effect of the incoming tsunami – the tsunami that was generated, and also the local effects of the coastline, the shape of the coastline.

“Does the coastline look like a funnel that sends all of the energy into a particular place, and of course makes that energy more focused and has higher run ups? Or does it look like a shape that spreads the energy out and has much lower height waves – lower amplitude waves?

“So I think that 15m measurement was probably the former case, where there is some sort of local topography that funnelled the energy to a particular place and made it slosh up to that 15m.”

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta yesterday said the outer islands of Tonga were extensively damaged.

Evacuations began Wednesday morning for residents on some of the smaller islands of Ha’apai, with about 150 people evacuated to other islands, Mahuta said.

The Tongan government said Mango, Atatā, and Fonoifua islands were being evacuated, and multiple people were injured.

People were also being evacuated from the western side of Tongatapu, including Kanokupolu, where dozens of homes have been damaged.

Structures on two islands have been completely wiped out: on the island of Mango, all of the homes have been destroyed – aerial images from a New Zealand Defence Force flight show just a few temporary tarpaulin shelters still standing.

And it appears almost every structure on the island of Atatā has been destroyed. The New Zealand Defence Force described the damage there as “catastrophic” after surveillance flights.

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) also released a preliminary assessment that 72 structures had been damaged on Atatā and the entire island covered in ash.

Repairing Tonga cable no simple process – cable company

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission

The exact damage to the Tonga undersea cable won’t be known until the cable repair ship, the Reliance, arrives in Tonga and pulls the cable up out of the sea.

A ship has arrived in Tonga to begin cable repairs

The cable repair vessel. Photo: Twitter/ @tongaportal

Tonga Cable Limited chairperson Samuiela Fonua said “There is really not much we can say until the ship pulls the cable up so it can be multiple breaks on the segment to Fiji.

“They are bringing a spare repeater (equipment) just in case the repeater is at fault as well. So far, the tests they run indicate the faults that we are reporting now. But there can be other faults on the line when they do the actual connectivity.

“They would normally run tests from both ends so the guys from Fintel (Fiji) did that and it is called a bi-directional assessment and that will somehow determine whether there is cut to the cable.”

He had so far managed to talk to his team of engineers on Sunday and was in contact with them from Auckland, where he had family matters to attend to.

“The fact I’m in Auckland and the only active communication we’ve managed to activate is with our engineers that was on Sunday afternoon we were able to get in touch with them via satellite phone,” Fonua said.

“It was then they informed us together with email from Fintel Fiji that after running some test, that there seem to be a cut on our international cable and our domestic cable.

“It is the southern cross cable extension Suva, Fiji to Tonga. On the international cable it is about 37km offshore from Nuku’alofa and 47km for domestic cable.

On Monday he met with the cable repair company – which was already in motion to begin the task of repairing the cable.

“We had a meeting with the company US Subcom and they have assured us they will initiate the recovery process by starting to prepare the vessel which is currently docked in Papua New Guinea,” Fonua said.

“They are estimating about three or four days of prep work that will allow them to set sail for Samoa and they have a facility in Samoa and normally the ship would be docking in Samoa or New Caledonia.”

The ship had docked in PNG so staff could get vaccinated en route from Singapore where it had been for a five-year routine maintenance.

“They have to travel to Samoa first to pick up their equipment and we some spare stuff there that we will need for the operation. The preparation to come to Samoa is not an issue it will take three to four days and it won’t take long to pick up stuff in Samoa,” Fonua said.

“The real concern for us now regarding time is the readiness of the site or the conditions of the site because the cable lies in the area that was really affected by the eruption and the domestic cable is very near the eruption site.

“So, until they receive some clearances from the government of Tonga they may hang around Samoa for sometime for that to be confirmed but it won’t take that long to come to Tonga. It will take a day and a half to come to Tonga.”

They expected to get clearance fairly quickly with urgency to have the cable repaired so that phone, internet and communications could be restored.

Internal phones restored

Internal phone lines are expected to be re-established soon in Tonga.

Fonua said Tongans would be able to make domestic calls.

The only phone calls being made out of Tonga now have been via satellite phones.

Non-perishables being collected in Auckland for Tonga from Friday

By
Kaniva Staff
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By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee is gearing up to collect and send non-perishable foods to Tonga in the wake of the twin disaster.

Air crew stack and secure pallets of disaster relief supplies to be sent to Tonga by Royal New Zealand Air Force, in the wake of a tsunami triggered by a volcanic eruption in January.
Another aid consignment for Tonga – this to be sent sometime this week by the NZDF Photo: Supplied / Dillon Anderson Photography via NZDF

The New Zealand Committee is urgently seeking donations of non-perishables like rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, cabin bread, canned meat, toilet paper, and bottled water.

Priority will be given for family-to-family donations.

Co-chair of the Committee, Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki asked for donations do not expire before at least July this year.

“We are providing a process where they can bring their goods to be sent to their loved ones in Tonga. People will then come to pack their goods into drums – evry item in each drum will be recorded. Big job, but every volunteer that we have got is willing to make it happen,” she said

She said donations can be dropped to Mt Smart Stadium this Friday between 9am to 8pm.

Fiji prepares for acid rain

Fijian authorities are warning the sulphur dioxide (SO2) concentration in the atmosphere has increased overnight and could result in acidic rainfall over the country.

The Department of Environment said it’s monitoring the air quality in Fiji, following the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcanic eruption in Tonga last weekend.

Fijians are urged to cover all household water tanks and stay indoors in the event of rain.

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