Part of the regional summaries: Fiji - Cicia, Fiji - Northern Lau (Vanua Balavu / Cicia / Nayau), and Fiji - Lau
More info
Fiji (NOAA CRW virtual station)A coral-dominated barrier fore reef off Cicia in the Lau group with 67% cover; the expedition's notes for Cicia's fore reefs describe large Pocillopora eydouxi, elkhorn-like Isopora, and big brain and Pavona stands along the slope edge. The same notes record that 212 crown-of-thorns starfish were removed from Cicia during an active outbreak; they do not place it at this station. Surveyed on the Living Oceans Foundation's Global Reef Expedition.
E dua na yasana i tuba ni cakau i tuba (barrier fore reef) mai Cicia ena yatu Lau, e liu kina na lase, ka 67% na ubi ni lase (coral cover); na ivola ni ilakolako me baleta na yasana i tuba ni cakau mai Cicia e vakamacalataka na Pocillopora eydouxi levu, na Isopora e vaka na elkhorn, kei na lase vakamona (brain) levu kei na Pavona e tu ena bati ni baba. Na ivola vata oqo e vola ni 212 na bula (crown-of-thorns starfish) a kauti tani mai Cicia ena gauna ni nodra tubu vakasivia; ia e sega ni kaya ni a yaco ena vanua ni vakadidike oqo.
AI translation of this summary; the English is authoritative. (low confidence)
CTD-cast midpoint of 27.1–27.3°C
Three other CRD dive sites with their own pages within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.
🗺 Detailed map of the Global Reef Expedition dive sites, Cicia, Fiji (Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation; opens in a new window)
Site description
Setting
FJCC46 (Cicia, Lau Archipelago): surveyed 18 Jun 2013 during the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation Global Reef Expedition. The expedition's own site table classifies FJCC46 as a barrier reef on an exposed aspect, surveyed on the fore reef, outside the lagoon.
General benthic features
The expedition's site notes for Cicia's fore reefs (an island-level description, not an observation at this station) describe a highly diverse, coral-dominated benthos, often with a substantial macroalgal component, with acroporids, pocilloporids, poritids, and faviids dominant. The same notes describe the edge of the shallow slope as often dominated by large Pocillopora eydouxi colonies, thick-branched, elkhorn-like Isopora, and large Favia stelligera and/or Pavona maldivensis stands, above a reef flat dominated by CCA and exposed at low tide. Alongside the hard coral already reported for this site, the same transects recorded 14% crustose coralline algae, 4.8% turf, 1.8% macroalgae, and 5.0% cyanobacteria. Non-living substrate came to 25% pavement, 7.3% dead coral, and 0.8% rubble. All of these figures are means of all of this station's own transects in the expedition's per-transect benthic records, so they are survey results, not photographic estimates.
Coral cover
- Reference: Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Global Reef Expedition (in situ transect)
- Coral cover 67% (the expedition's in situ transects).
- Transect mean 67 ± 4.6% SE (n = 6 transects; Living Oceans Foundation per-transect benthic data); the headline above is this all-transect mean.
Stressors
The expedition's site notes for Cicia record that 212 crown-of-thorns starfish were removed from the island during an active outbreak; the notes do not place the outbreak at this station. The Living Oceans Foundation transects here recorded 5.0% cyanobacteria and no recently dead coral.
Fish and other fauna
Paired fish transects recorded about 53 fish species per transect and about 19 kg per 100 m2 of biomass.
Comparisons with other data
Apart from the Living Oceans Foundation survey shown here, we found no other surveys at this site as of 2026. If you would like to share yours, please email us.
No underwater photographs from this station are on file.
Data & links
- Download benthic survey data (CSV) ↗
- Download all LOF-GRE data (933 sites) ↗
- Photo portfolio ↗
- Coral Reef Diagnostics page for this area ↗
Data are from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation Global Reef Expedition and Coral Reef Diagnostics.
© Coral Reef Diagnostics.