Coral Reef Diagnostics

Fiji - Vanua Balavu (FJVB70)

Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation — Global Reef Expedition
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Part of the regional summaries: Fiji - Vanua Balavu, Fiji - Northern Lau (Vanua Balavu / Cicia / Nayau), and Fiji - Lau

05
Coral Health Index: TBD
Outlier score: 3.89/5 (Vanua Balavu, n = 18 corals with an outlier score). The share of those corals whose molecular stress profile was an outlier, rescaled to 0-5 (5 = no outliers); an island-level measure (Mayfield et al. 2017), not a Coral Health Index.
Country
Fiji
Survey date(s)
2013-06-26
Coordinates
-17.1352, -178.7775
Coral cover
17%
± 4.5% SE, n = 4 transects · Benthic transects+photo-quadrats
Observations
cyanobacteria
Heat stress
Most recent heat load record
25.8°C0.0°C-weeks
26 Oct 2026 · No heat stress
5-year thermal stress load
5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)
8.9°C-weeksi
2021–2025
NOAA Coral Reef Watch — Fiji virtual station
i 5-year mean max. DHW is the mean of the annual maximum DHWs over the five complete years named above, not conditions today.
More infoFiji (NOAA CRW virtual station)
Site summary
Read this summary in:

The last Vanua Balavu station of the Fiji trip, where the survey team dived to 15.8 m and algae covered nearly five times as much ground as live coral (17%). The expedition's notes place it on a lagoonal pinnacle and record extensive mortality on several large Porites lobata and Diploastrea colonies. Surveyed on the Living Oceans Foundation's Global Reef Expedition.

Max. depth (team dive log)
15.8 m
expedition team log maximum (not Anderson's own dive)
Water temp. during survey
26.8°Cii
CTD-cast midpoint; the cast read 26.8°C throughout
-1.1°C vs the 2013 mean sea temperature (27.9°C)
ii Station CTD-cast midpoint (LOF metadata), not a dive reading: the Living Oceans Foundation station metadata for Fiji give the CTD cast at FJVB70 on 26 June 2013 a maximum of 26.83°C and a minimum of 26.79°C; the value shown, 26.8°C, is their midpoint.
Bottom time
69 min
in at 13:23

🗺 Detailed map of the Global Reef Expedition dive sites, Vanua Balavu, Fiji (Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation; opens in a new window)

Site description

Setting

FJVB70 was the last Vanua Balavu station of the Fiji leg, surveyed on 26 June 2013 during the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation's Global Reef Expedition. The expedition's site notes place it, with six other Vanua Balavu stations, on lagoonal pinnacle reefs: massive framework build-ups with branching and tabular corals on their tops and sides, ringed by extensive lagoonal sand flats. The survey team's bottom time was 69 minutes.

Coral cover

Stressors

The expedition's site notes record extensive mortality on several large Porites lobata and Diploastrea colonies at FJVB70. The Living Oceans Foundation transects here recorded 7.8% cyanobacteria and no recently dead coral; they carry no bleaching, disease, or crown-of-thorns field. Context, not observation: the Fiji virtual station has averaged an annual maximum of 8.9 degree-heating-weeks over 2021-2025 (NOAA Coral Reef Watch), above the 8 DHW level at which severe bleaching and mortality are expected, and Cyclone Winston passed over Vanua Balavu in February 2016 (IBTrACS best track, NOAA NCEI).

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

Data are from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation Global Reef Expedition, Coral Reef Diagnostics, and NOAA Coral Reef Watch.

© Coral Reef Diagnostics.