Tonga - Vava'u (TOVA49)

Setting

TOVA49 is a Global Reef Expedition station on a submerged fore-reef pinnacle outside the lagoon off Vava'u (Anderson's sample sheet: fore-reef pinnacles), surveyed on 27 September 2013. One of Anderson's frames shows a steep, near-vertical reef face dropping into open blue water, with small fish schooling along it (e.g., Image 4); another frame shows the same face crusted with coralline algae and turf (e.g., Image 3).

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General benthic features

On the expedition's benthic transects, algae covered 76% of the benthos: crustose coralline algae led (52% of the benthos), followed by turf (12%), macroalgae (6.3%), erect algae (3.8%), and cyanobacteria (1.8%). Pocillopora was the most common coral genus on this station's transects (10% of the benthos), followed by Acropora (3.4%), Favia (1.7%), Goniastrea (1.5%), Porites (1.4%), and Montipora (1.1%). Anderson's wide frame of the slope shows many small branching colonies scattered over coralline-crusted rock (e.g., Image 1).

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Coral cover

• Reference: Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Global Reef Expedition (in situ transect)
• Coral cover: 22%.
• Live hard coral measured on in situ benthic transects during the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation Global Reef Expedition, against total algal cover (all algal groups) of 76% of the benthos.
• Transect data are this site's authoritative cover value; no computer vision or image-derived product overrides it.
• Transect mean 22 ± 4.7% SE (n = 5 transects; Living Oceans Foundation per-transect benthic data); the headline above is this all-transect mean.

Stressors

The Living Oceans Foundation transects here recorded 1.8% cyanobacteria and no recently dead coral, and they carry no bleaching, disease, or crown-of-thorns starfish field. Anderson's sample sheet records none of the target Pocillopora ('no Pdam') at this station, so no colony was sampled or scored for condition. Island-level context, not an observation at this station: the Living Oceans Foundation Tonga field report names Culcita sea stars and Drupella snails as Vava'u's main coral predators and notes localized crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks in the central lagoon and around Treasure Island.

Fish and other fauna

A giant clam is wedged into the reef beside a branching colony in one of Anderson's frames (e.g., Image 2).

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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.