Macron Discusses Climate Change Impacts With Pacific Island Leaders in Nice
the impacts of climate change to the Oceania nations, one of the regions most prone to rising sea levels, and said Paris "will use its diplomacy in close link with our common interests in the Pacific."France possesses overseas territories in the Pacific, which includes New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna.The meeting comes as delegates are meeting for the U.N. Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice, during which Macron said the international treaty on the high seas, which focuses on conservation and sustainable use of maritime areas beyond national jurisdictions, has received sufficient
Google to Build Subsea Cable for Christmas Island
Force has said is key to its maritime surveillance operations in a region where China is increasing submarine activity.The new cables will also link to a Pacific Islands network being built by Google and jointly funded by the United States, connecting the U.S. and Australia through hubs in Fiji and French Polynesia.Vocus said in a statement the two networks will form the world's largest submarine cable system spanning 42,500 km of fibre optic cable running between the U.S. and Asia via Australia.(Reuters - Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
Pacific Islands in Peril as Sea Level Rises
Celeste Saulo in a statement to coincide with the release of the regional State of the Climate report 2023 at the forum in Tonga.Already, such rises have brought a surge in the frequency of coastal flooding since 1980, with dozens of instances happening in islands like the Cook Islands and French Polynesia which previously reported just a handful of such cases annually.Such events are sometimes caused by tropical cyclones which scientists think could also be intensifying due to climate change, as sea surface temperatures climb.Over 34 hazards like storms and floods were reported in the Pacific
MTR100: Deep-sea Mining May Prove Pivotal in the Climate Change Discussion
. Early volleys in the deep-sea debate begins have included many scientists and governments agreeing that it’s premature to begin mining; too little is known about the seabed and its ecosystems, and the long-term impacts of mining are impossible to determine at this point. On September 8, French Polynesia became the most recent territory to call for a ban on DSM, calling out their “cousins of the Pacific”—Kiribati, Nauru and the Cook Islands—for pushing forward with mining despite only having explored about 5% of the seabed. “If we have to examine what’s on
NASA, KSLOF Partner to Fast-track Coral Reef Mapping
to develop effective conservation strategies such as marine protected areas if you don’t know what you’re conserving. These maps fill that gap and have the potential to benefit coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them, for generations to come.”Maria Est Atoll in French Polynesia was surveyed and mapped by KSLOF scientists on the Global Reef Expedition. Copyright Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF
Manatua Consortium Approves Cable Lay
has approved the final stages of planning for the installation of the Manatua – One Polynesia Cable. The new optical fiber submarine cable will span the South Pacific transforming speed, capacity, resilience and affordability. The six landings will be in Tahiti and Bora Bora in French Polynesia, Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, Apia, Samoa and Niue. It is the first fiber connectivity to Niue and the Cook Islands. Manatua is a groundbreaking collaboration initiated in April 2017 with the signing of an international treaty by the President of French Polynesia,
SubCom: Manatua Cable Contract is in Force
Niue, Cook Island and Bora BoraSubCom and the Manatua Consortium announced the contract is in force for the supply and installation of the Manatua submarine cable system. The Manatua Consortium is composed of: The Office des Postes et Télécommunications (OPT), the telecoms operator of French Polynesia; Avaroa Cables Limited (ACL), the cable operator of Cook Islands, Telecom Niue Limited (TNL), the telecoms operator of Niue; and Samoa Submarine Cable Company (SSCC), the cable operator of the Independent State of Samoa. The Manatua Cable will provide connections from Apia, Samoa to Toahotu
Universities and Dive Teams use Underwater Metal Detectors
the effects of restoration, ecotoxicology and ocean resource management on marine communities. One area of interest is in the impact of ecological and oceanographic processes on coral populations. This interest led the professor to become involved a long term coral reef research project in Moorea, French Polynesia with the goal of developing new techniques for reef management and restoration. As part of this work Lenihan and his team are isolating and cultivating disease resistant abalone in an effort to increase their numbers. To gather the needed data researchers must examine the health of many individual
February 2025
