TERMINATING TARAMEA
CROWN OF THORNS STARFISH REMOVAL PROGRAM
Combine hunting and environmental work
Help save our reef
Taramea (Crown of thorns starfish) numbers on Rarotonga's reefs are currently at outbreak levels.
Taramea love to feed on stony corals, with Acropora at the top of the list. They climb onto the coral then turn their stomach inside out dilsolving the living tissue and leaving behind a pure white coral skeleton.
This makes their trail of distruction easy to spot, even from the surface.
Rarotonga's reef have twice before been the victim of Taramea outbreaks, in the 1970's and the the 1990's.
Each time it took many years for the reef to recover, and much longer the second time.
In 2020, local marine biologist Dr Teina Rongo noticed that another outbreak was happening so organised a team of local free divers, then later also scuba divers to help remove the Taramea from the reef. For the few years our borders were closed due to Covid19, the Korero o te Orau team started a huge removal effort, which continues to this day!
To date, over 6,000 have been removed, saving many rugby fields worth of coral. With climate change, ocean acidification and other stresses from the development of Rarotonga, the fear is that our reef is not in a good state to recover, if at all from another big outbreak.
If you would like to use your freediving and spearfishing skills to help the reef and the people of Rarotonga, we can arrange training and gear so you can remove as many as you can.
Taramea can be usually found in the 12m to 25m range on the reef. Good technique is required as their spines are poisonous and easily puncture even kevlar gloves.
Diving for Taramea is usally on the North Western side of Rarotonga, this is the leeward side during the winter tradewinds.
This makes a good choice for poor weather days when hitting the FADs for spearing isn't possible. Removing Taramea is excellent freediving training, similar to commercial kina diving in NZ.
TARAMEA RATES:
Halfday (4hrs) NZD300 (up to 4 pax)
Fullday (8hrs) NZD550 (up to 4 pax)
Departure times and locations made to suit.
INCLUDES:
Lesson on Taramea biology and history
Training on locating and safe removal
"Excaliber 2.0" removal tools and collection raft
Purified Rarotonga rainwater for drinking
Dry storage for phones and small cameras
AVAILABLE AT EXTRA:
Dive assist/guide
Lunch (options available)
