NOTE 
Destruction of Marine Flora and Fauna in Fiji 
Caused by the Hurricane of February 1965 1 
M. J. Cooper 2 
Early in February 1965 a hurricane passed 
close to the main islands of Fiji. This hurricane 
brought not only widespread flooding on Viti 
Levu, the largest island in the group, but also 
caused unexpected and severe damage to the 
coral reefs in the southern part of Mbau Water, 
on the east coast of Viti Levu. 
Mr. P. R. Rakoroi, the Officer in Charge at 
the New Zealand Meteorological Service at 
Lauthala Bay, gave me the meteorological de- 
tails and plotted the storm centre on the accom- 
panying map ( Fig. 1 ) . The storm began as a 
small tropical depression to the west of Wallis 
Island and developed into a severe hurricane 
as it travelled southwest towards Fiji. The map 
shows the storm centre on February 7 to be 
almost stationary, but it was actually moving 
in a small clockwise circle over northwest Bligh 
Water before continuing its southwest move- 
ment. By February 8 the hurricane was travel- 
ling south-southwest, but much more slowly 
than is usual with these tropical storms. How- 
ever, by February 9 it had at last picked up 
speed and begun to move southwest away from 
Viti Levu. Because the hurricane moved so 
slowly on the 7th and 8th, torrential rain which 
always accompanies these tropical storms fell 
on the island of Viti Levu for a far longer time 
than is normal. The rainfall figures for Koro-o, 
1 Contribution No. 231, Hawaii Institute of Ma- 
rine Biology, University of Hawaii. Manuscript re- 
ceived April 28, 1965. 
2 Consultant, Hawaii Marine Laboratory, University 
of Hawaii. Home address: 28 Statham Street, Laucala 
Bay, Suva, Fiji. Study in part supported by U. S. Pub- 
lic Health Service Grant EF-00216. 
the meteorological station high up on the Rewa 
watershed in north Viti Levu, and for the 
meterological station at Laucala Bay on the 
coast in southeast Viti Levu, are as follows: 
Feb. 6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
KORO-O 
LAUCALA BAY 
inches 
inches 
1.56 
11.87 
1.78 
31.09 
8.25 
6.79 
3.56 
0.36 
0.14 
Mr. J. R. Deverell, District Officer, Nausori, 
gave me details of the flooding caused by this 
heavy rain. The ground in the hills of the Rewa 
watershed was completely waterlogged by the 
11 inches of rain which fell on February 7, so 
that the enormous quantity of water from the 
3 1 inches which fell the next day simply poured 
straight off the hills into the creeks which are 
the start of the Rewa river system. As this mass 
of water flowed down to the Rewa River, the 
tributaries rose to alarming heights. In some 
gorges the water was up to 100 feet above 
normal. The Rewa itself at Nausori, where the 
river is very wide and there is a large flood 
plain, was 15 ft above normal at high tide, and 
the whole of Rewa delta was under water. 
The main mouth of the Rewa, the Nukulau 
Mouth, is on the southwest side of the delta. 
The continuous flow of fresh-water from this 
mouth is sufficient to keep open a large passage 
through the barrier reef. This passage was able 
to carry off the extra water that came down 
the river during the storm before it caused any 
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