Mass mortality in a Marine Educational Area on a remote South Pacific Atoll

In 2018, on the isolated Anaa atoll (South Pacific), a Marine Educational Area (MEA) was established by the local community to protect fisheries resources on the reef barrier next to their village. Whilst the remote location of the small MEA has provided some protection from anthropogenic pressures due to distance and low population, we showed that from 26 to 27 November 2018, high temperatures along with a hypoxic event and a low tide led to the mass mortality of several Anaa's marine species. The mass mortality in the MEA (area: 27,000 m²) included >14,000 juvenile fish, 1300 adult fish, 5100 juvenile crustaceans, and 260 juvenile octopus. This finding is particularly concerning because despite the creation of a MEA to protect marine resources, impacts from the warming waters associated with climate change limited the local efforts in Anaa atoll. This small, focused study demonstrates that local intervention may not be enough to mitigate the large-scale impacts of global climate change. It notes that local intervention can directly improve the fisheries resource but must be placed within a context of national and global interventions on climate change.