Monuriki
The terrain includes volcanic rocks, lagoons, palm trees, a pine forest, and several small white sand beaches.
The terrain includes volcanic rocks, lagoons, palm trees, a pine forest, and several small white beaches.
[1] The vegetation consists mainly of higher pandanus, coconut, (Cocos nucifera) and associated species of coastal forests.
The low vegetation has been eroded in the past by herds of goats up on the rocks, decreasing the availability of food to the indigenous iguana population.
These iguanas feed on a wide range of plants and insects, and spend most of their time camouflaged in the branches of trees.
The Brachylophus vitiensis was first featured in a film when Dr. John Gibbons, of the University of the South Pacific, was invited to the screening of the movie Blue Lagoon.
Pandanus is common in the littoral habitat, and is a component of strandline and coastal vegetation, including grassy or swampy woodlands, secondary forests, and scrub thickets developed on makatea (raised fossilized coralline limestone terraces).
Associated species of native habitat include creepers such as Ipomoea pes-caprae, Canavalia sericea, and Vigna marina.
Other coastal thickets and forest associates include Acacia simplex, Amaroria soulameoides, Tournefortia argentea, Barringtonia asiatica, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, Calophyllum inophyllum, Casuarina equisetifolia, Cerbera manghas, Chrysobalanus icaco, Cocos nucifera, Cordia subcordata, Excoecaria agallocha, Guettarda speciosa, Hernandia nymphaeifolia, Hibiscus tiliaceus, Intsia bijuga, Morinda citrifolia, Podocarpus neriifolius, Santalum insulare, Scaevola taccada, Schleinitzia insularum, Terminalia catappa, Terminalia littoralis, Thespesia populnea, and Vitex trifoliata.
They grow wild mainly in seminatural vegetation in littoral habitats throughout the tropical and subtropical Pacific, where it can withstand drought, strong winds, and salt spray.
Coconut fruit in the wild is light, buoyant and highly water resistant, and evolved to disperse significant distances via marine currents.
In recent years conservationists have scrambled to save these beautiful creatures, scientifically named Brachylophus vitiensis, after it emerged that goats and rats were the biggest threat to their ongoing survival on their picturesque island haven.
Although the iguanas have bred on the island for centuries, the emergence of predators and others competing with the same resources on Monuriki has made its future survival difficult.
Bligh Water, together with the Koro Sea, are situated in the middle of the map of Fiji and more or less separate the north of the country from the south.
