Lost at sea: the race against time to save the Carteret Islands from climate change

Updated

They were supposed to be underwater by now.

The Carteret Islands in the Pacific were the first place in the world to require population relocations due to climate change related sea level rises, with predictions they would be submerged by 2015.

However the islands are still there sitting roughly 90 kilometres from northern Bougainville, but only just — with a highest point of just 1.5 metres, the atolls are vulnerable to even slight sea level rises.

Photographer Darren James visited the string of coral atolls and discovered how they have coped with these challenges.

"Around 1,770 people live on the Carteret Islands which are comprised of seven small islets on a coral atoll. The total land area is about 0.5 square kilometres and shrinking. The Tuluun people have lived on the islands for more than 200 years."

Climate change and other issues have forced the population to contemplate relocation to Bougainville and many families have done so. It's not a move embraced by most, and some have returned after struggling to adjust, unhappy living away from their home."

"Few places are as calm, peaceful and beautiful as the lagoon side of a coral atoll on a calm day. Small reef fish are collected every day along with other sea creatures, many of which are processed for a new local enterprise — selling sea cucumbers to a Chinese business."

"All children attend pre and primary school on the islands. School is well attended and teachers are dedicated, but poor resources limit what they can achieve. Many feel that the children are undernourished and this affects their ability to concentrate."

"Night time is quietly social, people move around, and spend time in different places. It's always warm and finding a cool place to sleep may involve a few moves through the night. The cool sand by the lagoon provides such a respite, and people will talk softly, maintain a small coconut husk fire to keep away the sand flies, sleep for a while and then move elsewhere. The day begins well before dawn for most."

"Children here are happy and make their own fun, work hard, and contribute. It's very rare to hear a child cry or complain. There is very limited connectivity with rest of the world. Most children under four have never seen white people, let alone a television or computer."

"Decades ago, fishing for a large family for a day or so involved one or two people at a beach nearby. But now it requires two or three men with a boat, fuel, and six to eight hours at a distant reef to catch the same amount. As the coral and seagrasses die, so do the breeding areas for fish. Making matters worse, trawlers operate illegally in the waters surrounding the islands, stealing thousands of tonnes of fish every week."

"The beach exists where fertile soil once did. Every month, the sea takes its toll and several trees die. Many seawalls have been built but with little success. Mostly they have been constructed using the hundreds of thousands of giant clam shells left after poachers took the meat back to Taiwan decades ago."

"People are very welcoming, gentle, calm, and softly spoken. Aggression is unimaginable. There's no phone network, shops, computers, roads, cars, or motorbikes. Food is cooked on open fires. Birthdays are not very important and the elderly will guess their age as 60 or 70, maybe 80. Family is close, and all ages live together in small areas."

"A relatively new community enterprise involves catching and preparing sea cucumbers and slugs for a Chinese business who provided training. The quality and variety is exceptional according to the Chinese partner. There are more than a dozen types of these sea creatures, from palm sized up to around 70 centimetres. They are boiled, cleaned, boiled again, oven-dried then sun-dried before being packed into bags. Money and equipment is provided in return."

"The boat ride to the nearest town Buka takes three to four hours. There are a few boats that make the trip a couple of times per week if conditions allow. Often no boat will go for weeks when the weather deteriorates. For around one hour of the voyage, neither the destination nor departure point is visible. Many boats and lives have been lost over the decades, and GPS is now often used to confirm direction. From Buka, the main cargo is fuel — enough for a return trip and some extra."

"The two islands [pictured in the background] were one island not so long ago. The beach has no plastic rubbish. People live sustainably, they don't overfish or pollute, and there is no contribution to the warming of our planet. Yet they acutely feel the consequences of climate change."

Topics: climate-change, environment, oceans-and-reefs, visual-art, photography, papua-new-guinea, pacific

First posted