Minerva Reef: Media and Expert's Unbelievable Nonsense

N0131. MINERVA REEF.  If you've read Olaf Ruhen's book by the same name you'll know that 40 years ago a Tongan boat, the Tuaikapau on the way to Gisborne, NZ, was wrecked on the reef.

The crew spent over a year living (and some died)  in a wrecked Japanese fishing boat, the only area above sea level at high tide. They waited for rescue that never came and their families in Tonga, believing them dead, held funeral services for each of them.

Giving up hope of rescue the crew built a small outrigger canoe from timbers in the wreck, named it Malo e Lelei, and three of them — the captain, his son, and a crew member —  sailed it to Kadavu, south of Viti Levu,  where they had to abandon it and swim for shore. Inside the reef the son told his father he could go no further. They held each other, prayed, and the son drowned.

Theirs is the  incredible story of courage, survival and faith that is echoed many times over in stories of how Pacific Islanders have survived in what to others would seem impossible circumstances.

I was living in Tonga when a RNZAF flying boat brought the survivors home. Almost everyone on Tongatapu turned out to welcome them. Some had to be carried ashore and most were skin and bones. They were taken to Vaiola Hospital to recover and, I suspect, to delay the feasts that their stomachs could not handle after a year eating only what they could gather on the reef.  These days, when up to 400 yachts visit or pass close to the reef every year,  they would have rescued more quickly.

Minerva Reef is in the news again because both Fiji and Tonga claim ownership and, predictably, the media and blogs have used the claims to build imaginary tensions between the two countries.  Dr Rod Alley from Wellington's  Centre for Strategic Studies  claimed Fiji was using this dispute to “flex their muscles” and “to show their neighbours… that Fiji can stand in its own corner and declare its interests.” 

This really is unbelievable nonsense denied by both countries. Samiu Vaipulu, Tonga's Deputy PM, has advised yachties to avoid the reef until the ownership situation is resolved. Solo Mara, Fiji's Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, says "there is no ‘conflict’ between Tonga and Fiji as alluded to in media reports overseas.”

“What we have are overlapping claims in our maritime boundaries in the South, which is now a subject of negotiation after both countries have submitted claims for an extended continental shelf beyond the 200 mile Exclusive Economy Zone (as provided for under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS].” 

Mr Mara went on to say that this is not an extra-ordinary event as we also have overlapping claims with New Zealand in the same area in our Southern waters.


 He said situation was nothing as reported in the media and Fiji and Tongan officials will meet later this year to negotiate the delimitation of our maritime boundaries as mandated by UNCLOS.

 “We will be doing the same with Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu,” Mr Mara said. -- Based partly on No:0366/MFA.