Rays in the shadows: Batoid diversity, occurrence, and conservation status in Fiji

Over recent decades, elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, and skates) have been increasingly recognized among the world’s most threatened marine wildlife, leading to heightened scientific attention. However, batoids (rays and skates) are relatively understudied, especially in Large Ocean States of the Pacific. This synthesis compiles insights on batoid diversity and occurrence in Fiji’s waters by integrating a literature review, participatory science programs such as the Great Fiji Shark Count (GFSC) Initiative, Projects Abroad Fiji (PA), Manta Project Fiji (MPF), and iNaturalist, along with environmental DNA. Nineteen batoid species from seven families were identified: 19 species from the literature, 12 from participatory science programs, and six from eDNA analysis. Notably, this study provides the first photographic evidence for the bentfin devil ray (Mobula thurstoni, Lloyd, 1908) in Fiji. GFSC data indicated the highest species diversity in the Western Division, with spotted eagle rays (Aetobatus ocellatus, Kuhl, 1823) and maskrays (Neotrygon sp.) being observed most. In-person interviews conducted by PA provided information on the occurrence of wedgefishes and potentially sawfishes. MPF records and iNaturalist uploads were dominated by reef manta rays (M. alfredi, Krefft, 1868), while the pink whipray (Pateobatis fai, Jordan and Seale, 1906) yielded the most DNA sequences, suggesting the highest ray species diversity in the Northern Division. Overall, 68.4% of the species face an elevated extinction risk based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List criteria. Although caution is warranted with older literature-based records for the giant guitarfish (Glaucostegus typus, Anonymous [Bennett], 1830), giant stingaree (Plesiobatis daviesi, Wallace, 1967), and the lack of sawfish verification, this synthesis highlights the effectiveness of a combined methodological approach in establishing a reference point for the diversity and occurrence of this understudied taxon in Fiji

Competitive Advantage, Strategy and Innovation in Africa

The competitiveness of companies plays an important role in developing their effectiveness. But technology provides a strong competitive advantage to the companies and helps in achieving the sustainable development. This edited collection discusses various methods by which a firm can create a competitive advantage in a dynamic situation. The book highlights the strategies in global decisions related to changing business models and processes in the innovation era. The contributions by authors take readers through emerging trends in innovation that can support managers in making more strategic decisions, while reducing reconciliation and report preparation. In a hyper-competitive environment, this book will assist researchers and management practitioners in appreciating new strategic sources. Radical strategies and competitive innovation, sustainable development, competitiveness, SMEs, direct and indirect investment, delocalization of businesses, and value creation will all be discussed in depth. Overall, this volume will help readers understand the importance of real-time smart business sources to gain a competitive advantage. Competitive Advantage, Strategy and Innovation in Africa provides essential information on contemporary issues and challenges in management and change strategies. It will serve as a reference for academicians, researchers, and practitioners interested in the rapid transformation in the management sector due to technological advancement and high competition between companies

Management of saltwater intrusion using 3D numerical modelling: a frst for Pacifc Island country of Vanuatu

Small island countries like Vanuatu are facing the brunt of climate change, sea level rise (SLR), tropical cyclones, and limited or declining access to freshwater. The Tagabe coastal aquifer in Port Vila (the capital of Vanuatu) shows the presence of salinity, indicating saltwater intrusion (SWI). This study aims to develop and evaluate effective SWI management strategies for Tagabe coastal aquifer. To manage SWI, the numerical simulation model for the study area was developed using the SEAWAT code. The flow model was developed using MODFLOW and the transport model was developed using MT3DMS. Whereby SEAWAT solved flow and transport equations simultaneously. The model was calibrated, and different scenarios were evaluated for the management of SWI. The SLR was also considered in the model simulations. The results indicated that increased population, pumping rates, and SLR affect the SWI rates. To manage the SWI, we introduced hydraulic barriers like barrier wells and injection wells which effectively managed SWI in Tagabe coastal aquifer. The results from this study are significantly important whereby, the water managers, site owners, and governing bodies can use the management strategies presented in this study to create policies and regulations for managing SWI rates in Port Vila. Additionally, the water industry, private businesses, and investors who wish to extract groundwater from the Tagabe can use this study as a reference for daily or yearly freshwater production rates without the risk of SWI

Sandfish generations: loss of genetic diversity due to hatchery practices in the sea cucumber Holothuria (Metriatyla) scabra

Hatcheries are indispensable for seed production of many commercial aquaculture species. However, for mass-spawning species in particular, they can be capricious environments where genetic diversity among progeny may be lost due to small effective broodstock population sizes, variable parental contributions and differential family survival. Understanding the genetic impacts of hatchery production is therefore important for addressing these problems and optimising propagation methods. We used 6051 genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to analyse genetic diversity, parental contributions and offspring kinship during a commercial-scale hatchery production run of sandfish (Holothuria scabra), a high-value sea cucumber grown in mariculture operations across the Indo-Pacific region. Broodstock contributions were highly skewed, with up to 26% of the parent pool contributing and kinship analyses determined that just two parents sired between 44.4 and 67.5% of all offspring genotyped. Effective population sizes were reduced as expected between broodstock and offspring groups (NeLD = 1121.2 vs. 19.4, respectively), while losses of allelic diversity but not overall heterozygosity were apparent. Numbers of families surviving (13–16) to the juvenile stage were low, suggesting low effective population sizes among offspring cohorts is an issue for sandfish hatchery operations. To address variability in family compositions and broodstock contributions, pedigree tracking and batch spawning may be used to optimize broodstock management and hatchery protocols, to ensure production of genetically diverse offspring for routine culture and restocking operations. As many sandfish broodstock remain wild-sourced, maintenance of healthy wild populations as reservoirs of genetic diversity is important, along with selection for spawning of genetically diverse individuals which are as distantly-related as possible

Emergency Remote Teaching in Higher Education Institutes: A Taxonomy of Challenges Faced by First-Year Mathematics Students in the Pacific Region

Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) can be defined as a shift of instructional delivery to a substitute delivery approach during a crisis. Such a shift poses several challenges for students at Higher Education Institutes. This paper presents a taxonomy of such challenges faced by first-year mathematics students in the Pacific region during the ERT dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic. First, a list of 44 challenges was assembled based on a university’s in-house monitoring report, literature review and the authors’ experiences of challenges faced by students. Next, the open card sorting technique involving 32 participants was used to classify these challenges. Open card sorting is a well-established method for discovering how people understand and categorize information. This paper employed a recently proposed algorithm to quantitatively analyze open card sorting data using the Best Merge Method, Category Validity Technique and Multidimensional Scaling. Analysis of the collected card sort data produced the initial taxonomy of challenges. Finally, the participants were asked to answer a questionnaire so that we could validate and further refine the taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy includes seven challenges: i) lack of online learning support; ii) problem with online course delivery; iii) time and workload management; iv) learning management system issues; v) lack of face-to-face interaction; vi) financial hardship; vii) internet challenge. Such a taxonomy might be particularly useful in designing and evaluating an ERT approach

Social identity positively impacts sustainable behaviors of backpackers

While backpacker social identity remains an important theme among tourism researchers, its influence on sustainable behaviors has received limited attention. We examine the impact of backpacker social identity on sustainable behavior based on both a structural modeling approach and regression analysis. A survey of 400 backpackers is conducted within Cape Coast, a major tourism hub in Ghana, West Africa. Supporting seven out of eight hypotheses based on PLS-SEM, social identity has a positive effect on sustainable behavior, which in turn positively affects satisfaction suggesting that the more backpackers identify themselves with this group the more sustainably they behave. Additionally, social identity has a negative impact on unsustainable behavior which negatively impacts behavioral intentions. These findings suggest that individuals who identify themselves as backpackers are less likely to engage in unsustainable behavior. Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the nexus between backpacker social identity and sustainable behavior

The effect of terrorism on continuing education: evidence from Pakistan

Education has wide-ranging benefits to both the individual and wider society. This article investigates the consequences of terrorist incidents on whether households can further their children’s schooling. Using both the Global Terrorism Database and Pakistan’s Social and Living Standards Measurement, we find that persistent exposure to terrorism significantly reduces the likelihood that parents will continue their children’s education. The result suggests, that for every million people, an increase in terrorist incidents causes 26,501 fewer children to continue their education at the primary school education level. We also examine the results by various demographic segments and types of terrorism attacks

A Goal Programming Approach: Multi-objective Optimization

The purpose of this paper is to accentuate the development of multi-objective non-linear programming (MONLP) technique and its advantages of applying to numerical problems. In particular, non-linear programming model is the process of solving an optimization problem defined by a system of inequalities along with an objective function of several variables that exist in various fields. In certain instances, there are situations in these fields where multiple objectives are required to be achieved simultaneously, owing to limited timeframe and convenience of budget. The Multi-objective programming under non-linear conditions and the solution procedure on the goal programming approach is embedded with algorithm and the relevant technique is developed. Numerical examples, specifically, multi-objective quadratic programming problem and examples of other multi-objective non-linear programming problem are presented to illustrate practical use and the computational details of the proposed procedure. The proposed goal programming technique is then solved using a user-friendly optimization software LINGO

Weaving “Culture” and Political Advocacy in a Small Island Nation: Samoa Fa’afafine Association and Non - Heteronormative Samoans

In the Pacific Island nation of Samoa, a powerful discourse of cultural tradition, along with religion, is frequently mobilized in the denunciation of non-heteronormativity. Yet Samoa is also known for fa’afafine (literally meaning ‘in the manner of a woman’), namely persons assigned male at birth whose gendered behaviours are feminine to varying degrees, often with a sexual/romantic orientation towards masculine men. Indeed, fa’afafine are a highly visible social group and it is commonly claimed that they are shielded from the stigmatization experienced by non-heteronormative persons in many other cultures. Since 2006, the Samoa Fa’afafine Association (SFA) has served as the primary advocacy body for fa’afafine, and more recently also for fa’afatama, namely Samoans assigned female at birth but who identify as men or act ‘in the manner of a man’. Based on 25 semi-structured interviews with SFA members/officials and other stakeholders, this chapter explores the strategies that the SFA has historically employed to negotiate fa’afafine’s positioning within local communities and to cultivate their cultural legitimacy while also engaging effectively with civil society organization activism. The findings illuminate how SFA has successfully appropriated key elements of both fa’asamoa (the Samoan way of life) and modern human rights advocacy under culturally embedded ‘shared leadership’

Pacific Island Women and Contested Sporting Spaces: Staking Their Claim

This book focuses on the variety of strategies developed by women athletes in the Pacific Islands to claim contested sporting spaces – in particular, rugby union, soccer, beach volleyball, recreational sports and exercise – as a prism to explore grassroots women’s engagement with heavily entrenched postcolonial (hetero)patriarchy. Based on primary research conducted in Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, the book investigates contested sporting spaces as sites of infrapolitics intersected primarily by gender and also by other markers of inequality, including ethnicity, sexuality, class and geopolitics. Contrary to historical and contemporary representations of Pacific Island women as victims of gender injustice, it explores how these athletes and those who support them actively carve out space for their transformative agency. Pacific IslandWomen and Contested Sporting Spaces: Staking Their Claim focuses on a region underexamined by sport or gender studies researchers and will be of key interest to scholars and students in Gender Studies, Sport Studies, Sociology and Pacific Studies as well as sport practitioners and policymakers