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SUVA, FIJI — Though it has been more than 15 years since Korovou Vakaloloma built a traditional Fijian canoe, he does not need to refer to any blueprints. Enlarge This ImageGreg NelsonJoji Marau Misaele, who teaches mechanical engineering at Fiji National University and who is Mr. Vakaloloma's cousin, developed the prototype for the new canoe. “It’s all right here, eh,” he said with a laugh, pointing at his head and continuing to sand the boat’s mahogany hull. Mr. Vakaloloma, 61, who is from the island of Ogea in the southern Lau archipelago of Fiji, has spent the last few months in the boatyard at the School of Maritime Studies, part of Fiji National University, working on a prototype for a new canoe that could be both economically and environmentally sustainable for the island nation. Developed by his cousin Joji Marau Misaele, who teaches mechanical engineering at the university in Suva, the canoe, or camakau, is one of a number of new projects backed by nonprofit groups. Promoters hope the projects will reduce Fiji’s energy consumption, provide far-flung islanders with less expensive and more frequent transportation, keep local traditions alive and potentially create a new source of tourism income. Canoes have played an integral role in the history of Fiji. Voyaging traders first settled in the islands more than 5,000 years ago, and canoes were the lifeblood of communities, used for everything from trade and travel to fighting against other tribes. “They were the ocean liners, the 747s, the Internet, the telephone,” said B. Gregory Mitchell, a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California and founder of the Pacific Blue Foundation, an organization that focuses on conserving cultural and biological diversity in the South Pacific. “Canoes were everything.” By the mid-19th century, the use of traditional single-hull canoes waned in popularity as European boats were seen as more efficient and a sign of modernity. There were small resurgences of camakau building and use in the 1930s, during the Depression, and in the 1980s, when global oil prices skyrocketed. But away from the islands in the Lau group, canoe-building traditions in Fiji dried up by the 1970s. These days, said Paul Geraghty, a professor of linguistics at University of the South Pacific’s Suva campus, it is generally seen as backward to use a camakau. But as the world potentially sinks deeper into recession and issues of climate change are felt even in the smallest of Fiji’s outer islands, going back to canoeing traditions of the past could prove a financial way forward. There is very little hard evidence to compare the costs of fishing and trading using a camakau versus a fiberglass boat with an outboard motor. But in conversations with islanders last year, Mr. Mitchell estimated that it cost between 3,000 and 5,000 Fijian dollars, or $1,700 to $2,850, to maintain a camakau over five years; a panga, or fishing boat, with a 30-horsepower motor would cost 4,000 dollars a year in fuel alone, and between 25,000 dollars and 30,000 dollars overall. “It costs about 40 to 50 dollars to fill a four-gallon tank with petrol, so they have to catch at least that much in fish to make it worth it,” Mr. Mitchell said. “I think that wind power, not petroleum, is an essential part for the survival of culture and the biodiversity of these regions. If they continue to just draw down their resources to pay for their petrol, it will be the end for the traditional lifestyle.” Mr. Misaele agreed. “If you look at life on the islands, we do not have much money or resources, so paying 15 dollars a gallon to go fishing or to travel to sell your crops, that is a lot of money,” he said. “And fossil fuels, they are running out. So what we are doing is making a boat that is safer, cheaper and greener.” Camakaus traditionally have a single-hull body, an outrigger and a triangular sail, but the new version has been crafted with a number of modifications. In the past, if the hull of a camakau filled with water, it would capsize, because its design made it impossible to bail out water. In Mr. Misaele’s version, the hull is filled with Styrofoam, which makes the camakau more buoyant. His version of the camakau also uses nails, marine glue and rope, as opposed to coconut husks and tar. 1 2 Next Page ?
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