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This article provides a record of fish names from two locations in the central Pacific, these being the Vava'u Islands of Tonga, and Taveuni area in northern Fiji. The Handbook for the Collection of Fish Names in Pacific Languages by G.L. Barnett provided a method for the collection of these data during field work at the two places which culturally are part of West Polynesia. Interviews and discussions with fishers yielded a record of the Tongan language names and Fijian language names of approximately 50 fishes that occur in the waters of these islands. These terms are collated with the English names and scientific identifications. The names are the contemporary ones used by Tongans and Fijians in the 1980s and 1990s. The word list is a reference document for marine scientists, fishers, environmentalists, and other work focussed on the maritime cultures of the Pacific, local languages and the nomenclature of fishes.

Flying foxes (Pteropus spp) are important pollinators and seed dispersers in many island ecosystems. Populations of flying foxes have declined markedly on most islands in the South Pacific since the 1940's. One potential conservation strategy is to reintroduce bats on islands where they historically occurred. In this manner, the risk of species extinction due to local catastrophic events can be reduced. Ideally the source population for such reintroductions must be robust. One such population might be in the Kingdom of Tonga, where flying foxes have been protected by local custom for a long time. However, virtually nothing has been published on the numbers, locations, and reproductive biology of Pteropus tonganus in Tonga. I therefore censused flying fox populations on as many islands as possible from 28 June to 26 July 1995. I found seven major roosts containing a total of 3,582 bats on Tongatapu, one roost with 30 bats in the Ha'apai group, and 27 roosts with a total of 5,925 bats on 14 islands within the Vava'u group. Thus, the flying fox population in Tonga seems robust and dispersed on many islands and is therefore a valuable potential source population.