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Sharks and rays plays an important role in the cultures and traditions of the Pacific people, including Samoans. These species are featured in our songs, legends and myths, in our traditional tattoos, clothing designs and traditional practices. As many sharks are top predators, they maintain the balance in healthy marine ecosystems, supporting eco-tourism and livelihoods.

The ongoing sixth mass species extinction is the result of the destruction of component populations leading to eventual extirpation of entire species. Populations and species extinction have severe implications for society through the degradation ecosystem services.

This report provides a detailed synthesis of the current ecological status of Tonga's Special Management Area (SMA) program.

Australia can’t afford to allow in any more insect colonists like red imported fire ants, electric ants, browsing ants, yellow crazy ants, Argentine ants, African big-headed ants, Asian honeybees, large earth bumblebees and German wasps. These invaders are costing both the Australian environment and economy dearly. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on Australia-wide eradications of red fire ants, electric ants and browsing ants because of their potential for devastating harm to wildlife and impacts on people. The others have spread too far to remove, so are here in perpetuity as a threat to biodiversity, human amenity and the economy, and a burden for future generations to manage. Given the difficulties and costliness of eradicating or controlling invasive insects, one over-riding priority for Australian biosecurity must be to prevent more harmful species arriving and establishing. To do this, biosecurity authorities need to know which insects overseas (an estimated 4–6 million species) represent the greatest invasive risks for our country and how they are likely to arrive here. Biosecurity authorities already know which insects are the prevention priorities for agriculture, but there is no such list covering insects that could harm the Australian environment.

Natural hazards comtinue their onslaught while the attention of the media, governments and public is cnetered on COVID-19. currently these disasters barely make it to the news, yet recent events such as Tropical cyclone Harold in Vanuatu on 6th April 2020 exact a heavy toll. Housing has been hardest hit in the cyclone with more than 10,000 people reportedto have lost their homes. What should be the best pathway for reconstruction in Vanuatu? There are some reports that people have already begun to rebuild their houses, but it is not certain whether cyclone-resilient construction is being followed. Which is why it is important at this point to make early decisions in this regard and to assess the technical and othe options to build back better and safer.

Sustainable development Goal 14 of the United Nations aims to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development". Achieving this goal will require rebuilding the marine life-support system that deliver the many benefits that society receives from a healthy ocean. Here we document the recovery of marine population, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions. Mitigating the major pressures like climate change could help in achieving structure and functional marine life by 2050. By rebuilding marine life represents a doable Grand Challenge for humanity, an ethical obligation and a smart economic ojective to achieve a sustainable future.

COVID-19 has become a worldwide issue that its causing international countries to lockdown their boarders and declare a State of Emergency. People are working from home using the latest technology. The surprise global effect of COVID-19 has caused a shortage in certain supplies, such as gloves, gowns and masks. Fortunately, COVID-19 infection has largely been contained and impacts have been minimal on Pacific Island communities. Large volume of solid waste, such as personal protective equipment, are being genrated in response to the pandemic.

In battling the COVID-19 around the world we see the impacts of this pandemic to our ecosystems. As people are staying home it gives time to our ecosystem to bounce back and recover itsef. But in attempt to to reduce possible transmission, the rise of disposables is on the increase, in countries where fast-food chains and restaurants still remain open, they are switching to entirely disposable packaging and away from re-useale items. But in re-opening our boarders as an increase in disposables we will see littering, marine pollution and will continue to exacerbate damage to our fragile ecosystem. Not only the impacts of the global pandemis, but also the devastation caused by Tropical cyclone Harold on our friends, Solomon Is, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. But due to restriction of travel it has been diffucult to provide assistance to these countries. However staff from WMPC, JPRISM II and PWP stand ready to support with remote technical advice whenever needed.

Marine megafauna, the largest animals in the ocea, serve key roles in ecosystem functioning. Yet, one-third of these animals are at risk if extinction. To better understand the potential consequences of megafauna loss, here we quantify their current functional diersity, predict future changes under different extinction scenarios, and intoduce a new metric [functionally unique, speciallized and endangered (FUSE) that identifies threatened species of partcular importance for functional diversity. Simulated extinction scenarios forecast marked declines in functional richness if current trajectories are maintained during the next century (11% globally uo to 24% regionnally) with more marked reductions (48% gloallly up to 70% at the poles) beyond random expectations if all threatened species eventually go extinct. Among the megafaunal groups, sharks will incur a disproportionate loss of functional richness. We identify top FUSE species and suggest a renewed focus on these species to preserve the ecosystem functions provided by marine megafauna.

Environmental degradation has significantly altered ecological systems worldwide and continues to expand into new areas. Majority of infectious disease threars are zoonotic and often cause a major social and economic impacts. Ecological degradation by humans increases overall emerging zoonotic disease risks. The increased risk results from multiple interacting pathways including increased human contact with pathogens and disruption in pathogen ecology. Degradation of ecosystem also has complex effects, feedback loops and some notable negative impacts on many other aspects of human health, including; the prevalence of long established (endemic0 zoonotic diseases, vector-borne and water-borne diseases; air quality, nutrition, menatl health and access to traditional medicines as well as effects on human health through the impacts of climate change. In avoiding environmental degradation (by keeping ecosystems as intact as poddible and avoid creation of high risk interface zones and high risk activities that increases human wildlife contact), combined with broader One Health approaches that address the full range of risk factors, will help to reduce risk to humanity from emerging zoonoses and can have othe beneficial health outcomes as well. Hence protecting ecological integrity should be a a proority action within any comprehensive plan to avoid future zoonotic outbreaks, alongside other critical measures such as addressing the wildlife trade, building surveillance and response system providing global access to health care and mitigating disease risks associated with domestic animals.