Information Office Point I : Just 50m. in front of the church, in the village square, Vao, is Point I. It is staffed by a well-travelled Kunie, Marie-Jeanne, who, in addition to her own native language, speaks English, French, Italian, Czech and Polish.

Office hours are from
8-11.30am and 2-4pm, Monday to Friday and Saturday am.

• WHALE SONGS

Isle of Pines is the focus for three weeks’ study into humpback whale songs. The research, by
Queensland University doctoral student, Ellen Garland, is part of a wider ten-year project examining the similarities and differences in songs of the ocean giants through the South Pacific from East Coast Australia to Tahiti, including New Caledonia, Tonga and the Cook Islands.

Sound recordings from the side of a boat followed by computer analyses are being done in collaboration with the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium and Dr. Claire Garrigue, Opération Cétacés, Noumea.

Ms. Garland hopes the work will contribute to a better understanding and conservation of humpback whale populations and movements in the South Pacific.

The humpback is the only whale that sings (repetitive, complex sounds similar to birdsong). Furthermore, whale songs are the longest and most complex of the animal kingdom. Research so far shows that all the breeding males that happen to be in the same area sing the same song, which changes each year.