Another grant from CI helped support a biodiversity survey of Southern Lau in Fiji. The Lau group are an outer island group of Fiji far from the capital and the most recent biodiversity study had been undertaken in 1924. In 2007 a survey was done of the northern Lau islands and in 2009 central Lau. These surveys involve about twenty scientists who live aboard a research vessel for one month as it moves among the small islands. Hundreds of new species not previously known to exist in the Lau group have been documented and priority areas for conservation identified. Marine samples were also collected for drug discovery work.