Marine and Terrestrial Conservation Programmes in the Seychelles

Facts and figures

GVI Seychelles has surveyed 18 reefs every three months for the last eight years as well as conducting plankton tows, turtle monitoring, whale shark observations, certation sightings and logging all Megafarna observed during dives
12 Marine Park rangers have been trained in fish and Coral ID.
Contributed eight years of unbroken coral monitoring and recruitment data as well as eight years of fish biodiversity data to the Seychelles National Parks Authority. Adding this to the existing previous four years of data we now have an unbroken twelve year data set on the reefs of North west Mahe an almost unprecedented length of time for a reef monitoring program
Approximately 1000 volunteers have passed through GVI Seychelles over the last eight years. All have been trained in coral reef monitoring techniques either learning to identify 47 genre of coral species or 140 fish species
The data collected by GVI Seychelles is used by Government organisations and is the main contribution from the region to the biannual publication of “The Sate of Coral Reefs of The Indian Ocean”

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

02/03/11 Creole Day at the Presidents Village

Saturday morning we were up to get ready for the Creole Day with the children at The Presidents Village Children’s Home. We had all sorts of activities going on throughout the morning, from American football with the GVI people, to manicures with Liz and Julianne; from mosaic making with Tegan, Emma and Rowana to limbo with Rachel, Nikos and Stephanie; from pin the tag on the turtle with Dan, Tom and Jen to scuba diving with Emily and Lee.

The biggest hit, however, was where there was a photo stand of a Mermaid and after all the photos were taken we had a volunteer stick her head in as a target for wet sponges! Our lucky volunteer was Kim and she had everyone from the kids to the care-takers to us guys from GVI throwing sponges at her! I think she was delighted to have the cool water but then some of the kids got a bit competitive and some ran right up to Kim to squeeze every last drop out! Fair play to poor Kim. Some others had a try at being target like a few of the kids themselves and one of the care-takers.

The limbo was also a great success with some of the volunteers getting nearly as low as the Seychellois kids, but one guy in particular was amazing and we just had to give it to him that he was the best. However, some non-traditional limbo moves came about in the process.

The kids were also eager to see what it was like to breath underwater with the scuba gear and learn how we survey all the different species. We showed them how much we need to take and how we carry it all. We then let them carry the gear, (but without the tank because that would just be cruel!) We showed them the different flash cards of fish and other marine organisms that we survey, as well as books and magazines about diving and marine life which they all seemed to enjoy.

Then, just before lunch, a big water fight broke out between everyone and I must say we all welcomed the cool shower! We had the wet sponges, buckets and even some crafty kids got some volunteers with the hose! So by the time lunch was served everyone was almost exhausted from all the activities and it was a welcome break in the midday sunshine. There was a delicious Creole dish which went down well with almost everyone (except us veggies). After a while we had to say goodbye to the kids, but I think GVI will do this again with the success of today. A big thank you to Liz was given on return to the base for all her hard work and hopefully it can continue next phase!

GVI are trying to raise money for the Presidents Village as part of the Charitable Trust. For more information please log on to www.gvi.org.uk and visit the Seychelles expedition page.