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”

Thursday, November 3, 2011

03/11/11 The President's Village & Manta Mayhem!

After swimming with a whale shark earlier last week, we did not think the week could get any better. However on Friday evening, some lucky divers had the opportunity to snorkel with a manta ray for more than an hour. It happened again right in our bay after some coral survey dives. The manta was quite little, probably 2 meters, but it was still an incredible experience for most of us. It was really playful and stuck around with us for a long time, going back and forth between deep and shallow areas. It came really close to the surface, and some of us could have touched it if we had extended our arms. We had the chance to see it feed and swim in circles to capture the plankton. Sadly we all had to head back to base as the sun was slowly setting, but we will all definitely remember all the emotions from this week.

On Saturday morning we all headed to the President’s Village Orphanage to play with the children. We had spent the whole week preparing fun activities for them, such as arts and crafts, face painting, poi, discover snorkel, rugby, bowling alley, paper plane competition, and much more. It rained a lot in the morning, but luckily it quickly stopped and we were able to bring everyone outside. The GVI volunteers probably had as much fun as the children, and the morning flew by. Some of the water activities even turned into a big water fight between some volunteers and children, who were having the time of their lives pouring buckets full of water on us. Everyone left the orphanage with a big smile on their face, as well as plenty of paint!