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, April 5, 2012

05/04/12 And the winner is.......

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for. The Curieuse extra special follow up blog, detailing our Charitable Trust fundraising scavenger hunt. As predicted, it was a battle for the ages. Epic. Tooth and nail were Hard fought. Really, the stuff legends are made of! Ok, so you get the idea. But before we get into the nitty gritty details, brace yourself because I am pleased to announce that the winner is….all of us!!

How, you ask, can such a competitive person admit to a five-way tie? Crossing the finish line: to hear that we had surpassed our target amount; more than twice the original goal achieved: this suprisingly managed to push all thoughts of victory and competition out of my mind. Thanks to all of the staff and volunteers who (with very limited access to internet) managed to spread the word about the big event. And more importantly, thanks to all of you for your support and generous donations that helped us reach our real goal…cold drinks (eventually). If you would still like to contribute to the cause, please visit: www.justgiving.com/curieuse this page is live and ready for donations up until the 23 April 2012.

So, now that the silly money details are all out of the way, lets get down to business. Coming in with a time of 3 hours and 27 minutes, the “3 Muskaturbines” took the gold, having fooled us all with their claims of bringing around a picnic blanket for a nice relaxing day. I would like to see a disqualification as I think the cardboard wind turbines they sported on their heads propelled this team of Sebus, Bertus, and Stylis to victory. In true rocker style, the “Hammerheadbangers” took the prize for best fancy dress, complete with a lifesized cardboard and tinfoil bass guitar, fashioned in the shape of…you guessed it, a hammer head shark. I am pretty sure they sweated off most of their make up and tattoos before reaching clue two, but that didn’t stop these guys from also coming in second place with a time of 3 hours and 46 minutes. Followed very very very shortly by the girls of “Sharktopussy” in 3 hours and 47 minutes. Dressed as half octopus, half shark, and 100% Bond girl, these ladies sadly made a disasterous wrong turn which likely cost them the gold…but, at least they looked good doing it. The “G(V)I Joes” clocked in at 3 hours and 57 minutes after a few technical difficulties. Though, they were so well camoflauged that we never even saw them out on the trail with their tinfoil stick machine guns and Stealth. And last, but certainly not least were the chilled out “Leafheads” who finshed in a time of 4 hours and 7 minutes. But I would argue that the trees growing out of their heads made for some serious wind resistence & occasionally wanted to take root.

The day started early, with a rolling breakfast of eggs and pancakes at 5:45 am, but most groups were up much earlier, donning costumes and make up. While the 5 am alarm was rough, we all agreed that completing the demanding course before the midday sun was ideal. Plus, getting off the trails before we scared too many tourist with our sweaty disheveled fancy dress was probably good for the sake of Curieuse tourism. Highlights from the day included: a brief break, by the 3 Muskaturbines, to dig for turtle hatchlings; an amazing sunrise and breathtaking views from the island peaks (or maybe I should say out of breath views); trudging through the mangroves while picking up trash and cleaning up our beautiful island; a brief rock concert in the ocean (care of the Hammerheadbangers): as well as exploring Curieuse for a good cause. But lets be honest, the real highlights came after the race when we discovered the results of our fundraising efforts and all indulged in some take away pizza…from another island. And to top that all off, our real reward was a fun party and a cool box full of actual ice cubes. Ice-cold drinks all around. Let me tell you folks, the tinkling of ice cubes never sounded so sweet.