08/11/12 UniSey Students visit Cap Ternay

Students from University of Seychelles came and spent a day at GVI's Mahe base prompting what is hoped to be the beginning of a educational and productive partnership.

As part of the University's new Environmental Science course the nine first year students attended a general presentation on Reef Monitoring in the Seychelles since the Coral Bleaching events of 1998 and then learnt how GVI contributes to this research, including: Coral cover and Coral recruitment monitoring; Fish abundance and diversity monitoring; Invertebrate abundance and diversity monitoring; Turtle monitoring and Plankton Sampling.

GVI staff explained the important role volunteers play in gathering this research - how they are trained in Advance Open Water Scuba Diving and Coral Research Methodology; examined on identification of target species and survey techniques, and recruited from all over the world for four, 8 and 12 week placements, throughout the year.

The University students gained an insight into the full range of research, analysis and scientific reports produced by GVI every six months, across 24 survey sites and how the research is shared and used for further analysis by the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA).

After a tour of the base itself GVI took the university students on a much needed refreshing snorkel at Port Launay pointing out various coral and fish target species and invertebrates which are all surveyed by GVI. The group came across a rarely spotted long fin banner fish, schools of long spot snappers, various reef dwelling fish and cleverly spotted a tiny hidden away nudibranch among the variety of corals on the survey site.

The visit as a whole facilitated a mutual appreciation for the abundant reefs of the Seychelles Inner islands with some students even expressing interest in being part of the GVI research programme during their studies. It also highlighted the potential, which can be achieved through successful partnerships with likeminded organisations.

We look forward to the University of Seychelles' next visit and wish all students luck throughout their first year!

08/11/12 UniSey Students visit Cap Ternay