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”

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

11/06/13 World Oceans Day

This week was another short week. The new people have settled in and are getting used to the routines and duties. The weather is still a bit funny. One minute it will be hot and sunny, the next very windy and then it will change again to pouring rain. This means we have very little chance to sunbathe!! All of us oldies have been able to go on two dives a day, which is great. I have had two fun dives which is a nice break from all the surveying that I have had to do as now there are only a limited number of invertebrates people. There has been the first sighting of a Whale Shark in the Conception channel by one of the local dive centres and the first sighting of a Manta Ray in our bay so we have our eyes wide open on the boat hoping for a chance to swim with either species. We are very hopeful and excited to see these rare and majestic creatures.

It was World’s Ocean’s Day on Saturday and to celebrate this all the volunteers and staff went to clean up Port Glaud Beach with the Presidents Village children. We all had to wear closed toed shoes, which was a very strange feeling for us after walking around barefoot for most of our two months here. We were all very surprised at how much litter was on the beach, a disgusting amount of glass was everywhere hidden in the sand. We were horrified that so much was around on a beach where these children and other locals will come and relax, barefoot with no protection for the glass. Unfortunately it was another rainy day so we got a bit wet, but this didn’t stop us playing games with the children. They all have so much energy!! We had lots of races, running race, piggyback race, wheelbarrow race and even a crab race. Of course the kids won (with the help of some cheating here and there) and it tired out all the volunteers. For a nice relaxing finishing game we had a sand castle building contest that just turned into playing with sand and making a huge hole in the ground. Our group made a nice turtle, but it looked very odd. One side of it had its legs attached to its body and the other side didn’t. Good thing it wasn’t a contest I don’t think we would have gotten very far.

To end Ocean’s Day we went back to base and worked on our Rafts. As you may all have heard we are doing a raft race to raise money for the orphanage, The President’s Village. We are all divided into teams and have to build our own rafts. If these rafts float (which they definitely will!) we race against each other from Back Beach to Front Beach, which is quite a trek. A couple rafts have already been built and they were tested out on the water, those tests failed. That’s very good news for our team. We are slowly getting it together, we definitely have the biggest raft but it will be the sturdiest. And with all of our strength it will be the fastest!

So please donate to this charitable cause, we are all working hard to make it a fantastic day. We are all excited to be a part of it, but it won’t do anything without the help of the money donated. This money will get the kids new clothes, shoes, snorkelling gear and will go towards to any improvements needed to their home. Follow the link for more information

- https://www.justgiving.com/teams/SeychellesRaftRace