Coral Reef Conservation In Seychelles

Thank you to our donors for their ongoing support of our programmes. Your contributions make an impact in Seychelles as well as for worldwide initiatives.

We are currently surveying coral, fish and invertebrate species to provide data to our program partners the Seychelles National Parks Authority, who are now known as the Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority.

We monitor over 20 sites across the North-West coast of Mahe, using the Reef Care International methodology. We survey reefs noting the health of existing coral, evidence of new young coral growing on the reef, as well as fish species present and their numbers.

Data on coral recovery, as well as fish and invertebrate abundance and diversity, is passed on to the SPGA to assist with their management decisions. Decisions can relate to updates to policies, expanding currently protected areas, or protecting additional areas.

We are also supporting Coral Watch. CoralWatch is worldwide citizen science coral monitoring research developed by Queensland University, Australia. Coral Watch aims to monitor coral bleaching and recovery events around the globe. The Coral Health Chart records changes in coral colour which is an indicator of coral health, Your support allows us to continue contributing to this extensive data collection.

We also get hands-on with clean up efforts. Ocean floor clean up or trash dives are also regularly conducted as part of the Dive Against Debris or DAD initiative. Keeping the oceans clean is challenging and your support allows us to continue our efforts.

Data is collected on the marine plastics collected. The data is passed on to Project AWARE, an organisation established to monitor the abundance and diversity of marine debris around the world. It also aims to drive local action for global ocean conservation. At Cap Ternay, Mahe, we have two adopted sites under the 'Project Aware - Adopt a Site' project to help mitigate anthropogenic pollution into our oceans. However, we also collect debris and data on other sites when our divers have spotted there is a large amount of trash or litter that can be safely removed.

Our project continues weekly beach cleanups, collecting and recording the amount and types of trash washed up along the shoreline of our 2 house beaches, sharing the data recorded with the Ocean Conservancy through their Clean Swell App as part of their 'International Coastal Cleanup programme. Through active citizen science activities we aim to deliver a global snapshot of ocean trash to help provide researchers and policymakers insight to inform solutions and keep a long term record to identify trends in types and amounts of recorded debris in Baie Ternay.

The breadth of project work we are able to do in Seychelles is made possible by your ongoing support. Ocean conservation needs to be a team effort and the more we can contribute to the work of local partners and worldwide projects, the greater impact we can have on our oceans.

We look forward to your ongoing support and will eep you up to date with the progress of our work.