Coral Reef Conservation In Seychelles

Thanks for your ongoing support for the Coral Reef Conservation project in the Seychelles. 

We are celebrating 19 years worth of research collection in the Seychelles, and this year we are launching new branches of our research. While we continue to perform our long term studies of the reef health and aquatic debris we are now expanding to 3D underwater photography, aerial mapping and coastal programs. Your generous donations support us with equipment and resources to carry out these tasks.

We have two main UN Sustainable Development Goals that our programmes all relate around. SDG 14: Life Below Water and SDG 13: Climate Action.

Beach and underwater clean ups

We conduct regular beach clean up activities, DAD (Divers Against Debris) dives. Our efforts mean we are clearing not only rubbish washed up onto the shore but also waste left behind by people on the beach. We have collected around 200 kg from our beach clean ups and 50 kg from our DAD dives between January 2023 and March 2023.

We aim to start a Marine & Coastal plastics study in the near future and your contributions will assist us in acquiring the necessary equipment to do so. 

DNA collection

We are continuing our standard data collection for Fish, Inverts and Coral to understand the current ecosystem health status. In collaboration with a research fellow and Liverpool John Moores University, we have started collecting environmental DNA to understand further the current health status of our reef systems. All creatures great and small leave DNA whether that's through urine, skin cells or blood and more. Sampling DNA within the environment will expand our knowledge on the types of creatures living within that area that we may not necessarily know about due to being nocturnal, hiding away from divers or just too small for the human eye to spot.

Environmental DNA or eDNA (lovingly referred to as EDNA by our team) is a brilliant new technology that allows us to expand both our species lists and knowledge on what may be affecting the ecosystems as a whole by running the collected DNA through a global database.

Research projects

Our partnership with University of Seychelles continues. In the recent past, we have been assisting their research projects too and incorporating them into our weekly schedule, Seagrass surveys are conducted to understand species diversity and dispersion within the Baie Ternay Marine Park supports the University of Seychelles current Blue economy projects. Alongside researchers from the University of Seychelles and the Seychelles National Herbarium we have conducted algae sampling and pressing to understand and identify the different species present within Baie Ternay Marine Park. 

Educational programs

We also fecilitate  educational programs for the next generation of conservationists through our school and university partnerships.

In 2022 we also rekindled our partnership with a local school, and we run weekly meet ups with different classes teaching a variety of subjects from Mangrove systems, to Seagrass to Reef and all the animals in between. The children have lots of fun everytime we gather together and we hope our partnership continues throughout 2023. 

Thank you

From all of us on the Coral Reef Research in the Seychelles a huge thanks again for your continued support for our project. Your contributions mean that this important research and marine cleanup can continue.