Spring 2016, Issue 4

The marine conservation expedition at Cap

Ternay is run in collaboration with the

Seychelles National Parks Authority, and

monitors coral reef recovery in northwest

Mah following the mass coral bleaching event

of 1998. While many of the reefs that form our

study sites have shown excellent recovery and

resilience over the years, they do still remain

vulnerable to future bleaching events.

The month of May is usually when sea surface

temperatures peak around the inner granitic

islands, subsequently it is the time when coral

bleaching is most likely to occur and is always a

period of concern.

This year was no exception with coral

bleaching observed in numerous coral genera.

Bleaching was more severe in shallow water

less than 5m in depth, however bleached

colonies were observed in depths of up to

15m.

June brought with it cooling sea temperatures

as the prevailing winds began to switch to

the south east. This provided much needed

relief for the corals of Mah and slowly

individual coral colonies began to regain

their colour as their zooxanthellae

returned. Thankfully this year there was

minimal coral mortality from temperature

induced bleaching. However, with the

effects of climate change becoming more

pronounced, and the likelihood of a severe

El Nio event on the horizon, the reefs

still face many more pressures.

Inside this Issue

Cooling Sea Temperatures

Earth Day 2015

Sea Turtle Symposium

Raft Race 4 Rupees

GIF Shark Awareness Campaign

Q2 Summary

National Day Show

Presidents Village

GVI Seychelles June 2015, Issue 7

Cooling sea temperatures

The second quarter is now behind us and

we are already halfway through the year. It

has been another busy period for the GVI

team (when isnt it?) with plenty of

activities on Mah and Curieuse Island.

From film crews and fundraising, to shark

awareness and shark tagging. As we look

ahead to the second half of the year we

would like to thank all our volunteers, staff

and partners for making the first half of

2015 such a success!

Introduction

Earth day 2015

The first Earth Day hails back to 1970s America; since this time it

has evolved from college sit-ins aimed to provoke changes in national

environmental policy to a global event represented in 192 countries

with over one billion participants! The Earth Day Network who

coordinate the annual event works with over 50,000 partners.

Here at the GVI Seychelles Curieuse Island Conservation

programme, we spend our days chasing all manner of flora and fauna

across Curieuse Island National Park, all in the name of research and

conservation. However at this special time of year, when the world is

coming together to highlight the significance of the natural

environment, we jump at the chance to share some of our knowledge

and enthusiasm! This year was no exception and we had the privilege

of hosting some of the Seychelles youngest eco-champions, from the

Friends of Valle de Mai school club.

The Friends of Valle de Mai is a school environmental club based

on Praslin and is assisted by Seychelles Islands Foundation (managers

of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Valle de Mai and Aldabra

Atoll).

On Wednesday 22nd April, around 30 Praslinois schoolchildren, led

by Miss Maria Brioche (SIF), made the 1km trip across the water

from Praslin to Curieuse to visit our base camp and learn about

sustainable development. In true GVI style, there was plenty of fun

to be had along the way for both children and adults alike - who says

you need to grow up?

Our guests received a guided tour of camp from GVI staff, learning

about our renewable energy supply and the rainwater collection

systems which ensure we dont go thirsty, and provide us with fairly

regular freshwater showers luxury!

GVI SEYCHELLES

Our vegetable garden helps reduce the amount of grocery

shopping we have to bring from Praslin (currently we are growing

Tomatoes, Pak Choi, Papaya, Chilli and Aubergine, amongst

others).

A whirlwind of a morning and a huge success! We hope youll

come back next year, Friends of Valle de Mai, and keep up your

great work on Praslin. Wed also like to send a huge thank you to

principal partner Seychelles National Parks Authority, who

provided all the boat transport without you it wouldnt have

been possible!

On Mah Earth Day was celebrated alongside various other local

organizations. We gathered in Port Glaud for a small Earth Day

Festival alongside the Seychelles National Parks Authority, Port

Glaud Environment Club, Sustainability for Seychelles, Green

Island Foundation, Plant Conservation Action Group and others.

The GVI stand had several exciting activities but the highlight for

many was the dunk tank and SCUBA equipment which was set up

for the kids to try breathing underwater for the first time. We

definitely have some future SCUBA divers ahead of us! Many of

the kids from the President's Village Children's Home also came

along, some of whom were brave enough to try on the gear and

dunk their faces in the tank.

For those who weren't too sure about the dunk tanks there was the

opportunity to 'design your own fish,' and some of them got quite

creative! Our volunteers also took some adventurous visitors out

into the shallows on a reef safari with the Port Glaud Environment

Club.

A big thanks to all that organized this great event, and for all the

young visitors who took the plunge with dive equipment for the

first time!

3

35th annual symposium on sea turtle

biology & conservation drawing attention to the

biological consequences of

climate change.

Other talks covered topics

on genetics, population

biology, physiology and

health, in-water biology,

nesting biology,

conservation, management

and policy, fisheries and

threats, education, outreach,

and advocacy. There were also poster presentations on Monday,

Tuesday, and Wednesday, allowing Cheryl, and many others, to share

their research. Many people were amazed that the small amount of

beach area on Curieuse held so many hawksbill nests. There were also

other people present who had worked with GVI in Costa Rica and

Mexico, and they all were very positive about the work GVI was

doing.

Cheryl really enjoyed the experience of visiting Turkey, meeting and

networking with sea turtle researchers and biologists from all over the

world, and promoting the working GVI and SNPA are undertaking on

seat turtles in Seychelles. Curieuse Island may be small, but its

importance as a hawksbill turtle nesting site certainly wont be

overlooked!

The International Sea Turtle Society is a non-profit organization that

gathers annually for a symposium, bringing people together from all

over the world to share their sea turtle research and conservation

efforts. The symposium includes more than 1000 representatives

from over 80 countries. It is an opportunity to network, share

stories and research, present innovative ideas, and discuss challenges,

all with the common goal of protecting sea turtles. In January, our

abstract for a poster presentation was accepted, so Cheryl Sanchez,

GVI Seychelles Science Coordinator on Curieuse Island, headed to

Dalaman, Turkey, in April to talk about Curieuse Island and the

work GVI Seychelles and the Seychelles National Parks Authority are

undertaking on sea turtles.

The two days before the start of the symposium, were full of

workshops and meetings. Sunday was the Africa regional meeting,

where people from West Africa, East Africa, and from islands off

Africa (Cape Verde, Reunion, etc.) convened to discuss the specific

issues and also the success stories of this massive region. Discussions

included the importance of beach temperatures and having region-

wide baseline information in order to monitor changes as the climate

changes.

The three-day symposium officially started on 20th April. The

keynote speaker opened the symposium focusing solely on climate

change, sea turtles and how to use sea turtles as a flagship for

The poster presented at the 35th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation

3

Raft Race 4 rupees

For the fourth year running, GVI Seychelles and SNPA have met

each other on the Bay Ternay beach to vie for Champion of the

Bay, as if we stood a chance! The event has become a traditional

way to raise funds for the President's Village Children's Home,

where each competing raft team must donate at least 500 rupees,

and as a GVI team we aimed to reach over 1000 British Pounds in

donations. For weeks our volunteers plotted and prepped the

ultimate design for their homemade raft, which had to be made

from scratch, using recycled materials and without any motor or

boat parts. A few designs failed, such as the brilliantly crafted

ceiling fan-turned-propeller, or the bathtub-bedframe

predicament, while others stayed as piles of bamboo and buoys

until the last minute, only to grow into a perfectly constructed

raft.

As the day arrived some of our four rafts were still facing last-

minute repairs, while other teams spent their spare time fashioning

cushions to the bamboo seats or softening the handles of their oars.

Congratulations are due for the SNPA teams, who won first,

second and third place. Although it was not a huge surprise, as they

had impressive rafts built from fuel pods and fishing net; one even

had a large foam box that had been salvaged out at sea.

Bringing up the rear were the four GVI teams, two of which

sprinted, neck and neck, to the finish line. At the last moment one

of the teams pulled ahead to victory as the first GVI team to reach

the beach. To celebrate the success of all of the teams, we came

back to Cap Ternay for an amazing BBQ feast hosted by our

favorite chef, Philippe.

The winning SNPA team the Marine Parks Pirates who completed the course in a record time.

Just two days later, SNPA and GVI met again at Cap Ternay

for a teambuilding event, this time with more of the National

Parks' staff including the Forestry and Marine Parks divisions.

Splitting into teams, we tackled our two nearby beaches,

pulling up a truck full of rubbish from the sand and

mangroves, and our entrance road, which had been

overgrown by foliage. Within a couple hours our road

seemed to have doubled in size and our beaches were clear of

the myriad of plastic and Styrofoam pieces that had washed

ashore. Again we gathered for a Philippe BBQ - two in one

week! - to socialise with members of SNPA. There were some

informal rounds of volleyball, whilst others chatted to the

volunteers about life at Cap Ternay now and 20 years ago,

exchanging tales from either sides of the world.

It was another successful collaboration, which led to a good

nights sleep for all involved! The GVI team would once again

like to thank the SNPA for a great time had and congratulate

them on their raft race victory.

The teams lined up at the start line.

5

GVI SEYCHELLES JUNE 2015, ISSUE 7

GVI team up with gif & snpa for

shark awareness campaign

A quick hike back over the hill to the SNPA rangers station saw us on

track for lunch, followed by a host of further games. The children

learned about schooling behaviour in fish (predator avoidance), shark

anatomy, some specialised adaptations which help them when hunting

(such as tooth shape and caudal fin structure), and threats to shark

populations, especially the shark fin industry.

Sharks belong in the sea, but exceptions are possible, so to end the

day we all got together to search for the endemic, beach dwelling,

Curieuse seaweed shark. Unfortunately none were to be found - we

think they may even be fictional! However, it didnt take long for our

enthusiastic visitors to make their own and they got a photo to

remember the day.

We all had a great day

and the kids certainly

seemed to enjoy

themselves. So, GIF

we hope to see you

back here soon. As

always a big thank

you to Seychelles

National Parks

Authority for

organising transport

to and from Curieuse

Island and for

allowing us to take

over the rangers station at Baie Laraie.

Here at the GVI Curieuse Island Conservation Program, we love our

sharks! Together with the Seychelles National Parks Authority we

currently run a research project, funded by the British High

Commission, which investigates population size and growth rate of the

juvenile sickle-fin lemon sharks found in the Curieuse Marine Park.

Unfortunately, this love is not yet shared by everyone in Seychelles.

So, when our friends at the Green Islands Foundation (GIF) wanted to

organize a shark education day for local children, we couldnt wait to

give them a hand.

This was one of a number of events organized by GIF over the last

year. Funded by the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme and the

Environment Trust Fund to educate children and the local community

on the ecological importance of our sharky counterparts, it is also part

of the IOC-SmartFish project Shark Fin Soup awareness campaign.

On the 17th of June we were able to take some time out of our busy

schedule of tortoise tickles, mudskips and Coco de Mer-ing to host

our GIF guests here on Curieuse Island. 17 children from the Praslin

Wildlife Club at Grand Anse Primary School, aged 7-11, jumped on a

boat and came with Arjan de Groene and Jennifer Appoo from GIF,

for a fun filled day of educational activities, games and seaweed sharks.

GVI staff and volunteers took the children on a tour of the mangroves,

introducing them to some of the many important species we find there

including, of course, our shark pups! Base Manager Alan Grant

stepped up to tell them all about our project, teaching how and why

we catch, measure, tag, release and re-catch our sharks. By this point

it was of course time for the games the purpose, educational of

course, was to show the children how our tagging and scanning

equipment works and enables us to identify our individual lemons.

5

The giant seaweed shark at the rangers station

Q2 in brief

In May members of the Seychelles National Parks Authority

research team visited Curieuse Island to provide training in beach

profiling techniques to the GVI Seychelles staff and SNPA park

rangers. It was an opportunity to set up reference marks and

practice methodologies out in the field. Beach profiling will now

become a regular part of the GVI Seychelles Island Conservation

Expedition and will allow for the capture of important data

relating to beach erosion and accretion.

Last month Curieuse Island received a visit from a CNN film crew

who were in Seychelles to film conservation projects for an upcoming

episode of Inside Africa. The programme focused on conservation

projects running on three different islands within Seychelles. The film

crew visited the GVI Curieuse expedition base as well as the

Seychelles National Parks Authority rangers station to interview staff

and volunteers and film the GVI team undertaking research in the

field.

GVI SEYCHELLES

Following on from the previous removal campaign earlier this year,

GVI Seychelles and the Seychelles National Parks Authority once

again teamed up to tackle the ongoing COTS problem currently

facing the reefs of northwest Mah. On this occasion the organisations

decided to focus on Beau Vallon bay, the area most severely affected

by the coral predators. A total of 294 COTS were removed from

Auberge reef over the course of two dives. The two organisations will

continue to work together on future removal campaigns in an effort

to reduce the impacts that COTS are having on Seychelles reefs.

CNN visit Curieuse island

Cots removal continues on mah

Island school Seychelles programme

Curieuse island Beach profiling

In May 2015, the Save Our Seas Foundation Island School

Seychelles programme once again returned to Cap Ternay for a

week of marine themed educational activities. Sixteen children

aged 11-16 years old spent their days learning about the marine

ecosystem and snorkeling within the Baie Ternay Marine

National Park. GVI Seychelles was pleased to have the

opportunity to host the SOSF staff and meet the students on the

programme, many of who will hopefully be part of the next

generation of marine conservationists.

7

The weekend of June 28th saw the three-day National Day Show held at

Roche Caiman on Mah. The show was an opportunity to celebrate

Seychelles National Day and to promote businesses and organisations

working within the archipelago.

As part of the celebrations, local NGOs and government departments

working in the conservation sector came together as part of the eco-

village to promote the different work they are undertaking. GVI

Seychelles were present with a stand asking the general public Why

conservation is important to them? Over the course of the weekend

children and adults, including the Minister for the Environment,

Energy, and Climate Change wrote short messages on cut out sharks,

rays and turtles explaining why they believed conservation to be

important.

The weekend was also an opportunity to promote the GVI National

Scholarship Programme, where free places on GVI Seychelles

expeditions are offered to Seychellois over 18 years of age. The

programme generated a great deal of interest with several young people

enquiring about how they can join the GVI Seychelles expeditions. We

look forward to seeing them at Cap Ternay or on Curieuse Island some

time in the future!

In May we once again arranged to meet the kids of the Presidents

Village at their home for a day of activities. We had learned from

last time that we could plan as many organized games as we could

muster...but really it would come down to only what the kids

themselves wanted to do. So we loaded up on arts & crafts

supplies, pumped a bit of air into the football, and toted our heavy

bags of kid's snorkel gear, ready for whatever chaos they had in

store for us for the day.

Of course, arts & crafts were a hit. Volunteers split up naturally as

kids started running up, grabbing their hands, and pulling them

away to the different games. The artistic ones stayed back to

begin face painting, which swiftly turned the Children's Home

into a Home for 20+ Spidermen. Some of the girls took over and

gave us smeared Seychellois flags on our cheeks. Tables of glitter,

paint, colored paper, and stenciled outlines soon spread out, as

kids from 2 - 16 years old grabbed a brush to create their own

'art.'

Then the piatas began, we knew the chaos would increase

exponentially when they came out, as these kids were now able to

associate pummeling the paper mache creations with handfuls of

free candy. As expected, there was no control over the candy

frenzy, but they loved bashing each carefully-decorated piata into

an unrecognizable pile of painted newspaper and piling on top of

each other. Soon after, we all sat down together for a massive

Creole-style feast before making the short walk to their little

beach for another hour of splashing and swimming until they, and

we, were finally worn out.

Presidents village National day show

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