Hello I’m Emma! I have just graduated from Plymouth University where I studied Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology. I wanted to volunteer with the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles to gain valuable experience that will help me progress in a career of marine conservation and research. I have been with MCSS for 2 months now and have spent most of my time at the Fishermen’s Cove Project helping to maintain and monitor both in-situ and ex-situ coral nurseries, as well as taking guests on guided snorkels. I am now also splitting my time with the Cerf Island Conservation Project where I am two days a week Mondays and Tuesdays. Although, both projects involve guided snorkels and monitoring and maintaining coral nurseries it is great to be able to spend time in different places and on different reefs. Working at Cerf has also given me the opportunity to improve my coral and fish identification, which I will need for conducting reef surveys next year when the weather is nice again. As well as the academic side I am trying to improve my free diving, which needs a lot of improving, and am taking any opportunity I can to dive. I will be with MCSS until June so will hopefully get to spend some time down south learning about the turtles, and maybe even get to see some nesting and others hatching Blue Planet style. Fingers crossed, I’ll keep you posted.
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Charles Joined us on September 4th and left November 10th. We wish you congratulations on your PhD post and all of the best once your start in January. For now, read below to find out just who this mystery Charles is.
"Hi, my name is Charles and I have just started volunteering with MCSS as part of the CICP project on Cerf Island. I am 22 years old and am a Masters student from the UK, and have arrived in the Seychelles after completing a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Exeter. While I was there I completed a research projected that examined the impacts of how the combined stressors of ocean acidification and ship-noise have on the physiology of the dog whelk Nucella lapillus, an intertidal snail common on the British shoreline. I have also spent over a year working within an ecology consultancy firm back in the UK, which mainly involved surveys of terrestrial species, including bats, reptiles and amphibians. I have also volunteered at the Bristol Aquarium in the UK, working within the husbandry department to ensure the successful keeping of the marine and freshwater species that they displayed. I am a keen scuba-diver and surfer back at home and hopefully this will come in handy while I am out here in the Seychelles. My love for the marine environment has brought me over here, as the Seychelles offers some the most amazing and beautiful coral reefs to be found around the world. I hope that my time over here with the CICP project will allow me to study and understand how these ecosystems work and to help engage the public to be aware of the struggles coral reefs and their ecosystems are having today in our modern world. I also want to study how successful human intervention, whether through artificial reefs, through coral nurseys or other measures, have on the survival and resilience of coral reefs and whether this will encourage corals to thrive in the future. I experienced the underwater world of the island for the first time today and was very happy to see a great diversity in fish species while snorkelling. The parts of the reef that were still intact were also amazing, however it is sad to see the extent on which coral bleaching is having an effect on the reefs of the island. However, the artificial reefs that have been installed by the project were looking healthy and hopefully this is a good sign to come for the future!" Skip ahead during the months of September and October as Fides and Charles describe their daily routines here on Cerf Island. "Over the last couple of months, we have gained knowledge about the coral, fish and other marine creatures that inhabit the coral reefs around Cerf Island. We started every day with a beach clean and were surprised with the variety of rubbish and debris that comes from the ocean such as flip flops, bottles, GPS navigation system, safe (empty) and polystyrene. However, by the end of our time here, we were noticing a decrease in the amount of rubbish picked up every day and felt like a small victory after all the hard work every day. Our day continued with guided snorkelling tours with the guests from the hotels/guesthouses on the island. This was the highlight of the day, where we could pass on the knowledge we had learnt to the guests to engage them with the problems the marine ecosystem is facing today. It also gave us a chance to take pictures and videos of the amazing creatures living on the reef, which we then created a video for the project which can be watched here (insert hyperlink). In the afternoons, we were tasked with the maintenance of the coral nurseries and we also were able to set up three new coral nurseries. Being able to watch these grow over the past months has been amazing, and even though these are on a small scale, it is good to know that we are contributing to the addition of new healthy corals to the reef that has been badly damaged over the past 30 years. At the weekends, we took excursions to Mahe, Moyenne and Praslin where we visited a variety of gardens, beautiful beaches and enjoyed the giant tortoises living on Moyenne. We also tried some local restaurants in Bai Lazare, Anse Takamaka, Anse Parnel, and Eden Island. We would like to thank everyone that has made our time here enjoyable and hope that the coral reefs will continue to recover from the impacts that have occurred over the last 30 years. Even though this project is relatively small scale, we hope that what we have accomplished something positive to the environment here in the Seychelles, and that our message will be carried on by the guests when they get home. " Peter tells us all about his past experiences, his hobbies and what led him to volunteer with us! "Hello everyone, my name is Peter. Currently I am working in Health Care for the National Health Service in Scotland. Although I enjoy the work in our psychiatric unit a lot my main passion lies very much in marine conservation and photography. Over the past few years volunteering and photography played an important part in my life. I joined various NGO's in the Philippines whenever I had the chance of taking some 'time out'. Some 6 years ago I joined Coral Cay Conservation in the Philippines, my first marine conservation project encounter. This was done at Sogod Bay on the beautiful island of Leyte. The aim of this ongoing project is to create a lasting sustainable conservation throughout the coastal region of Sogod Bay on the island of Leyte. This is achieved through community education programmes and scientific assessment of the conducted surveys both inside and outside of the local MPA's in order to assess their biological state. Needless to say that CCC was inspiring enough for me to join another project the year after. This was done on the Philippine island of Cebu with the marine conservation project LAMAVE. LAMAVE's primary objective is the conservation of marine biodiversity in the Philippines. For 2 months I joined their Whale shark project on Cebu where fishermen started to feed the sharks to attract large crowds of tourists. As so often there are two sides to the story. The whale shark 'industry' is generating a major boost to the local economy but also disrupts the shark’s migration and their wellbeing. Through ongoing education and information efforts LAMAVE is fighting for sustainability, the coral reefs around the Philippines and of course the whale shark population. Shortly before the end of these 2 months a friend of mine phoned asking if I would be interested in joining their coral planting project. It even didn't take me a second to think about it..... It took me back to Sogod Bay on Leyte. Same Bay as before, different location The project there was called Project 7. This project was supported by local universities and financed through the government. There were various groups throughout the Philippines and I joined no7 because of my love for the bay. I joined the project for 4 months in an effort to plant 10000 coral fragments in Sogod Bay. Large coral reefs of the bay were decimated by the Crown of Thorns, human impact, storms or high water temperatures. Although it will take a very long time to establish a reef to its former glory interest in rehabilitation is becoming increasingly important. In my subsequent visits to the reefs our effort to transplant coral fragments could be seen. It left me with a feeling that conservation however small, is worth while and that it feels so much better not only to take but also to give something back to a place that is very dear to ones heart. From that time onwards I tried to take out some time every year to do what is so much part of me. There were photo projects in Hong Kong and 2 in the Philippines. Although not a marine biology project I still love to mention an underwater project.... I have two real passions when it comes to photography. Underwater photography and photo documentary and it seemed to be a natural conclusion to combine the two! I based my second college project on the seaweed farmers of Caluya. The farmers see themselves as proud entrepreneurs who support themselves in a successful and quite unique way that changed their working life and that of their families too. I learned a lot, not just about photography but also how I perceive the world and the people around me. A steep learning curve certainly. At the end of the curve I understood that one does have to develop a vision quickly. This vision of what you want to achieve is far more valuable and important in travel documentary than most of the photographic skills I develop throughout my time at college. And this is for me the most important lesson I have learned not only during my time on Caluya but over the past few years working as a volunteer. Love your job and love and respect the people that will give depth and meaning to your vision of life. Change the world a little through your creative vision, do it right so that you can pass on what you have seen for others to learn about the world we are living in. And now it's the Marine Conservation Society in the Seychelles. My first time away from the Philippines, oh dear! As you might have guessed the Philippines feel a bit like home away from home by now. The Seychelles are for me a great opportunity to experience a new destination, coral planting from a different angle and of course it's great to be part of a small but dedicated team! Will keep you updated as time passes on.....after all it's just day no.1 for me. ….............. 5 weeks have passed....................... Let’s take a big jump from day 1 to my last day here on Cerf. Time was just flying and I can’t believe the day is finally here to say good bye. Of course time to take a breath and do a little reflection. First let’s get the negative out of the way because it always feels so much better to finish with the positives... That was for me all my photography shots that I never manage to take. As you know I love underwater and peoples photography. Unfortunately I didn't really manage any of them. Cerf is of course a holiday island that caters first of all for the tourists and photographic motives are therefore very limited. Due to the time of year visibility in the water was very poor which didn't allow for many memorable shots either. And there was me hoping until the very last day to take some split shots (half under the water and half above) or some good macro shots. But hey, one negative point is not bad at all for a 5 weeks stay! And to be fair, that is not even project related :) And yes, that takes us right to the project and all the positives. New projects are always very exciting but one never knows what to expect until one gets there. And yes, I loved it till the very last day. It's all about meeting new people, (locals and likeminded people from around the world) it's about the sunshine, taking in a new culture and of course about studying and learning something new. Savi our project leader certainly managed to fill our days with lots of study time and I realized quickly that my previous knowledge about corals had all but gone. Four coral workshops later and I do manage again to recognize a coral or two whilst in the water. Savi's 'coral spotting ID snorkels' are feared and merciless but do the trick! He manages to pass on his knowledge well, has the ability to listen but also communicates clearly whilst talking to his volunteers, the guests or a school class which of course creates an atmosphere of mutual respect. Sorry, sounds a bit like a reference letter now but it’s just to point out that over the past 3 years he created an interesting and fun project and that he is doing a fab job. And there was of course much more that I learned. The last few years I used Photoshop to enhance, manipulate or edit photographs, but who would have thought that one can use it to measure coral fragments down to a fraction of a millimetre thanks to the good old 'ruler tool'. It really works and it is so easy too! And yes, there is more..... Fish ID workshops, coral planting and turtle identification. After my rather disastrous coral knowledge I managed to do better on identifying the fish around the Seychelles that are much the same than the ones I know from the Philippines. There are some nice variation and my well-loved Filipino coral grouper suddenly has spots and no lines any more. I am impressed and surprised by the abundance of reef fish, rays and sharks despite the loss of over 90% of the coral cover since the first bleaching in 1998. There are also some turtles left on the reefs of Cerf Island. These are most of all juvenile hawksbill turtles. Always a highlight if we spot one on our daily snorkel excursions. Through the I3S (Interactive Individual Identification System) computer program it is very easy to identify the local turtle population or to add new turtles into our encounter folder. It is fun and rewarding to monitor local residential turtles but also quite exciting once we encounter a newcomer to the reef. Talking about newcomers. There were of course our hotel guests who wanted to explore the reef a day or two after they arrived on Cerf. Sounds crazy, but I really enjoyed this part of the day a lot as long as the visibility didn't let us down too much. Naturally I could spend hours in the water and was usually the last one out after the trail. There was always time to talk to the guests afterwards to the dismay of my volunteer mates because I was often late for my lunches. Guess they could have started without me already ;) Then there are of course our coral nurseries and our 7 artificial reefs. The nurseries were cleaned 3 times a week with our high tech equipment, toothbrushes. My initial thought was that this is a step backwards from the toilet brushes we used in the Philippines, BUT it works really well and it does not feel quite as embarrassing to enter the water with a discreetly hidden toothbrush either. It was nice to establish a second nursery during my time on Cerf because we used a method that I was not familiar with. This was done at the beginning of my stay and the healing process of the fragments (where they got broken off from their colonies) was evident after 2 weeks already. After 4 weeks they healed and calcified nicely. Cerf is a beautiful little island and to explore the surrounding by Kayak an absolute must. That's of course what weekends are for. Three times I managed to go to the sandbank in St Anne's marine park together with my fellow volunteer (established in 1973 and the oldest MPA in the Seychelles) and 3 times I was taken by it's beauty. There will be lots of things I will have forgotten to mention, like the Italian ice cream place in Victoria (wow, so so good), but I can’t mention everything cause I still have to finish my packing and go for one last snorkel along my favourite trail. It was a great experience, I learned a lot and it felt good to be part of a young and dedicated team! Sometimes in life there are certain remarks that stay with you forever and Luanas one is the one I still love to share and clarify just in case some of the younger future volunteers are wondering too :) At the beginning of my stay she was surprised when she watched me using sun cream lotion and her initial unique reaction was: Do you really still need to apply this due to my age? YES Luana I do and being 54 doesn't mean that I am on my last leg!! Hopefully there are still some more years left in me to join more projects like The Marine Conservation Society of the Seychelles :) Thank you, Savi, Luana, Megan and Sheril for making my time a memorable one...and a big thank you also to Cerf Island Resort and La Habitation for all the lovely mealtimes too. Well done all of us :) Ciao, Peter Grimm" It was a delight to have you and your photo skills as part of our team. Thank you for all of your hard work and the memories you've created with us both under and out of the water. Hello I’m Emma! I have just graduated from Plymouth University where I studied Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology. I wanted to volunteer with the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles to gain valuable experience that will help me progress in a career of marine conservation and research. I have been with MCSS for 2 months now and have spent most of my time at the Fishermen’s Cove Project helping to maintain and monitor both in-situ and ex-situ coral nurseries, as well as taking guests on guided snorkels. I am now also splitting my time with the Cerf Island Conservation Project where I am two days a week on Mondays and Tuesdays. Although, both projects involve guided snorkels, monitoring and maintaining coral nurseries, it is great to be able to spend time in different places and on different reefs. Working at Cerf has also given me the opportunity to improve my coral and fish identification, which I will need for conducting reef surveys next year when the weather is nice again. As well as the academic side I am trying to improve my free diving, which needs a lot of improving, and am taking any opportunity I can to dive. I will be with MCSS until June so will hopefully get to spend some time down south learning about the turtles, and maybe even get to see some nesting and others hatching Blue Planet style. Fingers crossed, I’ll keep you posted. Hi, I am Megan Dine, I am 21 years old and I live at La Louise. I am currently studying environmental science at the University of Seychelles.
I chose this course because I am all about protecting our wildlife and biodiversity, especially endangered species suche as sea turtles which are now critically endangered. I enjoy going on hikes and snorkeling trips on weekend with my classmates. This course has given me the chance to experience the workings of a conservationist, exploring different vegetation both endemic and introduced species to our islands, marine and terrestrial life. The eco-academia club based at the University gives us the chance to do activities, like vegetation rehabilitation that was done on North island, water sampling at Val D’en dor and even beach clean-ups around Mahé. I have started my work attachment at CICP (Cerf Island Conservation Program as part of an MCSS (Marine Conservation Society Seychelles) project and it is going pretty well for my first day. I heard about MCSS when I had a class visit to the Wildlife conservation and rehabilitation Center at the Banyan Tree. In fact, during the presentation I stumbled across the restoration project on Cerf which sparked my interest in applying for my internship. The Cerf Island project interests me because I want to learn more on how to protect and restore coral reefs. So today I learned the basics of what is a coral, their benefits and threats as well as their different types of life forms as part of their reef building characteristics. Our first activity of the morning was beach cleaning which was followed by a lecture then snorkeling near l’habitation. The last activity was a small hike to the view point and cemetery as we were introduced to all the spots tourists are curious about upon arriving to Cerf Island. "Hi everyone!
My name is Luana and I am the most freshly arrived volunteer on Cerf Island to work on the coral reef project with Savi. I am a Brazilian Master student, so the water temperature and weather suits me perfectly for this new adventure ! The EMBC ( European Master for Marine Conservation and Biodiversity) has a partnership with six universities and we have to choose two of them to go for our first and second year. From September 2016 to June 2017 I had the chance to go to Faro, in Portugal, where I had a really interesting year having classes about marine conservation, marine mammals behavior, fisheries, data management and underwater methods. One of our classes aimed to provide us some field experience by going for an internship. The partnership that EMBC has with the MCSS (Marine Conservation Society Seychelles) brought me here and I started my adventure by doing one month at the Wildlife conservation and rehabilitation center in the South of Mahé. There, I could learn many things about sea and freshwater turtles and I also did a study on their nesting patterns. After this one month experience, I wanted to discover the coral restoration program in order to have an overview of MCSS’s work in the Seychelles. So here I am, just arrived to this new program where I am expecting to discover all the species of coral we have here, how to protect and restore them ! Savi has already initiated me to some of the tasks here and we did my first coral nursery swim today which ended pretty fast due to mask and fin problem… But no worries, I finally found one that fits and will be ready for next week’s experiences ! I will let you know how my adventure is going. Keep both eyes on it!" We added two new frames to the reef system and propogated them with corals fragmented from the original frames. Let Cynthia run through our process with you as the interns also wave Cerf Island and the Seychelles Goodbye. "Time for us, the European team to say goodbye to the CICP and the Seychelles and put an end to our adventures. But last time, we kept you waiting a bit, as we were just preparing new artificial frames, remember? We know you’re impatient to know more about them, so here it comes! “But what are those things you keep talking about?!”, you say? They are metal structures that were made specially for the project. Six faces with several horizontal bars, they offer us a lot of space to put our dear coral fragments. “And you put the corals on the metal like this?! You guys kept on saying that corals were fragile and vulnerable, and you just leave them all alone to survive on metal?” Of course not, we have to protect them from the rust, that’s absolutely right! To do that, we prepared the frames: first, we put some resin – veryyy sticky and chemical – on the whole structure. Before it could dry, we covered it with rinsed sand from the beach, covering it as carefully as possible, not leaving any blank space on the poles. Then, the next day – because it needs to dry perfectly – we put another layer of resin, to protect it all. Another drying session, and the frames are ready to welcome coral fragments! “And then? How can you stick the coral on there??” For that, remember how amazing corals are: they can grow through fragmentation. So we took advantage of it of course! Using corals of opportunity around the reefs or fragments from our nurseries, we attach them on the frames, simply using cable ties. Super easy isn’t it? “That sounds great! But why are you actually doing this? So that tourists can have more alive corals to look at?”, you ask? Even if that is true, people love beautiful and colourful corals, right? But it is only a side-benefit. Implementing those frames, we aim on replacing the reef structure. The corals will grow more and more on those, and become a new shelter, a new source of nutrients, and a new playground for the reef fish! It will create new healthy reefs, that were lost after the bleaching events or the tsunami in 2004. Of course, it’s not a magical solution that will solve all problems, because as you know – yes you do, don’t listen to Trump –, climate change is happening, and will trigger more bleaching events… Corals will continue to suffer with these global warming events, but we have to try our best to counteract the consequences of those events and help our beloved corals. With the use of resilient and resistant corals, we are helping to prepare the reefs for these events as we help create the reefs of the future. So yeah, somehow, we worked on making the world a better place here with the CICP! Which isn’t nothing right? Your turn now… ;)" Thanks for your enthusiasm and hard work Cynthia! You are very right in passing the baton to our audience. There are so many things one person can do to help our planet. You can lead a beach clean with you community, reduce your meat intake, recycle and up-cycle as much as possible, buy in bulk, say no to disposables, and share your passion for the marine environment with as many as you can. These are of course just a few suggestions but one person's actions is never too small. It takes many snowflakes to build an incredible snowman, but the secret is teamwork! During the weekends, not only did the interns visit other islands, and the the hikes of Mahe but they decided to start and continue their diving experience with some courses at the Underwater Dive Center Seychelles in Beau Vallon. Read on as Gabriel and Merijn tell us about their Open water and Advanced open water courses with a group Night Dive! "Merijn: For me, this internship also meant my first steps, or fin kicks, into scubadiving. Elena and I decided to partner up for our Open Water Diving certificate, as all the other interns already had higher qualifications than that. I sure was glad that I had already completed the theoretical part online, as apparently doing it at the dive centre would have taken me a weekend that I could now spend in the water! Both me and Elena were happy with our supervisor Michael, he even managed to keep us concentrated during the confined water dives in the swimming pool, as our minds tended to (prematurely) wander off to swimming in the open ocean. Our first diving site was L’islot isle, a tiny island just off the coast of Mahé that you can swim around during one dive. After some initial problems with equalizing the pressure in my ears (I forgot to do it at some point, resulting in high pressure on my ears as I descended a few more metres), the dive actually went quite smoothly and we had some time to look around us and enjoy the corals and other animals at the divesite. What bothered me a little, was that my first few dives I had the impression that the underwater life between 10 and 18 metres actually didn’t differ at all from the animals I had been able to spot previously whilst snorkeling. Thus I wondered whether I actually found diving worthwhile, considering snorkeling is free. This changed after my last dives to Ray’s point, Grouper point (x2!) and our night dive at the aquarium. The first two mentioned were not so much coral reefs as large granite formations with some corals on them. This resulted in some exciting observations of animals that I had not seen while snorkeling, such as an enormous Bumphead parrotfish, a formation of 5 huge marble rays and two white-tip reef sharks. Emphasizing the difference with snorkeling, Ray’s point and grouper point both had numerous large schools of pelagic fish, as you would expect in the ‘open water’. Then as a grand finale, we all did a night dive together. For me and Gabriel, it was our first dive, and I expected to be nervous or even anxious the first five minutes in the dark ocean. The opposite was actually true, as soon as you backroll into the water at night, you dive into a very calming atmosphere, things are much less hectic under water than during the day. As you might expect, a different ecological niche is filled during the night by different species of animals, resulting in the sighting of spiny lobsters, nudibranchs, a huge(!) marble ray and… a green turtle! I very much hoped to encounter this creature during my internship, thus I was disappointing when I heard they are usually very shy. Of course the numerous hawksbill turtles I was able to swim with largely made up for this, but being able to lie on the sand next to a (groggy, I think we woke her up…) green turtle was an incredible experience. For those who don’t know, the hawksbill turtle and green turtle are not that hard to distinguish! First off, as the name implies, the hawksbill turtle has a bird-like bill, almost like a hawk or a parrot. The front of the face of a green turtle is much more rounded. The second step to distinguish between them is to look at the back of the carapace: where this is fairly rounded and smooth with the green turtle, the hawksbill turtle has sharp edges (teeth-like) at the back of the carapace. Green turtles also grow larger than hawksbills. Gabriel: In my case, I got my Open Water Diving certification three years ago, so I though that Seychelles would be the best place to go for the next level. Thus, I acquired my Advanced Open Water Diving Certification! Michael was my intstructor as well, and thanks to him everything went smoothly. The course consisted of five dives where you can experience five different diving specialitations. The ones that I especially enjoyed most where wreck diving and deep diving. For the wreck diving we visited two wrecks that were sunk together called “Twin barges”. It was very exciting to dive around (and also inside) the wrecks and enjoying the scenery. I was impressed by the amount of fishes that were living and surrounding the wrecks: Stone fish, Lionfish, morays, large bunches of diamond fishes...It was incredible. Deep dive was also very impressive. It was the first time that I went deeper than 25 meters (28 to be more precise) and I have to admit that your dive perception really changes. Normally, when you are close to 30 meters depth you are not able to think as clear as when you´re dinving in upper zones. I realized it when Michael wanted me to answer a few questions that he had prepared in a waterproof slide for me. I am still wondering how I couldn´t write down my name backwards! Regarding the rest of the dives, all of them went smoothly. Navigation and Buoyancy dives made me feel more confident underwater. Lastly, I did my fifth speciality in Drift diving. Basically, this dive consisted of gaining hands on marine currents and knowing how to use them while you´re diving, to make the dive safer and more enjoyable. Though it wasn´t as usefull as I expected (the currents were not so strong this day), the dive was still worth it as I saw a white tipped reef shark for the first time in my life! It was swimming around the coral reef and could be observed for 30 seconds. These 30 secs will persist in my mind as one of the best experiences in Seychelles. " We're happy you guys were able to experience the diving side of Seychelles since we had been so focused on snorkeling and reef ID. Best of luck to your master's and thanks for all your hard work here! Part Three of the blog saga takes us away from the daily routine of an intern as we dive in to a special visit. "When you to protect the environment and to save the planet, you get to be a movie star! The work done on Cerf Island brought CNN (yep, the big fancy National TV Channel!) to come here and film us while working and interview Savi (who wasn’t stressed out at all). So they were recording our daily routine (beach cleaning, guided snorkel tours, nurseries maintenance, etc.) during two days. It was a bit strange as we had to repeat the scenes several times to get the correct footage. After this experience, I´ve decided that my career as an actor is done". This 3 part documentary aims at covering climate change effects on the marine environment, active mitigation projects as well as broader impacts. The documentary will be aired on July 7th as part of the program ‘Inside Africa' and will be available for online streaming the following week. But when the work is completed for the day and the week comes to an end, what do the interns do? "We usually enjoy hiking or snorkeling with the rest of MCSS volunteers. One of the personal highlights was one of the weekends where we didn’t go to the main island Mahé (it’s nice to get off the small island of Cerf in the weekend and enjoy the ‘busier’ atmosphere of Beau Vallon beach or Victoria!), but we kayaked to Moyenne island, where we got to meet some peculiar locals: Seychelles giant tortoises. It was amazing! They are huge! Also, I didn´t expect that they were so cute. They come to you because they love when people scratch their necks. It was super funny."
The interns continue to regale us about their experience here at CICP... "Time in the office is also entertaining. We continued working not only on coral growth monitoring, but also on turtle monitoring! Basically, we use a Photo-Identification program (Interactive Individual Identification Pattern) that recognizes the individuals based on some natural marks that they have on their face (the "scutes" or the scales are their identifiers the way we have unique fingerprints). CICP have tried to take mugshots of them during all encounters, so that we are able to log every encounter. We mainly encounter Hawksbill turtles and one of them was so recognizable that one day we could differ it while we´re snorkeling! From the beginning of 2016, about 17 Hawksbill turtles frequent the reefs around Cerf Island with some very photogenic individuals! There’s plenty of other creatures to see here while snorkeling, such as different species rays (Eagle, Feathertail, Whiptail just to name a few ), octopus, and one of the largest moray I have ever seen!" Don't worry Merijn, we will do our best to encounter a white tip reef shark before your leave! "Also, we carried out other activities like Coral Reef Mapping. The idea was to create maps for the different snorkel sites to provide the vistitors with an aerial representation of the coral reefs with highlighted points of interest. To achieve this, we had to go snorkeling several times to check the important points (large coral colonies, artificial frames, buoys, etc.) that had to be included on the map. At the end, it was very funny to check the maps we got so far and compare the drawing skills of each of us (I gave Merjin a hand with his map). Now, there’s no way to miss all of the nice spots on the reefs or to get lost ;) We also carried out transects to assess the benthic communities both living – corals and sponges for example - and not-living – rocks, rubble, algae etc. At the same time, we also assessed the bleaching of the corals of the reefs. It was a very nice activity!" Though a few colonies exhibited bleaching symptoms from the usual warm months of Mar-Apr-May, it was such a relief after last years disastrous El-Niño event. ...Stay tuned for part 3!
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2018
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