President Barack Obama delivering his remarks at Our Ocean 2016 Conference. Source - US Dept. of State

“We have to do things smarter and we have to do things faster”

Those were some words from John Kerry the United States Secretary of State as he opened the Our Ocean conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C. last week. Secretary Kerry was referring to the dire straits our ocean is in and the actions needed to reverse the trend.

Nature Seychelles has just purchased a new set of diving gear for staff working at the Island Conservation Centre (ICC) on Praslin Island as well as on Cousin Island Special Reserve. The gear includes wet suits, buoyancy control devices, pressure and depth gauges, and inflator hoses.  

Volunteers on Cousin Island help Dr Johanna Storm collect magpie robin data on the island

The Seychelles Magpie Recovery Team (SMART) has just met for the bi-annual meeting to discuss the state of the Seychelles Magpie Robin. The meeting held at Nature Seychelles’ Conservation Centre on Praslin was attended by representatives from Cousin, Cousine, Aride, and Denis Islands as well as Ronley Fanchette from the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

The Sanctuary - view from the birdhide

An excavator, a couple of hours of dredging and several mounds of sand later, water flows freely once again in and out of the wetland. During this dry season grey herons and moorhens have been spotted on several occasions fishing in the more open areas of The Sanctuary as the water levels would sometimes drop considerably in their usual, more hidden spots.