Le Meridien Fisherman's Cove Project

This photo has nothing to do with the topic but it attracts your curiosity “Niark Niark” (evil laugh). Hello curious reader, Hope you are doing good and ready to dive again in the incredible world of corals. Last time we spoke about polyps and zooxanthellae, remember? If not check rapidly the 1 st story about corals! Don’t be lazy, it’s worth it! We are far to understand all the mysteries that hide corals and we’ll probably never know them, like every nature forms. However, let’s try to discuss about the things we know for the moment. We’ve seen that corals are true builders. But they are not only simple builders: they are colourful builders! Red, pink, brown, green, yellow… they are colours for everybody! And guess where come from all these rainbows of colours? Yes, exactly my attentive reader! They came from the tiny algae who live inside the polyps: the zooxanthellae (most of the tropical hard corals possess this symbiont). The algae give colours to the cor...

Hey, Aishah in the snorkeling kiosk My name is Aishah Fanchette, I’m 19 years old from Seychelles and I work on Le Méridien Fisherman’s Cove project. I’m not new in the MCSS team, I worked one month at the Banyan Tree in 2015 with the turtle and terrapin project and worked two months on Cerf Island in 2016 with the CICP (Cerf Island Conservation Project) while I was still in school doing my work base attachments. Now that I have finished school at the Seychelles Maritime  Academy and obtained my Advance Certificate in Fisheries Science, MCSS was my first door to knock up. It was the best place to start and I also got experience in the job. So I got the position here at the Fisherman’s cove working as a Research Assistant. I have started to work here about 3 months ago and everything so far is going great. I get to learn different facts about turtles, fishes and mostly corals every day. Our main tasks are to handle the snorkeling kiosk, guide the clients on the snorkeling t...

Bonzour everyone, My name is Léopold and I’m the new intern in the Coral nurseries project at Le Méridien Fisherman’s Cove. I’m 22 years old and I’m doing my internship with the Marine Conservation Society in Seychelles (MCSS) for my master of “Marine Biodiversity and Conservation”. I first worked on the terrapins trapping in the South of Mahé and I joined the coral project last week.  I have to say that it’s really nice to be in Seychelles and to participate in this project. I used to be a scientific mediator in the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco during the Summer period. I remembered that it’s there, I really start to be fascinated by corals. The corals occupy less than 1% of the Ocean and they are still the host of approximately 25% of the marine worldwide biodiversity.  In a simple word, coral reefs are the underwater equivalent of the tropical rainforests. A true hotspot of biodiversity ! At first sight for most of the people they just look like a strange colo...

After the setting up of the snorkeling trail providing an improved snorkeling experience to guests and giving awareness about coral reefs biodiversity and conservation, “Unlock the sea” starts a restoration project of the coral reef! "Ecological restoration is the process of assisting a degraded, damaged or destroyed ecosystem back as close as possible to its original state in terms of structure and functions." (1) A Hawksbill turtle swimming over the coral reef  The global rapid decline of coral reefs due to natural and anthropogenic factors has led to the promotion of novel restoration approaches. One of the most promising and effective method is the “gardening” concept of active restoration, a two-step process: nurseries and transplantation . Small colonies or isolated fragments are farmed in in-situ underwater nurseries or reared first in ex-situ nurseries before being transplanted onto damaged reef areas when they have reached the adequate size (2,3)...

  Michelle with a welcoming smile at the kiosk After all the hard work for setting up the trail, it was finally officially opened on Monday the 20 th of June. That day it was also the first time me as a guide went with the first two guest and post the first postcard in the underwater postbox. The Info board of the trail After that special ceremony we got settled in at the kiosk where our weekly duties includes assisting with handing out gears to guest as well as explaining to them the main purpose of the trail, which so far we have good feedbacks from all the guest who visits the trail or who is told about the trail. Mask on display Our main responsibility is to guide clients from the hotel who wants to snorkel the trail with our assistance. Therefore we also provide this service to the guest who is not fully confident with snorkeling but wants to have the experience. Small training is given in the pool to make them comfortable with t...

Block deployment The blocks the lift bag with blocks at the side of the boat This week we successfully deployed the blocks in their appropriate location. Last week we had a Gps problem and the blocks were put in manually. After the locations was entered on Google maps it was far from where it was supposed to be  so this week’s mission was to relocate them to the original positions. After some hard work we deployed the six blocks for the fishermen’s cove trail. Sheril and Lisanne getting ready to go below! The team was really determined to get it done properly and quickly so the job was separated by the four team members. We had Savy as the Gps navigator, leading us to the locations of where the blocks were and then moving them to the given locations. We had Marie as the snorkeler, once we have found the position she had to go in and fine a nice sandy patch to deploy the blocks as well as dropping a surface marker buoy so that the boat can approach...

Marie navigating, Lisanne worried Some wetland fun!! This week new excitement is the wetland mapping!! The wetland at H hotel where the terrapin project is being held is now being mapped for the size and also the depth is being checked. Michel,Lisanne and Marie getting ready The small assignment started last week but due to bad weather it delayed the progress. During this week the two interns Marie and Lisanne has been making this a priority to get it done by the end of this week. Doing the depth measurement a small boat situated at the hotel is used to go around the wetland, instead of a paddle the boat is navigated by a long net which makes it interesting and a fun way to get around. heading out To measure the size or the outline of the wetland the process involves going around every five meters and a GPS point is taken along the edge and for the depth a measuring tape with a weight at the end is dropped then the depth is rec...